Mikhail Gurevich (aircraft designer)

Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich
Born	1892 Rubanshchina, Kursk Oblast, Russia
Died	1976-11-12
Occupation	Aeronautical engineer
Known for	Co-founder of Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau

Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich (Russian: Михаи́л Ио́сифович Гуре́вич) (Template:OldStyleDateDY – 12 November 1976) was a prominent Soviet aeronautical engineer and co-founder of the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, established alongside Artem Mikoyan. This bureau gained renown for producing fighter jets, rapid interceptors, and versatile combat aircraft that played a crucial role in the Soviet Air Forces throughout the Cold War era. Over its existence, the bureau developed 170 distinct aircraft designs, with 94 models entering mass production. Altogether, around 45,000 MiG aircraft were built within the Soviet Union, including approximately 11,000 units exported internationally. The final aircraft project Gurevich contributed to before retiring was the MiG-25.

Life and career

File:Могила Героя Социалистического Труда Михаила Гуревича.JPG

Final resting place of Mikhail Gurevich in Saint Petersburg.

Originating from a Jewish family, Gurevich’s father worked as a mechanic in a winery located in the small settlement of Rubanshchina within the Kursk Oblast of Russia. In 1910, he graduated from a gymnasium in Okhtyrka (Kharkiv Oblast) with a silver medal and subsequently enrolled in the Mathematics Faculty at Kharkiv University. However, after one year, due to involvement in revolutionary activities, he was expelled from both the university and the region. He then continued his studies abroad at Montpellier University and later attended SUPAERO in Toulouse as part of the 1913 cohort alongside Marcel Bloch, who would later become known as Marcel Dassault.

When World War I erupted in the summer of 1914, Gurevich was visiting his hometown. The war followed by the Russian Civil War halted his academic progress. Eventually, in 1925 he completed his degree at the Aviation Department of the National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute". After graduation, he worked as an engineer for the state enterprise "Heat and Power."

In 1929, Gurevich relocated to Moscow to advance his career in aircraft design. During this period, Soviet aerospace development was centralized under state-operated design bureaus known as OKBs. By 1937, he led a design team within the Polikarpov bureau where he met his future collaborator Artem Mikoyan. Together, they founded the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in late 1939. Gurevich initially served as Vice Chief Designer and from 1957 onwards held the position of Chief Designer until retiring in 1964—a notable achievement given that he never became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

In 1940, Mikoyan and Gurevich developed and produced the high-altitude fighter aircraft known as the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1, building upon preliminary work from Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov's team. The subsequent enhanced model, the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3, saw extensive deployment during World War II. Following the war, their efforts led to pioneering Soviet jet fighters, including some of the earliest supersonic designs. The last project Gurevich contributed to was the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25, an interceptor recognized among the fastest military planes ever operational.

Honours and awards

• Hero of Socialist Labor (1957)
• Stalin Prize first class (1941, 1947, 1948, 1952, 1953)
• Stalin Prize second class (1949)
• Order of Lenin (1962)