Andrei Tupolev Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev ( ; November 10 , 1888 – December 23 , 1972 ) was a pioneering Soviet aircraft designer . During his career , he designed and oversaw the design of more than 100 types of aircraft , some of which set 78 world records . In recognition of his work , he was made an honorary member of Britain ' s Royal Aeronautical Society and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics . He was honoured in his own country by being made an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences ( 1953 ) , Colonel - General ( 1968 ) , and three times a Hero of Socialist Labor ( 1945 , 1957 , 1972 ) . Early life . Tupolev was born in the village of Pustomazovo ( ) , near the city of Kimry , Tver region , Russia . Tupolev was the sixth of seven children born to his parents . After first being educated at home , he studied at the Gymnasium in Tver and graduated in 1908 . He then applied for courses at two Russian universities and was accepted at both : Imperial Moscow Technical School ( IMTU ) and the Institute of Railway Engineers . He accepted the place at IMTU . In 1909 , Tupolev began studying aerodynamics under the Russian aviation pioneer N . E . Zhukovski . During this time he built one of the world ' s first wind tunnels which led to the formation of an aerodynamic laboratory at IMTU . In 1911 , Tupolev was accused of taking part in revolutionary activities , including demonstrations and distribution of subversive literature , and was arrested . He was later released on condition that he return to his family home in Pustomazovo and was only allowed to return to IMTU in 1914 . He completed his studies in 1918 and was awarded the degree of Engineer - Mechanic when he presented his thesis on the development of seaplane s . By 1920 the IMTU had been renamed the Moscow Higher Technical School ( MVTU ) and Tupolev was teaching a course there on the basics of aerodynamic calculations . Work at TsAGI . Tupolev was a leading light of the Moscow - based Central Aero and Hydrodynamics Institute ( TsAGI ; ) from 1929 until his death in 1972 . The Central Design Office or TsKB ( ) based there produced bomber s and some airliners , which in the years before World War II were based partially , especially in his 1930s - era designs , and on the all - metal aircraft design concepts pioneered by Hugo Junkers . In 1925 , he designed a twin - engine bomber , the TB - 1 , which was considered one of the most advanced designs of the time . In 1937 , an improved version designated the TB - 3 made a landing at the North Pole . As the number of qualified aircraft designers increased , Tupolev set up his own office , producing a number of designs designated with the prefix ANT ( ) from his initials . However , on October 21 , 1937 , Tupolev was arrested together with Vladimir Petlyakov and the entire directorate of the TsAGI and EDO on trumped up charges of sabotage , espionage and of aiding the Russian Fascist Party . Many of his colleagues were executed . In 1939 , Tupolev was moved from a prison to an NKVD sharashka for aircraft designers in Bolshevo near Moscow , where many ex - TsAGI people had already been sent to work . The sharashka soon moved to Moscow and was dubbed " Tupolevka " after its most eminent inmate . Tupolev was tried and convicted in 1940 with a ten - year sentence . During this time he developed the Tupolev Tu - 2 , He was released in 1944 " to conduct important defence work . " ( He was not rehabilitated fully until two years after Joseph Stalin ' s death in 1953 . ) Tupolev headed the major project of reverse engineering the American Boeing B - 29 strategic bomber , which was the world ' s first nuclear delivery platform . The USSR had repeatedly asked unsuccessfully for lend - lease B - 29s . Using three machines which landed in Siberia after bombing Japan in 1945 , Tupolev succeeded in replicating them down to trivial detail . Moreover , he got it into volume production , with crews fully trained in time for the 1947 May Day parade . The copy was designated Tu - 4 , with many subsequent Tu aircraft having the number 4 in their designations . Design of the Tu - 95 . By the time of his rehabilitation in 1955 , Tupolev had designed and was about to start testing his unique turboprop strategic bomber , the Tu - 95 . In the years to come , he beat off able competition from Vladimir Myasishchev and his M - 4 series of jet - powered strategic bombers , introducing the Tu - 16 design . This was in part thanks to Tupolev ' s close rapport with Nikita Khrushchev who had denounced Stalin ' s terror , a victim of which Tupolev had been . Commercial aviation . At about the same time , Tupolev introduced into service the world ' s second jet airliner , the Tu - 104 . The aeroplane was the first jet transport to stay in uninterrupted service , and the only one in service anywhere in the world for two years until late 1958 . It was followed by a series of Tu passenger jets , including the supersonic Tu - 144 , designed by Tupolev ' s son Alexei Tupolev ( 1925 – 2001 ) . Loss of power in the Soviet Union . After Khruschev ' s removal from office in late 1964 , the ageing Tupolev gradually lost positions at the centres of power to rivals . Though the prestige Tu - 144 programme enjoyed top level support until 1973 , as did the important Tu - 154 airliner , the favored position the Tupolev Design Bureau enjoyed through Tupolev ’ s personal political connections was largely eclipsed by Ilyushin . To his contemporaries , Tupolev was known as a witty but crude master of " mat " ( a rapid - fire Russian male - speak infused with obscenity ) who invariably and energetically insisted on fast and adequate technical fixes at the expense of scholastic ideal solutions . A hallmark of his was to get an aeroplane into service very rapidly ; then began an often interminable process of improving the shortcomings of the " quick and dirty " initial design . To his competitors among the Soviet aircraft design community , he was known above all as politically astute ; a shrewd and unforgiving rival . Tupolev was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow . External links .