Airplane Factory Anatra

The basis for the plant was the repair shop of the Odessa Aero Club, whose president in 1908 was A. A. Anatra, located in the western part of the city near the hippodrome, which at first served as a test aerodrome ^[1] .

Then A. A. Anatra acquired land in the area of ​​the 4th station of the Black Sea Road, where the airfield was transferred ^[2] .

On June 10, 1913, the workshops of A. A. Anatra received the first order for five Farman-4 aircraft (licensed copies of the French model), which they completed by November 1913.

The first year the plant worked as an assembly plant. Twenty-three workers in 1914 assembled French-made aircraft from Farman, Voisin, Moran, Newport- 4 from imported units — five aircraft a month. The factory also built gliders of original designs, light motorcycles, and repaired cars ^{[1] [2]} .

The outbreak of the First World War brought large orders from the military department to the plant. The plant began to be refitted. The buildings of the plant management, carpentry, engine, assembly departments, and welding workshop have grown on the Shooting Range. On the street Kanatnoy, 33, opened a department of the plant with locksmith and stamping shops, on the French Boulevard - a department of machining, on Olgievskaya street , 5 (near Peresyp ) - a woodworking shop. ^{[2] [3]}

The aircraft factory was 12 miles from the city. To deliver workers for 1 million 300 thousand rubles, the Odessa-A. Anatra Airplane Plant railway line was built, two steam locomotives and several passenger cars were purchased ^[2] .

Aircraft Development

In the summer of 1915, the plant began developing its own model of the aircraft.

A design bureau was created under the direction of G. M. Makeev, in which Odessa residents V. Khioni, V. Ivanov, A. Kam, A. Mikhalkevich and others worked, engineer Dean invited from France, D. D. Fedorov, then worked as a designer on German aircraft factories ^[2] . Test pilot Robin arrived from France ^[4] .

On the eve of the First World War, A. A. Anatra purchased a project of the R-20 aircraft from the German company Aviatik ^[5] . The development of this project and its implementation in production and took Decamp. Tests of the prototype aircraft, which was called "Anade" (or "Anatra" -D, that is, "Dean") were carried out on December 19, 1915 ^[2] .

Since 1915, the factory began to launch its own experimental aircraft.

In 1916, the plant received an order for the supply of 700 Anatra-D aircraft, 100 Newpor-17 fighters and 200 Farman-7 training aircraft ^[1] .

July 25, 1916 the first flight of the Anasal plane (or Anatra-DS, that is, “Dean with Salmson”) was performed, which was an Anade model with the Salmson engine (150 liters), which was produced in Russia under a French license ^[6] .

In 1916, the factory began production of a modification of the Voisin-LAS aircraft - the so-called “Voisin Ivanova” (Anatra-VI), created by the second lieutenant Peter Ivanov.

In the summer of 1916, under the leadership of test pilot V.N. Khioni, the original two-body twin-engine bomber Anadva (or Anatra-VH) was created.

Creation of a branch in Simferopol

In 1916, after Romania entered the First World War , Odessa became a front-line city, and it was decided to transfer important military production inland. The creation of a branch of the plant in Simferopol began . Back in 1914, A. A. Anatra bought in Simferopol empty land to the west and north-west of the headquarters on the Slavyanka River for the construction of an aircraft factory (the area near the factory’s territory is still called Anatra, and the neighboring street is Aviation).

In 1916, the branch produced 5 cars, in 1917 - 45 ^[7] .

735 workers worked at the Simferopol plant, of which 150 were transferred from Petrograd enterprises ^[7] .

In 1917, more than 330 employees and about 2100 workers worked at two Anatra plants. The technological base of the plant is about 200 machines of various types.

The main production was located in different areas of the city of Odessa . Here were located woodworking, mechanical, locksmith, welding, assembly, paint shops, a warehouse, a test aerodrome and other auxiliary production units ^[1] .

On July 26, 1917, a contract was signed for the supply of three hundred Anasal aircraft.

November 3, 1917 the company received an order for the supply of fifty Anadva aircraft ^[8] .

The potential capacity of the plant as of autumn 1917 was 80 aircraft per month, of which 60 - at the Odessa plant and 20 - at a branch in Simferopol.

In the first period of the establishment of Soviet power in the south of Russia - from November 1917 to April 1918 - the company's activities were virtually completely stopped.

As a result of the Brest Peace Treaty , the Austro-Hungarian army occupied the Odessa region, and the German army occupied the Crimea. On the territory of the plant in Simferopol, the occupying authorities discovered eight hidden rifles and arrested about fifty workers ^[7] .

Austro-Hungarians exported materials worth about one million rubles in gold from the Odessa plant ^[7] . The plant came under the full control of the Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities, who got more than 240 ready-made aircraft - 111 Anasal, 63 Anade and 68 Farman ^[9] . On May 5, 1918, the plant received an order for the supply of two hundred Anasal aircraft for Austria-Hungary ^[5] . As early as June 10, 1918, the first batch of aircraft was delivered to the new customer - 42 aircraft, and in August - another 51.

When parts of the Entente landed in Odessa in November 1918, they discovered 123 Anasal aircraft at the Anatra plant.

With the expulsion of the Bolsheviks, the factories worked to repair aircraft for the Armed Forces of the South of Russia, but the Bolshevik underground blew up the power plant in Simferopol, which almost paralyzed the work of the branch ^[7] .

In 1920, after the capture of Odessa and Crimea , the Bolsheviks nationalized the Odessa plant and named its production facilities “State Aviation Plant No. 11”, and Simferopolsky received the name “State Aviation Plant No. 15”.

Odessa Plant

The Odessa plant in 1921-1922 produced Farman training aircraft for the Soviet military department.

In 1923, V. Hioni designed the U-8 Humpbacked Horse aircraft. In 1924, the aircraft was put into mass production; by the autumn of 1924, 31 such aircraft were built in Odessa ^[10] . In May 1924, the plant was reorganized and received the name "State Aviation Workshops No. 7" ^[10] . The production of airplanes in Odessa finally ceased and subsequently only their repair was carried out here.

Simferopol Plant

At the Simferopol plant, instead of the blown up power station, on the proposal of Comcor Primakov , an electric motor removed from the former royal dacha in Livadia is installed and the plant is put into operation ^[7] .

By June 26, 1921, the factory still retained almost half of its former composition - 437 people ^[7] .

The aircraft production reached 7 units per month, but the plant did not produce new aircraft, but carried out major repairs of the Red Army aircraft: Farman-30, Heveland, Newpor-24, Sopvich, Sopvich-Kemal, Newpor-17 ”,“ Moran ”,“ Avro ”,“ Vickers ”,“ Recession ” ^[7] .

In December 1921, about 200 people worked at the plant.

From January to May 1922, the plant still produces 12 aircraft, 3 armored cars, 2 cars and 1 motorcycle from repair ^[7] . July 1, 1922 the plant in Simferopol was mothballed.

The unsuccessful design of the Anatra-VI aircraft, which resulted in frequent disasters and the death of crews during combat missions, undermined the plant's reputation. When the aviation inspector of the armies of the Southwestern Front traveled around the frontal squadrons in February 1917, the pilots everywhere complained to him about the poor quality of the aircraft of the Anatra plant. ^[3]

The plant failed to cope with the defects of the machine. In April 1917, about 5 acts on defects and breakdowns of Anatra-VI aircraft were compiled in the 5th Siberian Corps air squad. In the end, a specially created commission, having examined all cases of car accidents, admitted that aircraft and motors are assembled at the plant extremely carelessly. In the future, there was a prejudice of pilots about all the aircraft of the plant, even the quite successful Anatra-D. ^[3]

On May 31, 1917, in order to dispel the mistrustful attitude of the flight crew towards the aircraft, the commander of the 11th Army Aviation Squadron, Captain Makarov, decided to perform aerobatics on Anatra-D — the loop of Nesterov . In the history of Russian aviation, these were the first aerobatics made on a machine designed for corps squadrons and not designed for aerobatics. ^[3]

However, when in the summer of 1917, the pilot of the Anatra plant, lieutenant of the French service Robino, with the plant mechanic Ivan Omelin, preparing for the aviation week, decided to make aerobatics on the Anatra-D plane, the experiment ended in disaster. The cause of the accident was the technology of gluing spars from two parts. ^[3]

The quality of the aircraft of the Anatra plant was lower than that of Dux or RBVZ. The underlying reasons for the low quality of the plant's products were the isolation of the plant from the aerodynamic laboratories in Moscow and Petrograd, the lower qualifications of workers and technical personnel, and the rampant pursuit of profit by the plant owner. ^[3]