Ilya Florentievich Florov (Russian: Илья Флорентьевич Флоров) was born on 5 August of 1908 in Novocherkassk, son of a military engineer who reached colonel in the Russian Army and participated in the Russo-Japanese War.

His father disappeared during the civil war and mother, with her children, moved to Yekaterinodar. In this city Florov completed high school and in 1926 he entered the mechanics department of the Novocherkask Aviation Institute, graduating in 1931.

After graduating he began working at Gorky Aviation Factory No.21 in the construction and drawing department (ChKO), dedicated to meeting the needs of the factory’s series production. At that time Factory No.21 was mass-producing the Polikarpov I-5 fighter and the VVS urgently needed a new training aircraft for this fighter.

For this purpose, a new group was created at the factory, led by engineer BV Kupryanov, including Ilya Florov and Alexei Borovkov . The new model was known as UTI-1 and about 20 copies were built. This was Florov’s first serious aircraft construction work. Later he would participate in the development of several versions of training aircraft on the I-16 fighter known as UTI-2, 3 and 4.

In 1936 the ChKO was divided into two independent departments: The Special Construction Bureau (BOK) and the Mass Production Monitoring Bureau. The BOK soon became known as the Experimental Construction Bureau (OKO), after the acronym for Opitni Konstruktorskoye Biuró. 43 BOK technicians and specialists and another 10 from Moscow were integrated into this organization. IF Florov was appointed as head of the OKO and therefore replacement for Nikolai Polikarpov,.

In 1935 Florov, together with AA Borovkov, developed a compact biplane fighter with no connection between the planes. The VVS management decided to support this initiative and a new OKB was soon created at Factory No.207 for the development of this project. In 1937 the first example of this aircraft was created with an 800 hp M-85 engine that would lead to the I-207. Various configurations were tested until the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

From 1941 Florov began to work in Bolkhovitinov’s OKB as head of department and substitute for the main constructor, participating in the creation of the first reactive interceptor of the USSR, the Bereznyak / Isayev BI.

Starting in 1944, Florov developed in the NII-1 a group of investigations on the development prospects of aviation with different types of power plants. Here under his direction a reactive powerplant aircraft designed to use an AM Isayev engine (Airplane No.4302) or an LS Dushkin engine (Airplane No.4303) was created and tested. These works were continued until 1948, when the aviation sector of the NII-1 was closed.

In 1948 the NII-1 was absorbed by the TsIAM and under the direction of Florov these works were continued in the aviation department of this institution, directed by him until 1952 and then between 1957 and 1982.

Florov received two Order of the Red Banner of Labor and the Order of the October Revolution.

Ilya Florentievich Florov died in Moscow in 1983. In December 2003 a plaque was unveiled in Moscow in memory of Ilya Florov.