Manufacturer

Gross

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The German government ordered Major von Gross, the officer commanding the army balloon establishment outside Berlin, to commence the design of a large semi-rigid to match French efforts. Work began in 1906 under conditions of the greatest secrecy, and was to result in the construction of a series of airships distinguished by an envelope of elipsoidal form with a triangular-section, articulated tubular steel keel.

The structure evenly distributed the shear and compressive stresses that resulted from the weight of the cars and other loads, whilst allowing the envelope to retain its shape to the best aerodynamic advantage. The Gross airships were shown to be sturdy and well-engineered craft, the development of which benefited from the availability of almost unlimited resources provided by the German government.

Groos, Alfred

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French military officer Alfred Groos first produced in 1909 an unsuccessful little triplane. Also in 1909 he produced an equally small monoplane which was named “Quand même” [“Nevertheless”].

A third machine was designed by Groos, a further development along the lines of the “Quand Même”. It wasn’t named after Groos, but was known as the Paul Kaufmann monoplane of 1909.

Grokhovsky, Pavel Ignatievich

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Pavel Ignatievich Grokhovski (in Russian: Павел Игнатьевич Гроховский) was born in March 6, 1899 in Viasma, Smolensk.

His childhood was spent in Tver, where he completed the first four grades of primary education, later entering the Royal College of this city. At the age of 15 Grokhovsky left his studies and his home, traveling to Moscow, where he worked as a messenger for a pharmacy. In those years he frequently visited the Jodynka airfield where Russian aviation pioneers Dokuchayev, Gaber-Vlynski, Lerche held exhibitions, falling in love with aviation.

In 1917 he voluntarily joined a group of revolutionary sailors in Revel (Tallinn), participating in the October uprising. He participated in the Civil War as a sailor on the battle ship “Petropavlovsk”, in the Baltic Fleet. He participated in ground operations under the leadership of IKKoshinov and PEDybenko. Later he fought against the Germans in Ukraine; against Kolchak, Denikin and the White Forces and against the English intervening forces.

In 1919 he joined the Communist Party of the USSR and two years later he was appointed Commissioner of the Black and Azov Seas.

In 1922 he entered flight courses. He studied initially at the Yegorevsk Theoretical School and then at the Borisoglevsk Flight School. In 1925 he finished the Kacha Military Aviation School, becoming a pilot.
His first inventions related to aviation were developed by Grokhovsky in 1927, when he served as a military pilot in the 44th squadron at Novocherkass. In those years bomber training was done with concrete bombs.

Grokhovsky proposed to replace them with clay bombs filled with chalk of different colors. This not only made the teaching process cheaper, but it was very easy to analyze the results of the training since each crew was assigned a color that was scattered at the site of the fall of the artifact.

From 1929 he began to work as a test pilot at the VVS Scientific-Research Institute (NII VVS). In those years, the idea of parachute landing was beginning to develop.

In 1929 Grokhovsky made his first parachute jump.

Pavel Grokhovski after a parachute jump.

The first Soviet parachutists used the American Irvin system. Each parachute cost about 1,000 gold rubles. Grokhovsky proposed to sew the domes using cheap calico. To demonstrate the possibility of use, Grokhovsky himself and his collaborators performed demonstration jumps.

To study the possibilities of the new idea, the Oskonbyuró (Special Construction Bureau) of the VVS RKKA was created in 1932, dedicated to the development of skydiving and air landing techniques. Grokhovsky was appointed chief and chief builder.

Grokhovsky dreamed of a plane specialized in the transport of paratroopers. His conception would be embodied in the G-37, an aircraft built in the form of a structure with a high fixed landing gear to which a ventral container with landing troops could be attached. This cockpit could be released in flight and fell to the ground with a large parachute 40 meters in diameter.

Launch of an Aviabus from the Túpolev TB-1 bomber in low altitude flight.

One of Grokhovsky’s novel inventions was his “Aviabus”, a system for launching charges and people from the air without using a parachute. The “Aviabus” was in the form of a flat container in the shape of a short, thick wing, which featured a two-wheel train with rubber cushioning on its bow and a skid on the tail. After launching from a height of 12 – 15 meters above the ground, the “Aviabus” performed a slight glide and when it touched the ground it kept rolling until it lost inertia. With this invention, Grokhovsky was able to considerably reduce the length of stay of the transporter aircraft in the landing area and the problems associated with take-off.

“Aviabus” projects were designed with different capacities and with wheel or ski landing gear. “Aviabus” were developed for land and water landings and even more innovative projects such as a motorized sled, which once launched from the mother plane could start its engine and fulfill its military task as an artillery troop transport. One of the variants was also the “avio-tanqueta”, an armored “Aviabus” with a train of mats and its own engine.

In 1932 the G-63 glider made its appearance. For the first time a glider of such dimensions was built, capable of lifting and transporting 16 soldiers, who travelled lying inside the thick wing. There was also a capacity to transport 500 kg of cargo.

When his organization became an Institute, Grokhovsky had the opportunity to expand his work to the design and construction of airplanes. Between 1934 and 1936, the institute designed and built 5 experimental aircraft models. Grokhovsky generally designed the schematic of the new plane and its development was entrusted to one of his subordinates.

PI Grokhovsky was transferred to a bureaucratic assignment at the Central Council of the Union of Defense Assistance Societies and Aviation-Chemical Construction of the USSR (OSOVIAJIM). The 5 of November 1942 was finally arrested by infundades accusations and ended up dying in prison. The “official” records this death on 2 October 1946 due to tuberculosis.

In 1957, Grokhovsky’s case was presented to the court of the Moscow military region, which completely cleared him due to the lack of evidence that showed involvement in the accusations.

Pavel Ignatievich Grokhovsky was responsible for more than 100 innovations and experimental creations, generally very advanced for his time. He proposed dive bombing long before they began to be used in a massive way, refuelling in the air, the use of the swept wing, the ekranoplanes. Many of these ideas were widely disseminated in later years. Grokhovsky was an exceptional man. His meager education was supplemented by a rare innate instuction. His acquaintances valued him as reckless and audacious, and at times he was irresponsible. Piloting a plane, he performed the acrobatic figures almost at ground level, he always drove the vehicles at high speed, personally tested his most dangerous creations.

Order of Lenin (1933)
Master of the Sport of Skydiving (1934)

Productions related to aeronautics

G-26
Experimental interceptor fighter developed between 1935 and 1936. It was unleashed by the use of a bicycle-type undercarriage with skids under the wings. The prototype was destroyed before its completion.

G-31
Glider from 1933 with capacity for 16 equipped soldiers obtained as an improvement of the previous G-63. Two were produced which were also tested in a motorized version with different powerplants.

G-37
Troop transport plane conceived in 1934 and characterized by its double fuselage and a large light from the ground to be able to transport a launchable container with landing troops under the belly. The container was launched from the air, descending with the help of a parachute.

G-38
Multifunctional combat aircraft known as “Light Cruiser” or LK-2. Developed in parallel with the G-26, the prototype would also be destroyed, when its construction had not yet been completed.

G-39 “Cucaracha”
1939 experimental fighter with arrow wings and tailless configuration.

G-52
“Flying battery” conceived on the basis of a heavily armed Túpolev TB-3 bomber with 76 mm field guns.

G-61
Modification of a Polikarpov R-5 reconnaissance aircraft with cassettes for landing troops located under the wings. Several prototypes were developed, which were successfully tested in 1936. In 1937 two of the civilian version Polikarpov P-5 would be used in an attempt to save Levanevski’s crew

G-63
Initial prototype of the G-31 landing glider. It was destroyed during testing.

Inflatable gliders
The Grokhovsky Institute developed three models of inflatable gliders that were successfully tested between 1934 and 1935.

Grohmann, Dipl.-Ing. Karl

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In 1910/11 Dipl.-Ing. Karl Grohmann built the Grohmann Eindecker single and two seat aircraft. Karl Grohmann later worked at Albatros (Johannisthal) where he was involved in the design of, among others, the Doppeltaube. During the War he was Chefkonstrukteur (chief-designer) of the Ostdeutsche Albatros-Werke (OAW) in Schneidemühl (Posen).

Groen Brothers Aviation

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Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

GBA was founded in 1986 by David Groen and his brother, Jay Groen. GBA’s Corporate Headquarters are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with its manufacturing facility on the same site. GBA also operates a flight test and R&D facility in Buckeye, Arizona, near Phoenix.
Since its inception, GBA has been involved in an extensive research program in the design, engineering, development, testing and marketing of gyroplane and gyrodyne aircraft.
Groen Brothers Aviation, Inc. (GBA) is engaged in the business of designing and developing new high performance gyroplanes and gyrodynes using advanced technology and modern aerospace design methods.
The Groen brothers realized that the collective pitch controlled rotor system developed for helicopters could be applied to a gyroplane. This innovation would substantially improve a gyroplane’s ability to achieve vertical takeoff and landing, as well as dramatically improve performance in both high speed flight and safe low and slow flight. GBA has three U.S. Patents and several International Patents relating to the variable pitch rotor system they developed. With such improvements the gyroplane could become a safe, economical and versatile aircraft with appeal to a broad range of markets. Based on this insight, the Groens decided in 1986 to enter the market and to design their first gyroplane.
Following the successful flight of a proof-of-concept aircraft in 1987, the Groens designed, manufactured and flew several prototype test gyroplanes of increasing size and sophistication during the 1990s. Each of these gyroplanes were typically ultra-short take-off and landing (USTOL) aircraft that demonstrated that gyroplanes could be significantly easier to fly and maintain than a helicopter, would have significantly less maintenance down time and therefore much higher mission readiness, and would be safer than either airplanes or helicopters.
By 1999 Groen Brothers Aviation had designed and manufactured their first piston-engine version of the four-seat Hawk 4 Gyroplane.
In July 2001, Groen announced plans to move to a new 18.580sq.m facility at Phoenix, Arizona. The plant was intended to become operational by end 2002 and have the capacity to produce four aircraft per day, however this has lapsed.
In August 2001 the company concluded a joint venture with Al-Obayya Corporation to produce and market gyroplanes in Saudi Arabia. However, economic downturn of late 2001 resulted in 85 of 130-strong workforce being laid off. Earlier plans for Chinese assembly also appear to have lapsed.
In February, 2003, Groen Brothers Aviation formed American Autogyro, to produce gyroplanes for the “kit-built” market.

Grob / Burkhart Grob Luft- und Raumfahrt GmbH & Co KG.

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1926: Company foundation in Munich
Aviation work began in 1971 and has since built many thousands of motorgliders, lightplanes and other aircraft.
1974: Foundation of aircraft plant in Mattsies
Burkhart Grob Flugzeugbau GmbH built the Schempp-Hirth Standard Cirrus under licence during 1972-75.
Recent aircraft include the G 103 Twin III and G 109 series of gliders/motorgliders, piston-engined G 115 two-seat lightplane (some versions suited to training and aerobatics; first flown November 1985), GF 200 pusher piston-engined and pressurised 4/5-seat lightplane (first flown November 1991, turboprop-powered G-520 Egrett and Strato 1 high-altitude and long-duration research platforms capable of carrying different electronic payloads in 12 separate compartments (first flown June 1987 in G-500 Egrett form), and the most recent G-850 Strato 2C high-altitude and long-duration atmospheric/ stratospheric/ climatic research aircraft with a unique compound propulsion system using two turbocharged piston engines and two gas generators (first flown March 1995).

Grigorovich, Dmitry Pavlovich / Grigorovič

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Dmitry Pavlovich Grigorovich was born on February 6 (January 25, old style) in 1883 in Kiev. His father, Pavel Dmitrievich, a great-nephew of the famous Russian writer Dmitry Vasilievich Grigorovich, first served in a sugar factory, later – in the quartermaster of the military department. Mother, Yadviga Konstantinovna, was the daughter of a rural doctor. The parents sent their son to the Kiev real school. Quite a lot of lessons were devoted to practical training in workshops and laboratories.

Graduates of a real school had the right to enrol in polytechnic institutes and, after graduating from a real school in 1902, Dmitry Grigorovich chose for his further education the mechanical department of the Kiev Polytechnic Institute of Emperor Alexander II.

Dmitry Grigorovich actively participated in the Aeronautical Circle KPI, founded in 1905. It was supervised by Nikolai Borisovich Delone, a student of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, a professor of mechanics. Members of the circle listened to N.Delone’s lectures on the basics of aeronautics and were actively engaged in the design and manufacture of their own aircraft.

Before the end of the KPI, Dmitry went to the Belgian city of Liege, where he attended two semesters at one of the institutes, studying aerodynamics and engine theory. “Since 1909,” wrote N. Suknevich, the wife of Dmitry Pavlovich, “when Dmitry graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, we were both passionate about aviation. Our room was littered with mechanical parts, engine components, various parts. Not far from the Polytechnic Institute on the Kurenevsky airfield, he removes the shed and adapts it to the hangar. Next hangar another polytechnic – Igor Sikorsky. Dmitry made the first lightweight sports biplane G-1 with the Anzani engine with a capacity of 25 horsepower from bamboo, which he tested on January 10, 1910. “

The next work of D. Grigorovich was an airplane built according to the design of the French Bleriot XI aircraft, also with the Anzani engine, but with its own control system and chassis design. It was built by Grigorovich together with the Kiev motor sport amateur Ilnitsky. Financial assistance Ilnitsky was enough to complete work on a new airplane and demonstrate it at the Kiev exhibition of aeronautics. The aircraft attracted the general attention of aviation specialists and amateurs. The magazine “Automobile and aeronautics” called it the best design of the exhibition.

Fedor Tereshchenko, a descendant of a wealthy merchant family, became interested in the development of Dmitry Grigorovich. Tereshchenko also studied at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute and in his estate in the village of Chervonoye, Berdichevsky district, he equipped an aircraft workshop and airfield. Fyodor Tereshchenko proposed to Grigorovich to cooperate. Soon two of their sport airplanes appeared – the G-2 and the G-3. The designer and the main performer of all the works was Dmitry Grigorovich, the patron of the arts was Fyodor Tereshchenko.

In 1911 Dmitry Grigorovich went to St. Petersburg and got a job as a journalist in the science journal “Bulletin of the ballooning”. It was in 1911 that the famous work of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s Study of World Spaces with Jet Instruments was published in this journal.

Grigorovich flew one of his planes from Kiev to St. Petersburg and carried out several successful flights there at the Commandant airfield. They were witnessed by Sergei Schetinin, the founder of the first in the Russian Empire aircraft building plant called “The First Russian Aeronautical Partnership of the SS Shchetinin and Co.”. Over time, Schetinin invited Grigorovich to the position of manager and technical director of the plant.

Grigorovich proposed to create new aircraft designs, which at that time were very necessary for the military industry of the empire.

The head of the naval aviation of the Baltic Fleet requested repair the Donne-Levek military seaplane damaged in training flights. At Schetinin Grigorovich, together with the head of the drawing bureau Sedelnikov, suggested repairing the plane and at the same time making its drawings and setting up production at the factory.

During this work, the idea was born to create a hydroplane, but with the introduction of fundamental changes in its design as compared with Donne-Leveque. Grigorovich proposed to install the aircraft not on the float, necessary for take-off and landing on water, but to design a “flying boat”. The new design, called M-1 (“Sea-first”).

In parallel with the work at the plant of S. Shchetinin, on June 1, 1917, Grigorovich founded his own research aircraft building plant called “DP Grigorovich”.

On June 1, 1917 Grigorovich ended his working relationship with SS Schetinin. His personal relations by that time had been damaged and Schetinin, who had grown considerably rich from the war, considered that he no longer needed his engineer. Quite quickly Grigorovich received bank loans with low interest rates that allowed him to lease some facilities to organize an experimental factory and an empty building belonging to the Ismailovski regiment, at 12 Rota, Building 26. As an aid to be able to make the loan payment, the new facility received an order for the construction of 40 M-5 flying boats (later M-20), which was signed on July 28, 1917 with deliveries scheduled for the period between September 1, 1917 and January 1, 1918. The price of each unit was set at 16,000 rubles. In parallel Grigorovich received requests for the development of several experimental models.

At this enterprise, Dmitry Pavlovich designs, tests and prepares several more machine designs for serial production. These were flying boats M-18, M-19, M-20 and M-21.

The revolutionary events of 1917-1918 interrupted Dmitry Grigorovich’s quick pace in the aircraft industry. In March 1918, his plant was nationalized and redeveloped to produce agricultural equipment. According to some reports, in those days he received an invitation to go abroad, but remained in his homeland. The enterprise of S. Shchetinin was also reorganized into the State Aviation Plant “Red Pilot”.

Trying to survive and save his loved ones, D. Grigorovich began to work in the Main Committee of the United Aviation Plants (Golovkoavia) – the leading body of aircraft engineering. However, he did not work there for long: during the famine in Petrograd, Grigorovich and his family moved to Kiev, then to Odessa, then went to Taganrog. In Taganrog, he worked at an aviation factory, whose main profile was the repair of aircraft and engines. On the initiative of Grigorovich, outside of all sorts of orders and plans, the MK-1 sea float fighter (Rybka) was built there. Dmitry Pavlovich took direct participation in its design and production. Soon the order for “Rybka” was transferred to the plant “Red Pilot”, and Grigorovich was able to return to Petrograd.

In addition to introducing the new aircraft into production, Grigorovich completed work on the GASN sea torpedo bomber, which had been half forgotten in the factory yard since 1917. The hydroplane was repaired, some changes were made to its structure, and in the summer of 1920 test flights began.

In connection with the receipt of an order for the design of a new naval reconnaissance aircraft in mid-1922, Grigorovich moved to Moscow, where he was appointed Technical Director and Head of the Design Bureau of the State Aviation Plant No. 1 (GAZ 1), the former Dux Aircraft Factory. In this position, Grigorovich replaced another well-known aviation specialist, Nikolai Polikarpov, who was transferred to the Golovkoavia design department.

The company built a new Soviet R-1 reconnaissance aircraft for a 400 hp engine. The aircraft was designed on the basis of the captured English DH-9. Grigorovich accelerated the revival of production and ensured the operational solution of dozens of large and small tasks. On June 29, 1923, after the successful tests of the Air Force, the first two R-1 aircraft were handed over. And after a while, the plant produced 38 such machines every month.

In addition, the design team of the company worked hard on another order – the creation of a domestic fighter. It became a biplane I-2 with an M-5 engine, developed under Grigorovich and put into service in early 1925.

At the beginning of 1925 Grigorovich was again transferred to the Krasny Pilot plant (later – State Aviation Plant No. 23), where Aviatrest created the country’s first Department of Marine Research Aeronautical Engineering.

Under the leadership of Grigorovich, a number of projects and research samples of naval reconnaissance aircraft were prepared: MRL-1 (“Marine reconnaissance with Liberty engine”), its subsequent modifications – MR-2, MP-3, training aircraft MUR-1, MU -2 (“Marine Training with the engine” Ron “and” Marine Training “); ROM-1, ROM-2, ROM-2bis (“Scout of the open sea”), two-float, two-tail naval destroyer under two MM-1 tandem engines (“Marine minononset”), MT-1 (“Sea torpedo carrier”).

Unfortunately, due to some design flaws, incomplete compliance with customer requirements, and sometimes because of overt intrigues in the aviation industry, most of these machines did not reach mass production.

The chain of certain failures coincided in time with the start of the campaign launched against the old specialists. Special commissions “on the elimination of sabotage” were created at each defensive enterprise.

The first lawsuits against the “bourgeois experts” were the Shakhty affair and the Industrial Party affair. On September 1, 1928, they reached Grigorovich. He was arrested in his office, accused of sabotage and sent to Butyrka prison. Following him, he was arrested by his comrades – A. Sedelnikov, E. Maioranov, V. Corvin-Kerber, who worked with him in the “First Russian Aeronautical Partnership of S.S. Shchetinin and K”. Soon, a wave of arrests of aviation specialists swept through other defense industry enterprises.

In the spring of 1928, the USSR government adopted the “Plan for the construction of armed forces for the future five-year plan”. The leadership of the OGPU decided to use the imprisoned specialists in their direct specialties. The Deputy Chairman of the OGPU, Heinrich Yagoda, defended this idea, and was entrusted with the task of overseeing the first prison design bureau.

They established a design bureau in December 1929 directly in the Butyrskaya prison,. Dmitry Grigorovich was appointed Chief Designer of the Special Design Bureau, Nikolai Polikarpov, who was arrested on charges of participating in a counter-revolutionary organization, was appointed his deputy. Prisoners who were enrolled in the OKB were improved in conditions of detention — they increased their nutritional standards, more often they were taken to the bathhouse and were allowed to see their relatives. Immediately after the formation of the design bureau, he was visited by the Deputy Chief of the Air Force, Y. Alksnis, and set the task: by the spring of 1930, to design a fighter, the characteristics of which would be no worse than those of the best foreign aircraft.

Over time, the group of Grigorovich was transferred to aviation plant Menzhinsky (GAZ number 39), located near the Central airport. In his memoirs, Alexander Yakovlev, wrote: “They lived and worked in the mysterious” Seventh Hangar “, adapted to the internal prison.” The guards divided this hangar into two parts: in one there was a living area, in the other – working premises.

In just three months, the prisoners, designers and engineers have developed a model of the future fighter. They spent even less time on the construction of his research sample – a month, and on April 29, 1930, it was first tested in the air.

The success of the I-5 fighter inspired the leadership of the OGPU to expand the network of Special Design Bureaus, and the OKB D. Grigorovich received the orderto develop a whole range of combat aircraft.

Soon the staff of the OKB Grigorovich was expanded to 300 people at the expense of freelance specialists, and under the new name of the Central Design Bureau (Central Design Bureau) it was introduced into the technical department of the OGPU Economic Department. The mode of detention of prisoners of the Central Clinical Hospital was relaxed. And on July 10, 1931, Dmitry Grigorovich received freedom. In those days, Pravda newspaper published the Resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee: “… Amnesty … Grigorovich Dmitry Pavlovich, Chief Designer for Research Aircraft Building, who repented of his previous actions and hard work, proved in practice his repentance. To award him with a diploma of the CEC of the USSR and a cash premium of 10,000 rubles.”

After his release, Dmitry Grigorovich remained to work in his Central Design Bureau. At that time, there were carried out searches and research of the best schemes of light and heavy attack aircraft, developed cannon fighter monoplanes I-Z and PI (factory code DG-52), armed with recoilless cannons and machine guns, which were produced in large series.

Dmitry Pavlovich combined his work with the Central Clinical Hospital with teaching and research at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he headed the Department of Aircraft Design and Design.

In the spring of 1938, Grigorovich was given a new position – the head of the newly organized design bureau in Novosibirsk. But he could not go to Siberia – he became seriously ill and on July 26 of the same year, at the age of 56, died of blood cancer. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

The result of D. Grigorovich’s life was 80 types of designed airplanes, of which almost four dozen were placed in production.