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The Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automatics (DKBA) has a unique history which is inseparably intertwined with the development of aeronautics in this country. In the 1930s, Russia was the world leader in airship building. Already in 1920, thanks to efforts of our predecessors the Astra airship made several flights and in 1924 Fomin and Tupolev supervised the construction of the Moskovsky Khimik-Rezinshchik non-rigid airship. In 1932, the Dirizhablestroy company manufactured non-rigid airships V2 with 5,000 cu m and V3 with 6,500 cu m of gas capacity.
From 1932 to 1934, under the guidance of prominent Italian aeronautical engineer and Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile Russia built its first semi-rigid airships V5 with 2,200 cu m and SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM with 18,500 cu m of gas capacity and 8.5 tons of payload. In his book entitled "My Five Years with Soviet Airships" Nobile wrote: "It was one of the happiest periods in my life."
The SSSR-V6 OSOAVIAKhIM airship went down into history of aeronautics. It made many fabulous flights across our country and set a new world record for airship endurance beating the previous record by the famous German airship Graf Zeppelin. However, from 1940 the USSR suspended all works in airship building.
The revival of aeronautics in this country occurred in 1955 and 1956 after NATO started sending numerous espionage balloons from its bases in Europe to the territory of the USSR. In 1956, all aeronautical activities were assigned to OKB-24 design bureau under the State Committee for Aviation Technologies (former Dirizhablestroy). Mikhail Gudkov, one of the designers of LaGG fighter, was appointed its chief designer. Later on OKB-24 was remained into the Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automatics (DKBA) and until now remains the only state-run company engaged in aeronautics in this country.
Since 1956 the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Dolgoprudny Design Bureau of Automatics specializing in design and construction of multipurpose aeronautics equipment has manufactured an entire generation of balloons with gas capacity varying from 4 cu m to 3,000,000 cu m, the payload from 1.5 kg to 6.5 tons working at altitudes from 1.5 km to 45 km and with flight endurance up to 20 days including the Volga world famous high-altitude balloon currently stored in the Museum of the Russian Air Force.
Apart from free balloons, DKBA has created a whole family of tethered balloons with gas capacity from 3 cu m to 12,000 cu m, different in design, designation, payload, working altitude and operating endurance at the working altitude. All the tethered balloons were developed as dual purpose equipment and are capable of performing a broad range of tasks in the civil sector (rebroadcasting, environmental monitoring, various types of observation, etc).
Early in the 1970s, upon an order from the Defense Ministry, the design bureau launched the development of an intercontinental stratospheric balloon complex. Exactly thanks to the conversion side of this project the national economy and households received polyethylene. Another new project was associated with the construction of inflatable facilities for military purposes. Very soon, pneumatic hangars became a common thing in the civil sector either.
In the middle of the 1970s DKBA developed the first in this country free automatic radio controlled hot air balloon. Later on, it served as a prototype for free hot air piloted balloons meeting world standards: АХ-5, АX-7 and АX-10 with performance characteristics matching their foreign analogues, and the first in this country radio controlled demo airship in the form of a flying saucer.
In 1986, fighting consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe, DKBA specialists jointly with the Aeronautical Service of the RSFSR Air Force lifted up a tethered balloon with a powerful lighting system on order to facilitate the remote control of the crane.
In the beginning of the 1990s in cooperation with some related enterprises in the sector in the framework of R&D programs DKBA developed engineering design and documentation for experimental airship DS-3 capable of carrying 3 tons of payload. Later on it served as a basis for studying (in the framework of research programs) possibilities of building a seaborne radar airship for the surveillance of economic zones and a multi-purpose airship Vityaz with payload capacity of up to 20 tons.
Working on problem of aeronautics, DKBA employees jointly with specialists from other enterprises take an active part in works associated with production and use of radar absorbent materials as well as of flegmatised (stabilized) hydrogen that helps reduce operation costs on lifting gas in aeronautics approximately eight to ten times.
Several years ago our specialists were the first in the world who proposed to use a removable pneumatic float landing gear in a VTOL amphibian. Later on it passed all phases of testing successfully. They also offered complex equipment for Meteozashchita aircraft used for the dispersion of low cumulonimbus clouds and elimination of thunderstorm clouds.
The enterprise also took part in developing systems and units for the Buran space shuttle, the Yamal and Grach (T-101V) amphibians and passive braking systems for the Soyuz-2 booster to prevent accumulation of its third stages in the orbit. Research works are in progress aimed at the creation of promising energy systems for space stations working on the principle of solar sail. The Znamya-2 experiment conducted successfully with the help of a Progress-M cargo spacecraft as a practical step towards a creation of a solar sail spaceship. I confirmed the correctness of the design concept and the technical possibility to build large frameless film constructions in Earth orbit.
Over the past more than 30 years DKBA has been developing crew and passenger chairs for many types of civil and military transport planes and helicopters. These chairs are broadly used in hydrofoils and high-speed trains. Apart from chairs' development and modernization the company is engaged in their serial production and capital repairs. Small batches of chairs and bench seats for vehicles as well as of specialized chairs are manufactured under individual contracts.
As for today DKBA is the only Russian designer of fire alarm systems for all types of planes and helicopters, some types of sea going and river vessels and other vehicles as well as for pumping stations of the Gazprom empire.
The company preserves its leading positions in the development and production of non-rigid constructions for space and missile equipment. Its production units are specialized according to the technological principle and equipped with special technological equipment for manufacturing products according to programs of the Defense Ministry.
