Georgy Langemak

Georgy Erikhovich Langemak (Russian: Георгий Эрихович Лангемак) (26 June (N.S. 8 July) 1898–11 January 1938) was a Soviet rocket designer of German/Swiss background.

G.E. Langemak

Beginning in 1928, he worked at the Soviet Gas Dynamics Laboratory along with several other notable Soviet rocket scientists, and they developed rocket projectiles that used smokeless powder. This group was later merged with another rocketry organization to become the Jet Propulsion Research Institute (RNII). Langemak became the deputy director of the RNII. In 1936 this group completed the technical specifications for a rocket-glider.

In 1937, during the Great Purge, he was fired and subsequently arrested by NKVD, along with the RNII director Ivan Kleymenov and the engine designer Valentin Glushko, as a follow-up to denunciation letter by director of RNII liquid fuel engine laboratory, A. Kostikov (which subsequently took his position in the institute), in which he claimed Langemark was sabotaging the research and development progress of the new engine. Langemark was judged by visiting session of Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union on january 11, 1938, found guilty under the article 58-7, 58-8 and 58-11 and sentenced to death by shooting with property confiscation. Execution happened the same day.[1]

He was rehabilitated completely on November 19, 1955.

He is chiefly remembered for being the co-designer and directing the development of the aircraft unguided rockets which were modified to be used with such success in the Katyusha rocket launchers of World War II. The crater Langemak on the Moon is named in his honor.

References
  1. Лангемак Георгий Эрихович Автор Александр Глушко. На основании документов из архивов ЦГАВМФ, ФСБ, Самарского филиала РГАНТД и личного архива А. В. Глушко.

Bibliography
  • Langemak, G. E. and Glushko, V. P., "The Missile, Its Device and Use", 1935.
  • Лангемак Георгий Эрихович, Автор Александр Глушко. На основании документов из архивов ЦГАВМФ, ФСБ, Самарского филиала РГАНТД и личного архива А. В. Глушко.


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