DOI: 10.20535/2307-5244.46.2018.136735
State Polytechnic Museum at National Technical University
of Ukraine «Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute»
Given the archived documents and periodic sources about the initial period of
biography of aircraft designer Dmytro Pavlovych Hryhorovych (1883–1938) the
author describes his studies in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, his activity in the Kyiv
public aviation organizations — the KPI Aeronautic Group and the Kyiv Society
of Aeronautics; attempts of building construction airplanes, conditions and nature
of work on the aircraft factories of the Russian Empire in the period before the First
World War, his publishing and journalistic activity in Saint-Petersburg. Some biographic
facts are also specified (in particular, about his parents and family). The
author studies new archive materials, unknown for researches before.
The article is based on the archival documents such as funds of the Central
State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv, the State Archive of Kyiv, the State
Archive of the Kyiv District, the Institute of Manuscripts of the V. Vernadsky National
Library of Ukraine, and the periodic press (Kyiv newspaper “Kievlyanin”
and central editions (“Herald of Aeronautics”)).
In the first part of the article the author describes the history of the Hryhorovych
noble family. The author outlines circumstances and conditions of his studying in
the Kyiv hub school and the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. Dmytro Hryhorovych did
not take any part in work of the student KPI Aeronautic group, but he was a member
of the Kyiv Society of Aeronautics.
In the second part of the article the author describes the first steps in aircraft
building: attempt to build the first aeroplane (unsuccessful) in cooperation with
Kyiv merchant and philanthropist Ilnytskyi, which was demonstrated at the Kyiv
Aeronautic Exhibition (January 1911), and his works at the Fedir Tereshchenko
aircraft factory in Chervone (Volyn District) in 1910.
The author describes the publishing activity of Dmytro Hryhorovych in Saint-
Petersburg in 1911–1912 as editor-in-chief of the aircraft magazine “Herald of
Aeronautics”. Dmytro Hryhorovych wrote 14 articles devoted to the new types of
aeroplanes, to review some events in aviation life in the 1910s, problems in aviation,
as well as ways of their resolving.
The author hopes the article will extend the awareness of initial and important
period of life and activity of Ukrainian aircraft designer Dmytro Hryhorovych
and will be a stimulus for further researches.
Keywords: D. Grigorovich, aviation, education, Kyiv real school, Kyiv Polytechnic
Institute, Aeronautical group, Kyiv Aeronautics Society, aircraft factory
in Chervone, aircraft magazine «Herald of aeronautics» («Vestnyk vozduhoplavanija
» — Rus.), aircraft-building factory by S. Shchetinin.
