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The history of the enterprise is based on S.G. Tikhonov’s book Defense Enterprises of the USSR and Russia. Vol. 1, Moscow, 2010.
OKB-3 of Plant No. 133 (2nd MPI)
OKB-3 of Plant No. 133 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry (MAP) was a design collective known, at different times, under a whole series of names by which one can read the biography of the entire sector: OKB-3 of Plant No. 133, MAP; then GS OKB-133, MAP (Gosudarstvennoe Spetsial’noe, i.e., State Special); later — a subdivision of the GKAT (Main Committee for Aviation Technology) at Plant No. 133; after which it acquired the resonant name Moscow Instrument-Making Design Bureau (MPKB) “Voskhod”; later MPKP “Voskhod,” MAP (Moskovskoe Priborostroitel’noe Konstruktorskoe Predpriyatie); in correspondence it hid behind the index A-1874; in the 1990s it became an AOOt (open-type joint-stock company) and then OJSC “Aeropribor-Voskhod.”
Its addresses are also milestones of history: Moscow, 105318 (105058, E-58), E-318, 19 Tkatskaya Street, next to Cherkizovo station of the Moscow Belt Railway, P.O. Box 2347 “Saga”; later — again Moscow, 105318, 19 Tkatskaya Street.
The birth of the bureau is fixed by a dry line of Order No. 431s of 14 July 1944: to form an OKB at Plant No. 133 of the NKAP (People’s Commissariat of Aviation Industry) by merging personnel from various enterprises engaged in aneroid-membrane, tubular, and bellows instruments, within the orbit of the 5th Main Directorate of the NKAP. Behind this phrase stood the post-war concentration of experience and skilled hands — an attempt to gather the schools of precision mechanics scattered across the country into a single “heart.”
Already in 1947 OKB-3 of Plant No. 133, MAP was transformed into an independent OKB-133, MAP, and in 1953 it received the status of GS OKB-133, MAP (a State Special bureau) — a sign of special responsibility and closed subject matter. The logo that can be found on OKB-3 instruments is very likely tied to its aneroid-membrane production: a horizontal zig-zag line represents the membrane of the sensitive aneroid capsule at the core of barometers and altimeters; a vertical (sometimes slanted) pointer is the indicating hand of any measuring instrument; both are encircled by two rings and a single semicircle with fixing dots, plausibly imitating a Bourdon tube. Another variant places the emblem within stylized aviation wings, with a small diamond bearing “133” below.
Immediately after the war the bureau’s agenda included what is directly tied to human life: the development of parachute activation devices. In the mid-1940s the team brought, to the technical standards of Plant No. 118, MAP, a barometric altitude corrector from the German autopilot “F-1” — clear evidence of work with trophy technology and an example of its rapid adaptation to Soviet flight-safety standards.
From August 1957 the bureau was transferred to the 4th Main Directorate of the GKAT, and Order No. 20ss of 21 January 1958 confirmed its subordination to the GKAT’s 4th Directorate. In 1966 GS OKB-133 received a new name and public identity — Moscow Instrument-Making DB “Voskhod.” In 1972 it worked under the 9th Main Directorate, and by 1987 under the 5th Main Directorate of MAP. Correspondence from 1984 carries the cipher “P.O. Box A-1874,” indicative of the sector’s characteristic secrecy.
From 1955 the bureau had a Kharkov branch (operating at least until 1987) at Plant No. 157: there the work focused on altimeters and sensors — everything that forms an aircraft’s “sense of altitude.” The Council of Ministers Decree No. 656-267 of 18 June 1960 records the team’s participation in the development of telemetry sensors for the D-6 missile complex — a step beyond aviation into rocketry.
After 1992 the bureau was renamed MPKP “Voskhod.” On 22 June 1994 it was transformed into an open joint-stock company, and soon received its modern name OJSC “Aeropribor-Voskhod.” In 1997–2003 the enterprise entered the scientific-production center “Tekhnokompleks,” and later the “Avionika” concern. Government Directive No. 22-r of 9 January 2004 included it in the list of strategic enterprises; Government Resolution No. 96 of 20 February 2004 and Minpromtorg Order No. 1828 of 3 July 2015 placed it on the register of defense-industry organizations; by 2015 Aeropribor-Voskhod operated under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The work program speaks for itself. In the 1990s it created compact and distributed Air-Data Systems (SVS), a ground-proximity warning system, air-data receivers for general aviation, electronic altimeters and airspeed indicators, precision pressure sensors, and pressure test equipment. By 2002 the enterprise not only designed but also manufactured aerometric instruments for aircraft: pitot-static probes (PVD), air-data measurement systems, critical-regime warning systems, head-up displays (HUD) and helmet-mounted indicators; in parallel it produced industrial pressure gauges, meteorological barometers, and medical equipment.
Behind the figures are people. In 1972 the bureau employed 1,519 people; by 2002—about four hundred. Chief Designers: N. K. Matveev (July 1944–1959), R. G. Chachikyan (1959–1986), V. G. Kravtsov (1987–2005). In 2002 First Deputy Chief Designer was V. P. Belotelov, with A. K. Pankratov as deputy. At various times the team was led by N. K. Matveev; V. G. Kravtsov served as General Director in 1996–2005, with V. P. Belotelov as First Deputy in 2002; the classified section was headed by A. A. Menshov in 1987.
The post-war product catalog includes: the MR-80 pressure gauge, EDMU-1 and EDMU-15 manovacuum gauges, aneroid units for the ASH-73 engine carburetor, an entire family of pitot-static air-pressure receivers — PVD-18, -30, -33, -34, -35, -36, -38, -40; the US-1000 airspeed indicator (1946); various pressure sensors; VBM and VBE-2 altimeters for the Tu-154; BOP-1M barometers; variometers. In rescue and flight-safety lines — PAS, KAP, PPK-U parachute activation devices. In SVS (Air-Data System) lines — VBE-SVS for Tu-134, SVS-85 for Tu-204, 2Ts-U(2), PKR-1, SVS-96. For ground-proximity warning — SPPZ-85 for the Tu-204. In navigation — DV-30 and DVS-10 (1971), and also the astro-navigation system MKR “Burya” (1954). Space is marked by the barometric block of the landing system for the Soyuz spacecraft (1963) and baro-command landing systems for spacecraft. Combat aviation includes ejection-automation devices for fighters, thrust-control sensors for liquid-propellant rocket engines, tele- and radiometric instruments; the ground sighting line — SCGV for the “Shturm” sight, IK-VSP for the Su-27 (1978), and the PPI-70V color sighting/pilotage HUD on the MiG-31 windscreen.
Second Moscow Instrument-Making Plant
OJSC “Second Moscow Instrument-Making Plant” (2nd MPI)—the base on which OKB-3 was organized—appeared by State Defense Committee decree in the harshest years of the Great Patriotic War, when the front needed high-precision flight-navigation instruments and sensors. Early Moscow addresses are likewise memorable: until 1947 — 17 Bolshoy Bozheninsky Lane, Vorobyovy Gory station; later — 17 Rossolimo Street, “Krylo” (postal code 119019, G-19).
The plant’s roots lie in the Central Frontline Instrument-Repair Workshops, organized in January 1942 on the site of the evacuated Plant No. 214, NKAP. GKO Decree No. 1543ss of 5 April 1942 and Order No. 269ss of 10 April formalized the next step: on the basis of the workshops to form Plant No. 133, NKAP for the repair and production of aeronautical and gyroscopic instruments. The plant itself was initially formed in Engels, carved out of the evacuated Plant No. 213, and in 1943 it was transferred to Moscow. After the war, it was here that serial production of parachute activation devices began — a theme that would become the enterprise’s calling card.
From March 1946 Plant No. 133 was subordinated to the 5th Main Directorate of MAP, then by Resolution No. 713-342 of 26 June 1957 transferred to the Moscow City Council of National Economy (Mosgorsovnarkhoz) of the RSFSR, appearing in documents as “P.O. Box 429.” MosgorSNKh Order No. 00260 of 23 July 1963 confirmed the current name — Second Moscow Instrument-Making Plant; in 1972 the plant was placed under the 9th Main Directorate, in 1987 — under the 5th Main Directorate of MAP; a 1984 cipher “P.O. Box G-4388” appears. The plant took part in creating the Buran orbital spacecraft, and in 1987 had Yampolsky and Ochakovsky (new-build) branches.
By the end of the twentieth century the plant’s catalog included: safety devices for parachutists and pilots, navigation instruments and complexes, pressure sensors, elastic sensing elements, as well as medical equipment. The reforms of the 1990s followed the industry-wide scenario: by Presidential Decree No. 721 of 1 July 1992 the state enterprise “2nd MPI” was transformed on 5 November 1992 into a joint-stock company; Government Directive No. 22-r of 9 January 2004 included the plant in the list of strategic enterprises. Presidential Decree No. 1052 of 10 July 2008 brought the OJSC into the contour of the state corporation Rostekhnologii (now Rostec), while Government Resolution No. 96 of 20 February 2004 and Minpromtorg Order No. 1828 of 3 July 2015 confirmed inclusion in the register of defense-industry organizations; by 2015 the plant operated under Minpromtorg.
In the 21st century the 2nd MPI produces over two hundred types of products for aviation and missile technology; in practice it is hard to name a type of aircraft where its products are not found. Its core mission is parachute automation devices and ejection-seat systems. Even before the war, the Doronin brothers developed a forced-opening parachute device with preset delay; after the war the plant set up mass production of improved AD devices, giving airborne troops a tool for mass drops with high landing accuracy and real life protection. In the late 1940s plant designer L. V. Savichev created PAS, an altitude-locking device that sharply expanded the task set. With the advance of jet aviation came the demand for special ejection means; crucial elements of that system — parachute automation of various modifications and the KPA-4 ejection automation unit — were also made here. Over decades, the faultless reliability of these devices became decisive in saving thousands of pilots’ and paratroopers’ lives.
The numbers show the scale: in May 1946 the plant had 369 metal-cutting machines; the headcount was 815 workers, by 1972 — 3,110, and on 1 April 2004 — 559. The enterprise was headed, at various times, by Kachkachyan (from July 1942), M. I. Komissarov (1943–1947), A. I. Tsutskov (director in 1987; general director in 2000 and 2003–2004), and V. A. Grudov (general director in 2003). Chief Engineer in May 1946 was Kagansky. In 1987 the classified section was headed by L. S. Sergeeva, and in 2002 marketing was led by P. O. Orlyansky.
The product line was large and distinctive. The enterprise produced aeronautical instruments, including course automatons, the ARS-1 aneroid (since 1945), AD and PAS parachute devices, KPA-4, KAP, P-141, fuel-delivery and manifold-pressure instruments — kerosene manometers and manovacuum gauges, as well as variometers and altimeters. In 2004 the list included MDDA and MDD-TE pressure sensors, EDPD differential-pressure sensors, altitude sensors, control-surface actuators, altitude-correction sensors, the DNPT dynamic-pressure sensor and airspeed sensor; IKD-27DA, IKD-6T and IKDR pressure-measurement complexes; RDIA pressure relays, SPD differential-pressure indicators; a wide range of elastic sensing elements — AChE-12, -18, -19, -29, -177, -178, -202, -261; MChE-65, -262, -648, -649; VM-3; AR-8; VS-4; VP; M-2500; safety devices for parachutists and pilots — PPK-U and PPK-1M, KPA-4M, ACh-1 and ACh-2, AD-3U, VP and VP-3; the ZBV baro-time shutter for the K-36DM and K-93 ejection seats (2004); SVS-72-3 (1983); as well as meteorological, geodetic, and geophysical instruments.
