Mikhail Mil

Mikhail Mil
Mil on a 1990 Russian commemorative postage stamp
Born	22 November 1909 Irkutsk, Irkutsk Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	31 January 1970(1970-01-31) (aged 60) Moscow, Soviet Union
Nationality	Soviet Union (Russian)
Spouse(s)	P.G. Rudenko (m. 1932)
Children	daughters (4); son (1)
Engineering career
Discipline	Aeronautical Engineering
Employer(s)	Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant

Mikhail Leontyevich Mil (Russian: Михаи́л Лео́нтьевич Миль; 22 November 1909 – 31 January 1970) was a Soviet aerospace engineer. He founded the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, which is responsible for many well-known Soviet helicopter models.

Mil was born in Irkutsk. His father was an employee of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and his mother was a dentist. His grandfather was a cantonist who had been drafted from Libava (today Liepāja), Latvia, and who settled in Siberia after 25 years in the Imperial Russian Navy.

At age 12, Mil won first prize for a model glider competition. In 1926 he entered the Siberian Technological Institute in Tomsk; however, since there was no curriculum for aeronautical engineering, he transferred in 1928 to the Don Polytechnical Institute in Novocherkassk, where he was able to specialize in aviation. He married a fellow student, P.G. Rudenko, in 1932 and 4 daughters and a son followed.

After graduating from the Institute in 1931, Mil began his career at TsAGI, too late to work under its original founder, Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky. He specialized in the design of autogyros, and was an assistant to his future rival, Nikolay Kamov. With the start of World War II, Mil was drafted into the Red Army and fought on the Eastern Front in 1941 near Yelnya. In 1943 he was called back to continue research and development in improving the stability and control of combat aircraft. He completed his dissertations ("Candidate", 1943, Ph.D., 1945) and in 1947 headed the Helicopter Lab at TsAGI, which was later turned into the Moscow Helicopter Plant.