Large cities and very small settlements of Belarus hide many interesting and unusual sights. For example, the sculpture of the Frog-traveler decorates Grodno (remember, the one which the ducks helped in Garshin's fairy tale with a trip to the south). In the village of Krasnodvortsi, an egg with wings solves the dilemma of what happened before: a chicken or an egg. In our article, we will not talk about such an unusual monument as those about which you probably already read, but at the same time no less interesting. So, today VETLIVA will introduce you to the memorial in honour of Pavel Sukhoi, the famous aircraft designer from the city of Glubokoe.

Pavel Sukhoi and SU planes: pages of history

Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi was born in Glubokoe in 1895. In his small homeland, he did not spend much time: already in 1900, his father received a favourable job offer, and the family moved to Gomel. In 1905, he became a student in a gymnasium and successfully graduated from it in 1914. The future aircraft designer firmly decided to enter the Imperial Higher Technical School in Moscow — the only educational institution at that time where they taught aeronautics and everything related to it. When he first saw an airplane, he realized that that was his dream. This was the strongest childhood impression of Pavel Sukhoi: the realization that not a bird was flying over him, but a man!

An interesting fact from VETLIVA: if you intend to go to Gomel on an excursion or on a tour, be sure to visit the area of ​​Gomel State Technical University, which bears the name of Pavel Sukhoi. In 2019, a monument was built in his honour — a Su-24 bomber, designed by the aircraft designer.

Although Pavel Sukhoi lived in Russia most of his life, he was always remembered and expected in his homeland. The aircraft designer’s wife Sophia Tenchinskaya was the Belarusian, and subsequently, in the summer the family often came to Gomel, where it was warmly welcomed.

The merits of Pavel Osipovich Sukhoi can hardly be overestimated:

• the aircraft designer was one of the first to work on jet aircraft projects;

• under his leadership, two areas of new machines began to be developed at once: with an arrow-shaped wing, which received the code name C, and with a triangular one, which received the code name T;

• In total, under the leadership of Sukhoi, about 50 aircraft designs were developed, many of which made a real revolution in the aircraft industry.

It is clear that the memory of the aircraft designer, who passed away in 1975, was immortalized in his small homeland.

Description of the monument to Pavel Sukhoi in the city of Glubokoe

In total, three winged monuments are placed in the homeland of the famous Soviet aircraft designer. The first of them — the SU-17 airplane was installed at the entrance to Glubokoe from Dokshitsy and Postavy in June 1996. The appearance of the new attraction of Glubokoe coincided with the 101st anniversary of the birth of Pavel Sukhoi. It is from the entrance to the city that tourists usually make their first cool shots being on a trip.

Advice from VETLIVA: Do you want to take a photo of the monument personally? There is nothing easier: it remains only to choose one of the excursions or tours to Glubokoe.

SU-17 is a common model of the Soviet fighter-bomber, which was developed in the first half of the 1960s. Its main feature is that it was SU-17 which became the first aircraft in the USSR with a variable-sweep wing. For three decades, it has been successfully used in Russia, exported and participated in various military operations.

Now this formidable war machine is meeting guests of the cherry capital of Belarus. It stands on a pedestal, lifting its nose up as if the plane is about to fly away. The monument to the brilliant aircraft designer will become a real decoration of photos of your trip to Belarus.