Why do our rockets fall, but the planes fail
Soviet and Russian "aerospace"
Actually, the Soviet aerospace industry was the pride of the country (although, unfortunately, most of its achievements were kept secret then). But hundreds of rockets launched into space, and new planes (of various classes) were created quite regularly. And all this was, and all this worked, and now (ex post) we can be proud of it.
Not to say that all this always worked like a clock, accidents happened, and failures did happen, but the plus clearly outweighed the minus. Both missiles and planes could be proud of. And they did a lot of them, and they flew very often. But further (already in "independent Russia"), non-childish problems began. Suddenly launched vehicles stopped entering calculated orbits.
Simply put, rockets began to fall. And this began to happen very long before Rogozin. And each time an investigation, trial ... allegedly measures were taken. And with the design of new rocket carriers and ballistic missiles, non-childish problems arose. It is enough to recall the epic with the "Mace". By the way, how did it end there? And is it over? That is, we suddenly came up against the fact that a new promising missile for submarine launch vehicles simply does not fly.
And there were scandals, and there were improvements, and there were proceedings. And launched spacecraft both fell and continue to fall. Instead of going into calculated orbits. The attempt to construct and produce new “Russian” aircraft also faced gigantic problems. The first post-Soviet transport aircraft Il-112 was not a masterpiece. Like the first post-Soviet civilian Superjet-100.
No, just in comparison with the Soviet era, with advertising and PR, now everything is in order with us. Promote and advertise. And create an impression. But everyone already understands that things in the Russian "aerospace" are not just worse, but, so to speak, much worse. None of the “overframes” of Roscosmos or the KLA led to anything positive.
To the "newly created" "IL-112" and "Superjet" there are a million questions precisely on the design side. The planes are, in theory, not the most complex and not the most secret (why I do not mention all kinds of Su-57 there). "Passage" aircraft. Just a short-haul liner and just an easy transporter, but "something went wrong."
Now, if this is taken separately, then yes, something can be explained and justified. But if you take everything together ... then the picture looms not very joyful. That is, one involuntarily has to ask a question: what about the aerospace industry in general? No, past achievements and developments are great, but what can Russia do today in this area?
Selfish question
There is still a certain misunderstanding of the reasons for the Soviet breakthrough, first in aviation, and then in the space sphere. There everything about the "enthusiasm of the masses" and the "planned economy" are being pushed. But not everything was so simple. In Soviet times, the most intelligent, sensible and competent people worked in this area, so to speak. And this was achieved quite simply - there were no special alternatives: you won’t leave for America, you won’t open a business, there were no Gazprom then.
Often, for a talented person (and technically competent), one sphere opened up - the defense industry. And there they paid more and gave a lot of money for “research”. And to develop new technology. If civilian factories / civilian products were often outdated, this could not be allowed in the defense industry.
Therefore, new equipment, and new technologies, and new developments. And the salary is higher. But all this was then. After 1991, the situation radically “turned around”. I understand, trite and beaten. And everyone knows about it, and everyone on this topic "trampled down."
However ... however, somehow quite obvious things remain behind the scenes. There was no “Soviet magic”, it was just that money was sacked into the “aerospace”. Well, there was a competent guide, and asked in full. Those who decided to work “according to the Soviet scheme” after the 91st year, firstly, did not understand the meaning and essence of this scheme, and secondly, absolutely did not understand the basic principles of capitalism. And in any case, they did not understand that it was impossible to combine the incompatible.
But both there and there (both under American capitalism and under the Soviet system), a significant part of the expenditures was spent on the training and payment of highly qualified personnel. And now we can’t get away from this, and fate cannot be deceived here. It is long, difficult and expensive to prepare a highly qualified specialist. And for five cents he will not work. This was true for both Roosevelt and Stalin. There is no “propaganda” and no “social justice” here. Clean economy.
To create a rocket / satellite / aircraft, you need a lot of highly qualified and very narrow specialists. And this restriction cannot be circumvented and cannot be deceived. When leaving the industry, these personnel lose their skills very quickly, and preparing new ones takes many years and costs a lot of money. That is, gaining a shift “because of the fence” is impossible and no one will succeed. Such frames themselves do not arise. They must be prepared, and then held. Than? Material goods! What do you want?
Thus, the salary of such citizens should be much higher than the "average for the hospital", and regardless of the availability of orders. Whether you like it or not. Under the USSR, there were no problems with this. Physics schools worked, there were strong technical universities (world-class and above!), And all this was fairly well funded. That is, at first they selected the best, then they were perfectly prepared, then they were sent to "forge the shield of the state." Well, civil aviation got it, although almost all of space was military.
With the introduction of the market, everything changed dramatically. But not the principles of tomorrow's technology. To do this, you still need the best of the best. And in the yard is the market and commerce ...
So you have to pay, someone very naive will say ... Someone who does not understand the features of the Russian economy and social structure.
In Russia it is not accepted to pay for qualifications
This is somehow the case. Not accepted, and that's it! We do not like this topic. Neither in the engineering sphere, nor in the teaching, nor in the design, nor in any. It is customary for us to pay for our position, as happened historically. Under the so-called market economy, “non-targeted expenses” began to be cut in the first place: salaries and social expenses. And the market leveling for ordinary employees has flourished with lush color: almost everyone is paid equally little.
As a result, the most intelligent and skilled ones began to scatter. That is, if a person only knows how to "sit on a chair beautifully" and agree with the bosses in everything, then such "salaries" could be kept, but competent specialists began to scatter in different directions, who was in business and who was abroad.
With the speed of sound scatter. Once again, I would like to emphasize that aerospace is not for everyone. Here we need selected personnel. If you recruit people "by announcement", then there will be no result. A good engineer for the aerospace industry must be prepared from a good student from the first year. About ten years, including the basics of practical work.
And the funny thing is: he does not have to "run away", otherwise the whole system will break. These are piece specialists, they won’t be able to cook them. You need to start with high school students, choosing the most intelligent. Strictly speaking, this was the case under the USSR. Which provided the results.
Yes, you can teach anyone to sell sugar or plumbing (if he has a sales talent). In a short time to teach. With the design and manufacture of aircraft, such tricks do not work. Not in three months, nor in three years it will be possible to prepare a specialist from scratch. And not every one can prepare an aircraft designer or a designer of space technology. Because "not only everything," few people ... You can’t prepare a specialist in assembling such devices in a month from the first one you meet.
And what needs to be done in a market economy to achieve all these goals? And to pay a lot of money, much more than the average "manager". No other way. A person who has chosen such a path should be clearly sure that in this area he will earn many times more than working “in sales” or in the market. Otherwise, it's just not worth it all to start.
And it’s up to the ordinary performer to pay a lot of money. As you know, Mr. Rogozin receives a salary more ... than the head of NASA. And this cannot but rejoice. The trouble is that the ordinary specialist of Roscosmos receives 10 times less than his American counterpart of similar qualifications. And, unlike the times of the USSR, they live in the same economic system. Want to get an apartment? Take a mortgage!
From personal experience: I talked with a Frenchwoman, whose brother went to work just in the aerospace industry (the guy had a talent for mathematics), and so, and his salary ... almost like a Martian. A joke, of course. That is, more so than that of an ordinary Frenchman, that it makes no sense to envy. Absolutely different money. And there is no sense in “twitching” to him. Outside of his qualifications, he nowhere it won’t work that much. “Leaving to trade plumbing” is simply silly for him. And even the "social package" is present with him. And there is a union (real!).
The man "on the social elevator" goes high up. Do not believe? And you are doing it right! It’s not accepted here! From the word “completely” and from the word “never”! You can design rockets, but you can sell toilet bowls, your “waste” will be “in the first approximation” approximately the same. If not less in the first case. Yes, and "under Stalin" this was not. That is why "under Stalin" there were new airplanes.
But, as already mentioned, it is customary for us to pay “for the position”. And in almost any field today there is a huge gap between, for example, an ordinary teacher / doctor and director. And this does not surprise anyone. In France, a high-level practitioner (not to mention America!) Can receive much more as a result than his boss - a “pure administrator”. Because the approach is different. Because it is he who makes money for the company. It’s not customary to talk like that here. The authorities - it is sacred, like a reflection of a high fire ...
Why is it so
As a matter of fact, all this is the heavy legacy of too late feudalism. Late in our country serfdom was abolished. And after that there were not so many economic freedoms. As a result, what happened is what happened. That is, to be a competent specialist we economically unprofitable, profitable to be the boss. That is, I'm not talking about “social” justice, I'm talking about high-tech in the post-feudal system of relations.
In medieval Europe, it was also much more profitable to be an "ordinary baron" than an ingenious merchant or a skilled craftsman. But because! The system was like that. Then this system (with blood!) Was broken. And a completely different system of relations was created (for them). Less hierarchical and more market. Europe was moving away from feudalism very hard and painfully. It cost her many wars, revolutions and sacrifices. But she left feudalism.
Overall. At least the developed and rich countries of the north-west of Europe. And those countries that did not carry out this “execution”, for example, Spain or southern Italy, were very seriously behind in the same economy and technology. Hopelessly behind. As far back as the 16th century, Spain and Turkey were the world's mega-powers, before which Europe trembled. In the 17th century, they literally came to naught. Because they could not “overcome" feudalism. Or didn’t want to.
The reason for the sudden (for Russia) rise of Japan at the end of the 19th century was just an extremely harsh rejection of feudalism. No, the “birthmarks” of feudalism they have remained above the roof, but in 1904-1905. they brought a number of surprises to the Russian Empire. If only because they resolutely abandoned "sweets, sheep ..." and various other delights of feudalism. "Samurai" was going on there extremely hard. But Nicholas II, even after the defeat from Japan, was not ready for such a decisive reversal (nobles, large landowners - the support of the throne).
The situation, when everything is measured not in money and efficiency, but in posts, statuses and titles (and the number of subordinates!) - this is largely just feudalism. As a matter of fact, thousands and thousands of world-class scientists and engineers have left the Russian Empire, the USSR, and the Russian Federation. They left for the West. To the “godly” and “immoral” West. The authorities are sitting upright and demonstrating "patriotism."
It was in the 2010s that the scientific and technological failure in Russia finally became clear. Airplanes do not work, and rockets fall. And the general designer of Ilyushin Design Bureau is broadcasting something about "weak designers." Which, for obvious reasons, are not very burning to work for a very modest salary by modern standards. And if the plane is designed by anyone and anyhow, then it flies “accordingly”. In our system of hierarchical distribution of resources, pennies reach the ordinary performer (albeit a highly qualified one).
In principle, when digging irrigation ditches, laying roads and building fortress walls, such a scheme works for itself. When designing modern technology, such a system refuses to work fundamentally. Once again: in the USSR (a successful example from the point of view of patriots) people were fed well and were not allowed abroad. In principle, in the late USSR in the “aerospace” there was also a swollen pyramid (far from being so terrible in inequality), but it was well supplied due to the capabilities of a superpower, and the ordinary performer was motivated. Today, enterprise directors in unison complain of a lack of workers. There is a certain cunning here: the number of people who want to do highly qualified work for the salary of a garbage collector is constantly and rapidly decreasing.
Nobody wants to work on CNC machines worth a million euros and get twenty thousand rubles. It is not interesting. And directors literally cry in a voice. And why the salary is scanty? And because the money distribution system is classic feudal. And the income of the machinist is formed “by the residual principle”. And those who want to participate in this attraction of unprecedented generosity are becoming less and less.
Well, under the USSR, the shop manager could not even get 5-8 times more than a good worker, he could not! And the director of a large plant could not bathe in luxury against the background of hungry turners and technologists. Therefore, the result was. Disappointing results in medicine and education are less noticeable. But planes and missiles ... you can’t hide it. In fact, it’s not just the new, the old, and the alien that are being exploited with difficulty.
Soviet-designed missiles are falling. That is, for a long time already known technology does not work. And the Boeings and Airbuses of the Russian GA are falling, which in Europe, the States and China (!) Have much less accident rate. The Russian GA has a breakdown rate at a level far from the European one. And such a system, they save on everything. And on staff salaries (not superiors!), And on training, and on maintenance, and on fuel. And the status of the FAC in Russia and Europe is very, very different. They do not save, however, on PR, especially after the next: "The human factor is to blame."
And here the transcendental "patriotism" and the search for enemies and pests are already beginning. Meanwhile, the systemic crisis of the Russian “aerospace” is a sure sign of a mismatch between the production relations necessary for high technology and the existing social system. The British and Russians built industry at the beginning of the 18th century in parallel (!). But the British widely introduced steam engines, and the Russians - in-place serfs. After a century and a half, the results showed themselves in all its glory just off the coast (and on the coast) of Crimea, so beloved by our patriots.
- Oleg Egorov
- mtdata.ru
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