Sergei Kovalev (engineer)

Sergei Nikitich Kovalev
Сергей Никитич Ковалёв
Kovalev at the Kremlin in 2009.
Born	(1919-08-15)15 August 1919 Petrograd, Russian Soviet Republic
Died	24 February 2011(2011-02-24) (aged 91) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Citizenship	Soviet Union Russia
Occupation	Engineer
Engineering career
Discipline	Naval architecture
Employer(s)	Rubin design bureau
Projects	Typhoon and Delta class SSBN
Significant advance	Head of Rubin Bureau

Sergei Nikitich Kovalev (Russian: Серге́й Ники́тич Ковалёв; 15 August 1919, Petrograd – 24 February 2011, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian engineer and architect who designed nuclear submarines for the Soviet Navy while leading the Rubin Design Bureau.

Career

He was the chief designer for the following submarines: Project 658 (NATO reporting name: Hotel class), 658M (Hotel II), 667A Navaga (Yankee class), 667B (Delta I), 667BD (Delta II), 667BDR (Delta III), 667BRDM (Delta IV), and most famously project 941 Akula (Typhoon class).

92 submarines were built to Kovalyov's designs. The only nuclear submarine designed by Rubin during the Cold War for which Kovalyov wasn't the chief designer was Project 685 Plavnik (NATO Mike class), the bureau's only SSN.

Later life

Kovalev remained semi-active in naval engineering throughout his life, designing ice-resistant platforms for hydrocarbon exploration on the Arctic shelf in later years.

An accomplished painter in his retirement, he was made an honorary member of the Saint Petersburg Union of Artists.

Awards and memberships

Kovalev was given numerous awards for his service to the Soviet Union, including:

• Hero of Socialist Labor, twice: 1963, 1974
• Order of Lenin, four times: 1963, 1970, 1974, 1984
• Lenin Prize, 1965
• State Prize of the Soviet Union, 1978
• Order of the October Revolution, 1979
• Medal for Distinguished Labor
• Order for Merit to the Fatherland, twice
• V. G. Shukhov Gold Medal for Science and Engineering
• Order of Naval Merit
• State Prize of the Russian Federation, 2007

Memberships

• Academy of Sciences of the Soviet, full member
• Russian Academy of Sciences, full member
• Saint Petersburg Union of Artists, honorary member