Lipgart, Andrey Aleksandrovich (June 4, 1898, Moscow — 1980) was a Soviet design engineer and chief designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant from 1933 to 1952. He was one of the key figures in Russian automotive engineering, under whose leadership many of the most significant Soviet automobiles and specialized vehicles were created. Lipgart was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR, was a corresponding member of the Academy of Artillery Sciences, and held a doctorate in technical sciences.[4][2]

Biography and Education

Andrey Lipgart was born into the family of an accountant. He received a solid home education and, upon completing his studies at a private technical secondary school in 1915, enrolled at the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU). During his student years he was drafted into the Red Army's telegraph and telephone battalion, where he had his first close encounter with the automobile. After graduating from MVTU he was sent to the Scientific Automotive and Motor Institute (NAMI), where he developed as a design engineer. Before joining [3][2] GAZ, Lipgart participated in the design of the first domestically produced compact car, the NAMI-1.

In 1930, Lipgart joined a Soviet delegation that traveled to Ford's factories and subsequently completed an eight-month internship at Ford Motor Co. This experience shaped his approach to engineering: American pragmatism, an emphasis on manufacturability and practicality became the hallmarks of every vehicle produced under his direction.[2]

Work at GAZ

In 1933, Lipgart was invited to the position of chief designer of the Gorky Automobile Plant — without any intermediate career steps — and held that post for more than 18 years, until 1952.[1][2] His first major task was the development and launch of the M-1 passenger car. The GAZ-M1 ("emka") was the first genuinely original design produced by the domestic automotive industry: unlike its predecessors — direct copies of the American Ford-A and Ford-AA models — it was based on documentation for the Ford-40 model supplied by Ford, yet in practice constituted an independent automobile. In December 1933, in the plant's in-house newspaper Tekhnika GAZ, Lipgart articulated his principle: "We must take everything best and suitable for us from the Ford models… and, taking into account our own production and operating conditions, add to these models what they lack."

In 1938, the GAZ-M1 underwent its most significant modernization: at that time, experimental prototypes of the "emka" appeared with the six-cylinder inline GAZ-11 engine.[4][4] Lipgart considered the Pobeda his greatest creation: he took the car on its first test drive on November 6, 1944, and less than a year later personally presented it to Stalin. Among the technical innovations introduced under his leadership for the first time were the pontoon-style body for the Pobeda, a fluid coupling, flanged half-axles on the ZIM, acid-resistant dry cylinder liners on the Pobeda and GAZ-51 engines, a transfer case integrated with the demultiplier on the GAZ-63, and a windshield washer on the M-72 operated by a foot pedal.

During his years at GAZ, 67 experimental vehicle models were developed and built under Lipgart's direction, of which 27 went into series production, including the GAZ-AA, GAZ-AAA, and GAZ-51 trucks, the GAZ-63, and the M-1 and M-20 passenger cars.[4][3] The range of vehicles developed under his leadership spans several categories: passenger cars — the M-1, GAZ-M20 Pobeda, and the ZIM; trucks — the GAZ-51 and GAZ-63; off-road vehicles — the GAZ-69; the BA-64 armored car and BTR-40 armored personnel carrier; as well as the KAZ-150, ZAZ-966, PAZ-652, VAZ-2121, and others.[2]

Lipgart expressed his own working principle concisely: "common sense, logic, precise calculation, rationality." Throughout his entire career at GAZ, Lipgart was not a Party member — an exceptional circumstance for the head of the design team at such a large enterprise; his authority among plant management and ministry officials was so great that this fact never stood in the way of his work.[3] He had no private office and placed his desk right in the middle of the large drafting hall of the design bureau, explaining this as follows: "There must be no wall between me and my colleagues." Over his years at GAZ, Lipgart was awarded five Stalin Prizes.[3][2] M. S. Mokeyev, head of the passenger car testing laboratory at the GAZ KEO-UKER, recalled: "Lipgart always knew everything better than anyone else and almost before everyone else: he was the most knowledgeable person both in the plant management and in the ministry. He boldly took full responsibility upon himself. He was strict with his subordinates, but he also defended them. He looked further ahead than anyone, and made fewer mistakes than anyone."[2]

Design School

Lipgart founded his own design school at GAZ and trained a cohort of specialists, many of whom later became chief or lead designers in the industry in their own right: G. M. Vasserman, V. A. Grachev, A. N. Kirillov, B. D. Kirsanov, A. M. Kriger, N. G. Mozokhin, A. D. Prosvirin, N. A. Yushmanov, V. S. Solovyev, and others.[2] N. A. Astrov — an armored vehicle designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, and Hero of Socialist Labor who passed through GAZ — assessed the significance of this school as follows: "At GAZ I saw real, serious, and substantial design, testing, and development work; I learned how to organize it and, most importantly, how to understand the designer's craft in the fullest and most comprehensive sense of those words.

Such a school could not have been found or completed anywhere else but under A. A. Lipgart." In 1951, Lipgart was removed from his post as chief designer and sent as an ordinary designer to the Ural Automobile Plant; after Stalin's death, in 1953, he moved to Moscow and headed NAMI as chief designer, though he himself acknowledged that the years he spent at GAZ had been the most productive of his life.[3][2]

Sources

  1. lib-avt.ru — Lipgart was awarded the title of Honored Worker of Science and Technology of the RSFSR, was a corresponding member of the Academy of Artillery Sciences, and held a doctorate in technical sciences.
  1. lib-avt.ru — Before joining GAZ, Lipgart took part in the design of the first domestically produced compact car, the NAMI-1. (archive)
  1. lib-avt.ru — The history of GAZ in faces — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
  2. lib-avt.ru — Lipgart Andrey Alexandrovich (1898–1980) — Centralized Library System of the Avtozavodsky District of Nizhny Novgorod (archive)