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Mikhail Pogosyan

Rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute

On beauty of aviation, career choice, career ladder and transformation of Moscow Aviation Institute

1
Childhood and choosing a career
My parents had nothing to do with the aviation industry. As a child, I lived in a dacha next to Sheremetyevo airfield. This was fascinating for me; it was close to where planes would touch down. You would see them about a hundred metres from the ground. When this enormous steel object came in to land it was a real spectacle and it made me wonder how something like that was even possible.

I’ve always liked engineering. I always wanted to see the fruits of my labour in concrete form. I liked analyzing physical phenomena and processes, and astronomy. When I was choosing a career aircraft construction was the country’s leading technology. In many ways it shaped the development of other industries such as radio electronics, materials science, and engine building. The multiplier effect from investing in aircraft construction was 8-10.

The industry remains one of the most high-tech today. However, as the rankings of the world’s major companies show, information technology is very much coming to the fore. Nevertheless, if we’re talking about technological progress, aircraft construction maintains its position as one of the engines of industrial development. Working in this field is not just about designing any particular kind of component: it’s about the ability to see the future, to predict it and to be a change leader. That’s a lofty ambition; it’s more than just wanting to take part in something big.
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On his place in history
For me both the work that I did for many years, creating the cutting-edge aircraft that were highly competitive internationally and the work I do now, which involves training staff and future change leaders are important. I couldn’t choose which of them means more to me. Now, when I’m involved in training, we’re actively participating in various pieces of scientific and research work that are led by firms in the industry. Previously, when I was involved in developing aircraft systems, we actively collaborated on training aviation staff with the Moscow Aviation Institute and other higher education institutions. These things are linked. With one, the results are real products and with the other, it’s the environment that’s created.

I spent most of my career at Sukhoi and I think the firm’s main achievement was a team capable of creating state-of-the art aviation systems, both military, and with the development of the Sukhoi Superjet, civil. In my own experience, it’s not any project taken in isolation that’s important but an environment that allows a firm to be a leader in the aerospace market.
I didn’t want to be the head of a fighter plane team in a project office at the age of 28. I was working hard and had a family — we had a young daughter. I thought I needed to gain more experience.
What moves an aircraft designer
Firstly, aviation is a beautiful industry. As Tupolev said, only beautiful planes fly well. In a certain sense, a modern aircraft system is a work of art. Secondly, it’s the product of engineers’ thinking. It’s an industry where many different types of knowledge come together. Aircraft construction being one of the few sectors where our high-tech industry is genuinely competitive in the global market is another matter. That’s an ambition, anyway.

For a manager in the aviation industry one of the key moments is a plane’s maiden flight. I was involved in many of these. At moments like that you enjoy the feeling of a job well done. It can be summed up as “we did that!” But the next day or even the same day, you need to think about the next stages of testing. There’s no feeling of euphoria that lasts long. As soon as the event has taken place it’s already history and you have to move forward.

I don’t dream — I sleep very soundly. I have a strong nervous system and I’m not tormented by nightmares about accidents. I wake up and think about the tasks before us and what we can do to make them a success.
A key success factor
My attitude is that success in any field only comes to people who are genuinely passionate about what they do. I live what I do and I believe that’s a key factor to success. There are probably some exceptionally talented people who have achieved success easily but I don’t know any. That’s not just my experience but that of my colleagues too. I’ve worked closely with Boeing and their key successes were achieved by very enthusiastic and professional people.
Major challenges
I’ve had a lot of challenges in my professional life. For example, when I became head of Sukhoi, design office salaries hadn’t been paid for four months and the firm was working below capacity. The first challenge was therefore how far it would be possible to transform the management system and the approach to company development in order to achieve success in the market. We dealt with this challenge, and today Sukhoi planes are exported to external markets and form the basis of Russia’s air force.

At the same time, we absolutely understood that the market was moving towards diversification and if military aircraft construction shaped the industry’s development in the 1960s and 1970s, today the civil aviation sector is becoming increasingly influential and leading the introduction of new technology. The Sukhoi Superjet 100 project was a major challenge for the company. There are different opinions about it but nevertheless, the project was certified to international as well as Russian standards, and it’s a modern aircraft system.

Another challenge after finishing work at the United Aviation Corporation was choosing my next steps. My current position is rector of the Moscow Aviation Institute. And transforming its thinking on training people for the future also presents a certain challenge.

My approach involves trying not only to respond to the current situation, but also to form forward-looking tasks that should take us to a new level.
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Why foreign aviation technology is “better”
Progress in civil aerospace engineering in recent years has been very significant, and the advent of new products such as the Boeing 787 and the A350 are undoubtedly a revolution in civil aircraft construction. Russia has the opportunity to create complex aviation systems like these.

There are three centres of aerospace design globally — the United States, Europe and Russia. Given the scale of the market that exists in Russia we’ve rather fallen behind in the aerospace design sector. We haven’t fallen behind in the thinking around this type of product; we just haven’t brought sufficient numbers of aircraft on to the market. And the programmes that are being implemented today — the MC-21 and a wide-body aircraft CR929 — should start to close this gap.
Aircraft construction and politics
As deputy director and then director at Sukhoi I always believed that it was important for us to solve difficult problems and be a leader. A third global player needs to appear and a project we have with our Chinese colleagues and projects with Indian companies are what should change the alignment of forces in the world aerospace market.

Anatoly Dobrynin, a long-serving Soviet ambassador to the United States, was a graduate of the aircraft construction faculty at MAI. It was thought that engineering and politics had a lot in common: with both, you need to take many factors into account and be able to balance them. Politics is without question part of building complex modern programmes. The wide-body aircraft project CR929 where UAC is collaborating with the Chinese aircraft manufacturer COMAC does not just involve engineering decisions; it’s about building global international cooperation.
Choosing the Moscow Aviation Institute
Unlike many school leavers who try to decide where to apply at the last minute, I knew from the outset that of several institutions specializing in scientific and technical subjects, I would apply to MAI. I went to a school that specialized in chemistry and 80% of my classmates went to the Mendeleev University. But I knew from the outset that that wasn’t my field and that I’d go to the aircraft construction faculty at MAI and be involved in creating the most high-tech specimens of industrial technology in the world — complex aircraft systems.
Today, universities represent one of the fastest changing areas of human activity, because the specialists we’re training will be the first to respond to new challenges.
On managing MAI
Today, universities represent one of the fastest changing areas of human activity, because the specialists we’re training will be the first to respond to new challenges. This is major and interesting work. It’s genuinely interesting to me to help transform MAI’s approach to development and track trends that are happening in education worldwide. Alongside solving engineering problems and taking part in major projects of various kinds, this is a big part of my work.

Do I believe that MAI can become one of the world’s leading technical universities? I do. What we have been demonstrating for the last four years indicates that MAI has changed. The people who have joined us are far more focused and passionate about what they do. We’re taking part in major Russian and international projects. There’s been a substantial growth in interest from foreign students. More international higher education institutions are interested in cooperating with us. These include Chinese institutions such as Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which is the third-ranking university in China, and Zhejiang University; the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy’s leading engineering school; and ISAE Supaero, an engineering university in Toulouse. We have a lot to offer them.

Although MAI is much lower in the international rankings, I don’t feel at a disadvantage in my contacts with these institutions. Today we’re focused on new areas such as mathematical modelling, modern composite construction, and the use of drones in various sectors. We know that the primary tool for high-tech products is big data, so we know the direction we need to be heading in.

Today’s students are thinking about their future. This generation is much more active. The path of students thirty or forty years ago was clearly defined: you completed your higher education and then you were assigned a job. Today the education system is based on individual educational paths and you can’t thrust those on anyone; people have to make their own specific choices. And I know for a fact that today’s students are more responsible and active when it comes to taking decisions.
“With you, we’ve got a chance.”
I grew up in the Sukhoi system, and I didn’t enjoy any special advantages whatsoever. I demonstrated my ability to solve various problems. I rose through the ranks by dealing with increasingly difficult tasks. I was given new tasks and I dealt with them. I never thought about the career ladder. My achievements were recognized and I progressed without making a particular effort to do so — in fact several times I even tried to put the brakes on my progression. For example, I didn’t want to be the head of a fighter plane team in a project office at the age of 28. I was working hard and had a family — we had a young daughter. I thought I needed to gain more experience. But they said to me “listen, if we appoint someone senior, with more experience, we won’t get anything new — with you, we’ve got a chance.”
Aviation is a beautiful industry. In a certain sense, a modern aircraft system is a work of art.
On leaders
Leaders are people who have a vision and can bring people together around them, who are genuinely passionate about what they do. A job title doesn’t make you a leader. You can’t appoint someone and say, “listen, we’re going to make you manager of the company, so now you’ll be a leader.” Leaders aren’t appointed — people become leaders. That’s my view.

I’ve always worked with different teams and different people. If you set people clear goals, you will always find mutual understanding.
On family
There is something else that’s an important part of my life, and that’s my family. I have two children and seven grandchildren. They’re all interesting companions and each is unique in their own way. I’ve always devoted a lot of attention to my family, as far as working within an important sector like aircraft construction has allowed me to.
Inspiration Siberian-style
When I was in Irkutsk once, my colleagues and I went somewhere in the Sayan Mountains after we’d finished our work. When we sat down to breakfast, we were each poured about half a mug of vodka, wished a pleasant day and urged to drink up. I clinked glasses with everyone, took a sip, and put my glass down. They said, “Mikhail Aslanovich, how can you solve creative problems if you don’t drink?! Drink stimulates the imagination!” But you know, different things stimulate my imagination; half a glass of vodka in the daytime is hardly likely to help me solve creative problems!
Producer:  Marina Vasiltsova
Editors:  Anton Manyashin, Ivan Nikolaev
English style editor and translator:  Elizabeth Guyatt
Interviewers:  Anton Zhelnov, Tatiana Arno
Photographer:  Vladimir Vasilchikov
Stylist:  Karolina Traktina
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