Matus Bisnovat

Matus Bisnovat

Matus Ruvimovich Bisnovat (Russian: Матус Рувимович Бисноват, October 23, 1905 – November 8, 1977), Soviet aircraft and missile designer.

Bisnovat attended the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), graduating in 1931. In 1938, he headed a research team in Central Aero-Hydrodynamics Institute TsAGI, Zhukovsky, where several high-speed experimental airplanes were developed, the SK-1, SK-2 and SK-3.

From 1942 - 1944 Bisnovat oversaw the development of the "302" rocket/ramjet fighter in NII-3, supervised by A. G. Kostikov. In 1946 he became head of Plant no. 293 and a team of engineers formerly in the OKB-293 of Viktor Fedorovich Bolkhovitinov. There Bisnovat managed some later work on the Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 rocket plane. In 1948, with engine designer A.M. Isaev he worked on the supersonic aircraft "Samolet 5". In 1952 he developed the infrared homing air-to-air missile SNARS-250.

Bisnovat fell prey to a 1953 anti-Semitic campaign (see Rootless cosmopolitan) against "cosmopolitanism" instigated by rivals of Lavrentiy Beria. As a result he was ousted as head of Plant 293.

In 1954 Bisnovat became head of design bureau KB Molniya, where he oversaw the development of air-to-air missiles R-40, K-60 and K-73.

Bisnovat was awarded a doctorate in science in 1965.

He died in 1977 from complications due to diabetes.