Contributions
After World War II, captured German turbine specialists were brought along with some of the gas turbines to the Soviet Union. In addition to the already established Jumo 004 and BMW 003 engines they brought along the design documents and plans of Jumo 022 project.
In 1949, Kuznetsov was appointed as chief designer of jet engines at OKB-276 ("Experimental design bureau-276") and started developing turboprop designs further with the help of the German specialists.
It proved to be a successful engine and was completed in 1955. The new turboprop engine, named Kuznetsov NK-12, displayed great performance and was developed up to 11,000 kW. It was used in the Antonov An-22 aircraft, A-90 Orlyonok Ekranoplane and the Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber among others. The later models produced around 15,000 kW.
In 1954, he began work on a two-flow jet engine with afterburner, called the Kuznetsov NK-6, which was never completed.
In 1957, He received the Order of Hero of Socialist Labor for his contributions.
From 1959 onwards, he was also involved in the development of engines for the projected Soviet N1 moon rocket. The primary engines for the development rockets were Kuznetsov NK-15 and Kuznetsov NK-15V (later developed into Kuznetsov NK-33 and Kuznetsov NK-43). Ultimately, these designs were successful but arrived too late. By the time the bugs in this very advanced design, which to this day has the highest thrust to weight ratio of any liquid fuel rocket engine ever produced were rectified, the N1 rocket program had been cancelled. The S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia now manufactures RD-180 engines, based on the NK-15, for Atlas V rockets, under contract to United Launch Alliance.
In the 1960s he developed aircraft engines specifically for the world's first supersonic transport aircraft to fly Tupolev Tu-144, the Kuznetsov NK-144 turbofan. This was however inefficient and replaced by a Kolesov turbojet.
Based on these design experiences, the engine Kuznetsov NK-321 (also known as NK-32-1) was developed later for the supersonic, variable-geometry heavy bomber Tupolev Tu-160, which is also in the more powerful version of the Tupolev Tu-144 (version Tu-144LL).
In the late 1980s OKB- 267 began the development of the fuel sipping Turbo Fan Engine Kuznetsov NK-93, which has a by-pass ratio of almost 17:1 and thus an engine of a unique design in the world.
Read more about this topic: Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kuznetsov