Antonov, Oleg [Антонов, Олег], b 7 February 1906 in Troitsa, Moscow gubernia, d 4 April 1984 in Kyiv. Prominent Soviet aircraft designer; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1967. Antonov designed over sixty aircraft, including the propeller-driven AN-2 and AN-14; the turboprops AN-8, AN-10, AN-22, AN-24, AN-26, AN-28, and AN-30; the turbojet AN-72; and the single-frame sport gliders A-11, A-13, and A-15. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1966. In 1968, however, Antonov was one of 139 Soviet citizens who signed an open letter to the Soviet leaders protesting the arrests of Ukrainian cultural activists (see Dissident movement) and governmental restriction of Ukrainian cultural development.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]