I am a process engineer by training. My introduction to serious industry began in my second year at university, when I was invited to work at the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center — a facility that builds launch vehicles. I started at the very bottom, as a fitter’s apprentice. But I have always been someone who learns and grows on the job. I eventually became a foreman, led teams, and then had the opportunity to prove myself in management.

The plant ran a large-scale assessment for employees from different branches — a test of managerial and analytical skills. Among thousands of specialists, I ranked among the top performers. I was invited to the head office, where I managed branch operations and overhauled production processes. That was when I understood how big industry works from the inside.

At one point, an important door opened for me: the position of chief technologist for the Angara launch vehicle — a modern family of Russian rockets. The work was compelling and large in scope, but it demanded total commitment and a life under strict secrecy. I was in my early twenties and wanted to see more of the world. Then fate took a turn when my friend Sergey said a line that changed a lot: “Why stress about it? Let’s go build our own rockets.”

That is how I left the space industry.

But another idea had long lived in me — flight. I had always wanted to fly. My family knew I had deliberately never obtained a driver’s license: I said my first license would be not for a car but for a helicopter or an airplane. I constantly thought through concepts — how to fly longer, more economically, more freely. And there was only one obvious answer in those reflections: an airship.

Once that idea took shape, events began to come together in remarkable ways. Sergey kept forwarding me projects and ideas that others sent him. And one day we were told: “There is an academician — you’ve never seen anyone like him, come.” That is how I found myself at a meeting with Alexander Nikolaevich Kirilin. I came, sat down across from him, and he asked: “Well then, young man, what do you know about airships?”

From that moment, everything gathered momentum. The idea took shape, the team found its people, and my personal dream became part of a larger journey.

*The translation is done with the help of artificial intelligence.

Let's build airships together