Author: Wind Qianli
In the early morning of June 14, 2000, in the middle of a hot summer day, the sea breeze on the shores of the Black Sea was slightly cool. At this time, in the morning fog on the sea, a huge body loomed - this is a rusty aircraft carrier, staggering forward under the tugboat, and on the bow side is fixed a name tag with the word "Varyag" in Russian, declaring its original identity to the people who are looking up at the shore.
At this time, in a log cabin near the place where the aircraft carrier passed, an old man who was already seriously ill struggled to hold on to the fence, looking at the huge ship that had gradually drifted away, and could not help but burst into tears. People at the scene know that the aircraft carrier that is about to go away is called "Varyag", and many years later it will start her new journey under the name of "Liaoning" on the surface of a foreign country, and few people know. The old man who stopped to watch was none other than Markarot, the former founder of varyag, the old director of the Black Sea Shipyard, who had only two years left in his life.
In 2000, he was dragged out of the Black Sea Shipyard by a tugboat and sailed to the Varyag in China
Yuri Ivanovich Makarov, a native of Ukraine, graduated from the Nikolaev Naval Academy in 1958 and has been inextricably linked to the shipyard ever since. After graduation, he successfully entered the then famous Black Sea Shipyard, and after more than ten years of grass-roots design and management work, he was appointed chief engineer of the shipyard in September 1976, and just after taking over, he took over a rather tricky project. At that time, the Soviet aircraft carrier design work was already in the fast lane, and the construction task fell on the shoulders of the Black Sea construction plant. On the basis of four Kiev-class aircraft carriers, the Nevsky Engineering Design Bureau, which is responsible for the overall design of the aircraft carrier, has successively launched the 1153 and 1160 nuclear-powered aircraft carrier programs (later suspended due to technical and financial problems), with the significant expansion of the scale of the new aircraft carrier, the original construction method of the shipyard has been insufficient, and it is necessary to use the large-scale general section construction method to assemble the large aircraft carrier. To this end, the Black Sea Shipyard specially purchased two overhead cranes with a lifting capacity of 900 tons from Finland, the arrival of new equipment requires the installation of corresponding supporting facilities, the shipyard is facing the problem of the overall reconstruction of the ship platform and the transformation of the hull construction method, the newly appointed Makarov took over this complex project, after nearly a year of transformation and running-in, finally the two 105 meters high, weighing 3500 tons of heavy lifting equipment installed as scheduled, the newly transformed ship platform was named "0" platform. Since then, the Black Sea Shipyard has the ability to assemble large aircraft carriers.
Makarov participated in the Popular Science Activities of the Soviet Youth Navy
In 1979, Makarov, who had just taken over as director of the Black Sea Shipyard, was emboldened
The installation of heavy cranes was just the beginning of Makarov's career, and during his three years as chief engineer, Makarov was constantly thinking about how to use new processes and new methods to improve ship construction efficiency in order to adapt to the accelerating new aircraft carrier project. During this period, one of his major innovations was to "streamline" the construction of aircraft carriers based on the construction method of large general sections. Next to the completed transformation of the hull, he built a separate platform with an area of more than 18,000 square meters and a carrying capacity equivalent to the platform, and when the first aircraft carrier was built on the platform, the general section assembly of the second aircraft carrier would be carried out in parallel on this platform, and when the current aircraft carrier was assembled and launched, several general sections for assembling the next aircraft carrier had been assembled on the platform and sent to the newly vacated ship platform for hoisting.
This method greatly improved the mass production efficiency of aircraft carriers, and in 1978 this new method was first applied to the construction of the last two ships of the Kiev-class aircraft carriers (namely the Novorossiysk and Baku, the latter being india's active aircraft carrier "Chao ri Wang"). In 1978, the novorossiysk was finalized and launched, and the Baku was also assembled and hoisted by crane on the platform vacated by novorossiysk, and by 1982, after the completion of the sea trials of the Novorossiysk, the Baku was also completed, and it took an average of two and a half years from the start of construction to the launch of the ship.
Like the first two ships of the Kiev class, "Kiev" and "Minsk", but it should be known that these two ships were operated in the Black Sea and Minsk Shipyards respectively, and it can be said that under the auspices of Makarov, the construction capacity of the Black Sea Shipyard was doubled than before. This achievement not only greatly promoted the Soviet aircraft carrier program, but also made Makarov himself deeply appreciated by the Soviet high-level. Makarov himself recalled the renovation project in his later years and still proudly said: "Everything we did on the Platform 0 is a century-old plan!" But at that time, he did not think in any way that at this time, the largest and last renovation project for the aircraft carrier of the Black Sea Shipyard was built.
Black Sea Shipyard purchased 900 tons of large lifting equipment from Finland
After makarov's overall reconstruction of the 0 platform, a large platform for parallel assembly can be seen near the platform
Because of his outstanding contribution to the modification of the ship's platform and the improvement of the production process, Makarov was officially appointed director of the Black Sea Shipyard in 1979, at a time when the last Baku of the Kiev class had already begun, and the assembly line production model he developed was in play. In order to further improve a series of supporting facilities for the aircraft carrier assembly project, the newly appointed Makarov immediately began a new construction project, first of all, he completed and started a new hull assembly welding workshop in a short period of time, which can undertake the hull segment assembly work weighing 180 tons, so that about 40% of the work that originally needed to be completed on the ship platform was transferred to the workshop, and he also organized the construction of a component and module assembly workshop, in addition to component installation, but also to undertake the assembly and debugging of weapon systems. Further reduce the construction pressure on the ship's platform.
After that, Makarov laid a wide transport trunk line in the factory area to connect the ship platform and the assembly welding project, ensuring the smooth flow of logistics during the final assembly work. Two large trailers of 350 tons were also called to transport large tonnage of three-dimensional segments and total segments, this type of large trailer of Soviet origin weighed more than 700 tons and was equipped with 96 load wheels, because the body was shorter and there were more load wheels, so it was vividly called "centipede" by workers when arriving at the factory. Two large "centipedes" often attract the attention of factory employees when working, other transport vehicles make way for them, and the hum of the trailer has become a new melody of the factory, which has become a common memory of many old employees.
On the Platform 0, large lifting equipment is hoisting the superstructure of the aircraft carrier "Baku"
In the crane operation room, workers are concentrating on operating the crane
In other aspects of the shipyard, Makarov also did meticulous planning work. In less than two years after he took office, the plant and the ship platform have used a new power supply system, saving a lot of labor costs and improving the mechanization of the ship platform work. The shipyard's supporting machinery workshop has also introduced a new type of lathe, which can finish the parts, and then from the aircraft carrier's shaft system and tail shaft device, the aircraft carrier elevator processing cylinder and other important parts of the processing work, the Black Sea Shipyard can completely complete itself, without the need to entrust it to other machinery factories in the field. Makarov, who is extremely sensitive to new technology, has also built a CNC machine tool workshop for the factory, and built a heat treatment section that can thermally process major 30 tons of forged castings. These initiatives have given the Black Sea Shipyard the ability to process its own parts, while also giving it the strength to improve parts processing services to other shipyards in the Ukrainian region. During Makarov's tenure, he also introduced advanced computer methods to establish a mathematical model of the aircraft carrier hull, and at the beginning of the construction of the "Kuznetsov", the traditional heavy staking work was gradually replaced by computer modeling, and the shipyard directly controlled the cutting of metal according to electronic procedures.
Lifting equipment is hoisting the bridge of the Riga( i.e. Varyag).
Of course, Makarov's series of innovations are not only his own work, in fact, throughout the 80s, the Soviet Union's grasp of new technologies and production systems in the field of shipbuilding has been at the forefront of the times, and the Black Sea Shipyard is the culmination of this trend in this period. At that time, the Nevsky Design Bureau, which was in charge of aircraft carrier design work, formed a unified interconnection network with the Black Sea Shipyard through computer data links, realized a computer networking system spanning two engineering units - this was definitely a revolutionary progress beyond the times in the world at that time, through computer data interconnection, design and construction of the two fields were coordinated and linked, and the database of various processes related to aircraft carrier construction was dynamically managed (this database covers a large number of design drawings and millions of related stations). This allows the shipyard's front-line engineers to complete the parts assembly, cable laying and calibration of the aircraft carrier on the ship's platform, without having to travel thousands of miles to invite the staff of the design bureau to come to the site to inspect. In the 1980s, major naval powers, including the United States, were still using the traditional model from drawings to site when building ships, and the Data Interconnection-based construction model of the Black Sea Shipyard was eye-catching enough even today.
Makarov, who is personally installing the ship's nameplate for the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk
The Black Sea Shipyard under Makarov's leadership quickly entered a golden age in the 1980s, and after the construction of the Kuznetsov and Varyag, the shipyard also undertook the more challenging task of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier construction, known as the "Ulyanovsk", because this type of aircraft carrier will be equipped with nuclear power units, steam catapults and blocking devices, Makarov continued to expand the shipyard's construction capacity, to provide production preparation for the assembly and commissioning of these new core equipment, while in the area near platform 0. Construction of a new outfitting terminal with super energy security began. Makarov, who is in his 50s, is still fully engaged in the construction of aircraft carriers, and at this time the Soviet Union has entered the eve of the disintegration, and the fate of the Black Sea Shipyard and Makarov himself is about to usher in a drastic change.
In the 1990s, India expressed its intention to buy the Varyag and sent official personnel to inspect the Black Sea shipyard, but it was ultimately not resolved
In 1990, the Kuznetsov (right) monk in his outfitting the Varyag (left), the last group photo of the sister ships, began sea trials
By 1988, the Kuznetsov (now named Tbilisi) built by the Black Sea Shipyard had been launched and outfitted, and the second ship on the 0th platform, the Riga, was still in full swing, perhaps smelling something different, or perhaps anticipating the ominous future of the Soviet Union, Makarov asked to speed up the construction and sea trials of the two ships. At the end of 1989, the first ship, already renamed Kuznetsov, was fully outfitted and conducted its first carrier test, while riga was launched in late 1988 and renamed Varyag in 1990. Makarov's move was obvious, that is, to keep as many aircraft carrier fires as possible for its successors when the Soviet Union encountered an accident or even the building was about to collapse.
In December 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Black Sea Shipyard, which had relied on the Soviet military system to survive, suddenly fell into a difficult situation, the factory was shut down, the workers had nothing to do, and everyone was confused about the future. Fortunately, the completed Kuznetsov was forced out of the Black Sea on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union and joined the newly formed Russian Federation Navy as its only aircraft carrier. The Varyag was not so lucky, although it had been launched at the time of dissolution, but only 67% of it was completed, and after independence, Ukraine directly let the shipyard handle the ship itself because of the shortage of funds, the Varyag docked alone in the factory area, weathered by the wind and sun, during which the Indian Navy expressed its intention to buy, but finally gave up for various reasons, and finally was purchased by China in 1998.
The Ulyanovsk, built at the Black Sea Shipyard, was demolished after the collapse of the Soviet Union
In Makarov's former home, the old employees of the former Black Sea Shipyard come to commemorate him every year on the day of the festival
When it was purchased by Chinese businessmen, the purpose of external propaganda was to use it as a casino or amusement facility, just like the Minsk and Kiev that were sold, and seeing that the aircraft carrier that had condensed his years of hard work was sold, the retired Makarov was heartbroken. But looking at the shipyard's employees who were still waiting to be fed, they had no choice but to agree to the sale.
Hull + complete drawings sold for $20 million. In 2000, when varyag left the shipyard, almost all of the plant staff came to see the ship, including makarov, who was seriously ill. In 2002, the difficult and dangerous Varyag finally arrived in Dalian, and the old factory director Makarov died in the same year. At the time of his death, he was still unwilling to let Varyag be sold cheaply, and perhaps he would not have thought that Varyag had not been transformed into an entertainment facility, but joined the People's Navy in the name of the Liaoning, and the Shandong warship built by absorbing varyag's technical characteristics had also been put into service, and the dream of the old factory director Makarov's aircraft carrier was continuing in the far east.
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