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Franz Kuzminsky

1922 - 1991 · Chief designer of the Duga over-the-horizon radar (the 'Russian Woodpecker') at NIIDAR

Chief designer of the Duga 'Woodpecker' radar

Timeline - Kuzminsky in the record

4 referenced events from the UVB-76 - The Buzzer archive.

1922 Born

The only biography found for him gives 3 November 1922. Franz Aleksandrovich Kuzminsky is born in the village of Pokotylove. He will become one of the Soviet Union's leading radar designers.

1968 Chief designer at NIIDAR

Kuzminsky becomes chief designer of the over-the-horizon radar programme at NIIDAR, the institute for long-distance radio communications, and turns to the problem of seeing beyond the horizon, detecting a missile launch by the radar echo bounced off the ionosphere.

1971 Completes the Duga design

Under Kuzminsky's leadership NIIDAR completes the outline design of the Duga (5N32) over-the-horizon radar and builds the experimental station that detects Baikonur launches at 2,500 km. He becomes NIIDAR's director in 1975.

1991 Dies

Kuzminsky dies in 1991, the year the Soviet Union dissolves, two years after his greatest creation, the Woodpecker, fell silent over the shortwave bands. The rusting arrays outlive him.

From the research trail

Research notes for this file are collected in the blog archive. All blog posts

Sources for this dossier

The research file for this dossier holds 6 verified source entries, 6 of them distinct works. The sources page lists every one of them with what it covers, how it was reached, and the sharpest point at which this page and its sources come apart.

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