Belarusians Contributing to the World Science and Technology Development (Mikhail Vysotsky)

Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, corresponding member, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Hero of Belarus, Honored Worker of Science and Technology Sector of the BSSR, Honored Industry Worker of the USSR, scientist and designer in the field of mechanical engineering.

Mikhail Vysotsky was born on February 10, 1928 in the village of Semezhevo, Kopyl district, Minsk region. He began his career in 1946 at the Minsk Automobile Plant as assembly fitter.

Later he worked as Chief Designer of the Minsk Automobile Plant, Head of the Department of Chief Designer of the production association “BelavtoMAZ”, Vice-President of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Director of the Scientific Center for Machine Mechanics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Director General of RUE “Belavtotraktorostroenie” of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Chief Designer for Automotive Engineering of the Republic of Belarus, Honorary Director of the Institute of Machine Mechanics and Reliability of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Director General of the United Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

Under the leadership and with the participation of M. Vysotsky the first Belarusian cars with the Minsk brand were created. The designs of trailers and semi-trailers developed with his personal participation in the mid-50s with a number of unique innovations (torsion bar suspension, sealed brakes and devices for them) were used as a chassis for the installation of mobile power plants and control systems for launching the first artificial Earth satellite. Under his guidance, 6 generations of automotive vehicles with a carrying capacity of 8 to 240 tons (more than 300 models) were created, including a modular design of the MAZ-2000 road train, patented in five countries and having no analogues in the global automotive industry.

M. Vysotsky was awarded the USSR State Prize for the design of a unified family of high-performance heavy trucks, road trains and dump trucks and the BSSR State Prize for the development and implementation of a flexible automated system for accelerated testing of manufactured vehicles.

Sourced from the database of the Republican Library on Science and Technology.