22 April] 1909 in Baku – 12 July 1984 in Moscow) was a decorated Armenian-Soviet test pilot who received the title Hero of the Soviet Union in 1975.

He graduated from Leningrad Institute of Civil Air Fleet Engineers in 1932, and Bataysk Military Aviation School of Pilots in 1934.

He worked as an airline pilot before World War II, mastering various Soviet transport aircraft of that era.

During one such flight, he landed poorly as a result of acute icing and was taken as a POW by the Nazis, but he managed to escape and found himself among partisans.

The next year he transferred to the Mil Helicopter Design Bureau, where he worked as a senior test pilot.