On January 25, 1941 the Leningrad Aviation Institute (LAI) was founded on the former premises of the Leningrad Road Institute (Gastello Street, 15) by the Decree of the Soviet Government. 1200 students were enrolled in three faculties of Aircraft Construction, Instrumentation and Motor Building. During the Great Patriotic War the Institute operated an aircraft and tank repair shop. While some of the students and the faculty standing for the city, the LAI was evacuated.
For decades, SUAI graduates — leading designers, chief engineers, heads of large industrial enterprises — have been shaping the aircraft, the space and the instrumentation engineering.
- Georgy Poltavchenko
The Ex-Governor of St. Petersburg,
graduate of the SUAI Institute of Aerospace Instruments and Systems