In March 1930, nine years before the creation of the bureau,Pavel Sukhoi, anaerospace engineer, took over team no. 4 of the CAHI's AGOS aviation, flying boat aviation and aircraft prototype engineering facility. Under Sukhoi's leadership, the team of the future design bureau started to take shape. The team, under theTupolevOKB, produced experimental fighters such as the I-3, I-14, and the DIP, a record-breaking RD aircraft, theTupolev ANT-25, flown by famous Sovietaviators,Valery Chkalov andMikhail Gromov, and thelong-range bombers such as theTupolev TB-1 and theTupolev TB-3.[6]
In 1936,Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, issued a requirement for amultirole combat aircraft. As a result, Sukhoi and his team developed the BB-1, areconnaissance aircraft andlight bomber in 1937. The BB-1 was approved, and under a July 29, 1939 government resolution, the SukhoiOKB, designated OKB-51 and called the Sukhoi Design Bureau, was developed to establish production for the aircraft. The BB-1 was introduced and later adopted by theSoviet Air Forces in the same year. A year later, the BB-1 was later designated theSukhoi Su-2. A total of 910 Su-2 aircraft were built. The resolution also made Sukhoi chief designer, gave Sukhoi's team of thedesign bureau standalone status and relocation of the bureau to the Production Aircraft Plant No. 135 inKharkiv,Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, Sukhoi was not satisfied with its location, since it was isolated from the scientific pole ofMoscow. Sukhoi later relocated the bureau to theaerodrome ofMoscow Oblast, completing half of the relocation by 1940. Sukhoi encountered another issue: the bureau had no production line in Moscow, thus making it useless as Sukhoi had nothing to do.[6]
During theNazi invasion of the Soviet Union inWorld War II, the Su-2 needed a successor, as it was proved obsolete and under-armed againstNazi aircraft, with 222 aircraft destroyed in total. Sukhoi and his bureau designed a two-seat armoredground-attack aircraft, theSukhoi Su-6, considered in some terms to be superior to its competitor, theIlyushin Il-2. The government, however, later chose the Il-2 over the Su-6, but rewarded Sukhoi aStalin Prize of the 1st Level for its development in 1943. Sukhoi and this team later focused on development of variants of the Su-2, the prototype cannon-armedSukhoi Su-1 (Su-3) fighter, as well as theSukhoi Su-8, which to serve as a long-range ground-attack aircraft for theSoviet Air Forces, but was later discarded as the Soviet Union was winning theEastern Front.[6]
After the war, Sukhoi and his team were among the first Soviet aircraft designers who led the work onjet aircraft, creating several experimentaljet fighters. Sukhoi started developing two mixed-power fighters, theSukhoi Su-5 and a modification of theSukhoi Su-6 named Su-7 before 1945. At the start of 1945, the design bureau started working on jet fighters such as theSukhoi Su-9,Sukhoi Su-11,Sukhoi Su-15, and theSukhoi Su-17, theSukhoi Su-10 jet-propulsedbomber, and thereconnaissance and artillery spottertwinjet, theSukhoi Su-12. Sukhoi and his team also used theTupolev Tu-2 bomber to develop and produce the trainer bomber UTB-2, worked on passenger and troop-carrying aircraft, thejet fighter Sukhoi Su-14, and several other aircraft.
From 1945 to 1950, Sukhoi and his team also developed the Soviet Union's first booster aircraft control system,drogue parachute, catapultejection seat with telescopic trolley, and a jettisonable nose with apressurized cockpit. From 1949, Sukhoi fell out of Stalin's favor and in a government resolution, the Sukhoi Design Bureau was scrapped, and Sukhoi was forced to return to work underAndrei Tupolev, this time as Deputy Chief Designer. In 1953, the year ofStalin's death, he was permitted to reestablish his own Sukhoi Design Bureau, which was set up with new production facilities.[6]
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, each of the multitude of bureaus and factories producing Sukhoi components was privatized independently. In the early 1990s, Sukhoi started diversifying its products and initiatedSukhoi Civil Aircraft to create a line ofcivil aviation projects for the company. The progress made by the new branch would lead to the development of the utility aircraft, theSu-80, and the agricultural aircraft, theSu-38, less than a decade later.[7] In 1996, the government re-gathered the major part of them formingSukhoi Aviation Military Industrial Combine (Sukhoi AIMC).[8] In parallel, other entities, including Ulan Ude factory, Tbilisi factory, Belarus and Ukraine factories, established alternate transnationalSukhoi Attack Aircraft (planning to produce e.g.Su-25 TM).[8]
As of January 2015, Sukhoi is working on a family of the regional airliner: theSukhoi Superjet 100, such as the jet airlinerSuperjet 130, which would have a seating capacity of 130 to 145 seats, and to bridge the gap of Russian aircraft between the Superjet Stretch and theIrkut MC-21.
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC), a developer and manufacturer of SuperJet aircraft, ceased operations as an independent legal entity and became a branch of IRKUT Corporation, changing its name to Regional aircraft. This is stated on the company's website.
"Within the implementation of the strategy uniting civil aircraft companies into one Civil Aviation Division JSC “SCA” has been integrated into Irkut Corporation since February 17, 2020. JSC “SCA” Shareholders adopted the decision on June 27, 2019.Regional Aircraft – Branch of the Irkut Corporation shall resume the continuity of business in the areas of development, production and aftersales support of the aircraft," - it is stated on corporate website in the section "Company".[15][16]
In June 2023 patents for a new design of a single-engineSu-75 stealth fighter were filed and given the codename "Checkmate". The design has taken three years, and test aircraft are under construction.[17]
On 23 February 2024, smoke was seen emerging from a warehouse located on the site of Sukhoi Design Bureau's headquarters inMoscow.[18] On 14 June 2024, another fire, this time more serious, broke out in a different building at the same site in Moscow, collapsing the roof of the latter. An area of some 800 square meters was destroyed. However, officials said the building wasn't in use then. Over 70 firefighters and 25 units were used to put out this fire.[19]