Georgy Shchipanov, in full Georgy Vladimirovich Shchipanov, was born in Bugulma in the family of a revenue officer. In 1910, his family moved to Samara, where Shchipanov studied in a gymnasium from 1910 to 1918. In 1918, he volunteered for the Red Army and served until 1920 (the demobilization due to the age below 18).

After his demobilization, Shchipanov entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of Samara University; in 1922, he transferred to the Physics and Technology Department of Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1925.

After his graduation, Shchipanov worked at the Aviapribor plant, the Scientific and Testing Institute of the Air Force, and the Metron plant. In 1933, he was elected by competition to Bauman Moscow State Technical School as Assistant Professor.

In 1925, Shchipanov published his first paper, followed by several others on the components of aircraft instruments. In 1936, he published a book on the theory and calculation of aircraft instruments and was conferred a candidate’s degree in engineering for it. In 1938, Shchipanov received a professorship. The same year, Victor S. Kulebakin invited him to the Committee for Automation and Remote Control, the USSR Academy of Sciences. One year later, the Committee was reorganized into the Institute of Automation and Remote Control, the USSR Academy of Sciences. At the newly established Institute, Shchipanov was appointed Head of the Automatic Control Laboratory.

In 1939, Shchipanov published a notable paper in the journal Automation and Remote Control: for the first time in the world, he posed the problem of designing a controller based on a “compensation” condition for exogenous perturbations. The paper laid the foundation for the invariance theory and provoked a broad and violent discussion. By the decision of the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences, a commission was established to assess Shchipanov’s paper, chaired by Academician O. Schmidt. According to its report, Shchipanov’s conditions led to absurd conclusions and did not correspond to any realizable controllers. The commission’s conclusions contained a dissenting opinion of V.S. Kulebakin and N.N. Luzin, who believed that further research on “compensation conditions” was necessary. As a result, Shchipanov was dismissed from the Institute, and all studies on the invariance theory were terminated.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Shchipanov began to consult several scientific institutions, organized the Faculty of Instrumentation at Moscow Aviation Institute, and became its Dean. At that time, he also established the Department of Automatic Control and Stabilization of Aircraft. For his work during the Great Patriotic War, Shchipanov was awarded the Red Star Order.

At the end of 1949, due to a serious illness, Shchipanov left Moscow Aviation Institute and passed away 3 years later.

In 1966, the results of Shchipanov’s research were recognized as a scientific discovery with a priority of April 1939.

Shchipanov’s main books are as follows:

1. Giroskopicheskie pribory slepogo poleta: Teoriya, raschet i metody konstruirovaniya (Gyroscopic Instruments of Blind Flight: Theory, Calculation and Design Methods), Moscow—Leningrad: Oborongiz, 1938;
2. Teoriya, raschet i metody konstruirovaniya aviatsionnykh priborov (Theory, Calculation and Design Methods of Aircraft Instruments), Leningrad—Moscow: ONTI, 1936.

One journal paper by Shchipanov can be found at Math-Net.Ru:

One invention by Shchipanov is available at:
https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=39508862

Publications about G.V. Shchipanov

1. Kurdyukov, A.P., Trudy Nauchnogo seminara “70 let teorii invariantnosti” (Proceedings of Scientific Seminar “The 70th Anniversary of the Invariance Theory”), Moscow: LKI, 2008. — 256 p.;
2. Butkovskii, A.G., A Look on Shchipanov’s Ideas after Many Years, in Trudy Nauchnogo seminara “70 let teorii invariantnosti” (Proceedings of Scientific Seminar “The 70th Anniversary of the Invariance Theory”), Moscow: LKI, 2008, pp. 91—101;
3. Lezina, Z.M., G.V. Shchipanov: Stages of Life, in Trudy Nauchnogo seminara “70 let teorii invariantnosti” (Proceedings of Scientific Seminar “The 70th Anniversary of the Invariance Theory”), Moscow: LKI, 2008, pp. 5—12;
4. Lezina, Z.M. and Lezin, V.I., G.V. Shchipanov i teoriya invariantnosti (Trudy i dokumenty) (G.V. Shchipanov and the Invariance Theory (Proceedings and Documents), Moscow: Fizmatlit, 2004. — 428 p.

They are presented in the Institute’s database:
https://www.ipu.ru/d7ipu/books_library_grid?combine=Щипанов

Also, see the Wikipedia page devoted to Shchipanov:
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Щипанов,_Георгий_Владимирович