From aviation to medicine – world-class Ukrainian inventions and achievements

1. Aviation and space

• The world’s first four-engine aeroplane (“Russian Knight”) – Igor Sikorsky from Kyiv, 1913.
• The first successful single-rotor helicopter design and the first production helicopter, the R-4 – Sikorsky, 1939–1942.
• The world’s first wide-body transport aircraft, the An-22 “Antey” – Antonov Design Bureau, Kyiv, 1965.
• The largest and heaviest aircraft in aviation history, the An-225 "Mriya" – Antonov Design Bureau, Kyiv, 1988; set 240 world records.
• The first design for a manned rocket vehicle – one of the very first in the world – Mykola Kibalchych from Chernihiv region, 1881 (a crater on the Moon is named after him).
• The concept of lunar-orbital docking, which formed the basis of the Apollo programme – Yuriy Kondratyuk from Poltava, 1916–1929.
• The first artificial Earth satellite – under the leadership of Sergei Korolev from Zhytomyr, 1957.
• The first human flight into space – under the leadership of Korolev, 1961.
• The first welding in space – technology from the Paton Electric Welding Institute, ‘Soyuz-6’, 1969.
• The world’s heaviest intercontinental ballistic missile, the R-36M (SS-18 “Satan”) – Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, Dnipro, 1975.

2. Science

• Prediction of cosmic microwave background radiation – George Gamow from Odessa, 1948.
• Quantum mechanical explanation of alpha decay – Gamow, 1928.

3. Medicine

• Discovery of phagocytosis and cellular immunity – Ilya Mechnikov from the Kharkiv region, Nobel Prize 1908.
• Introduction of the term ‘gerontology’ – Mechnikov, 1903.
• The first effective vaccine against cholera – Vladimir Khavkin from Odessa, 1892.
• The first vaccine against the plague (“Khavkin’s lymph”) – Khavkin, 1897.
• Streptomycin – the first antibiotic against tuberculosis –
• Selman Waksman from Vinnytsia region, Nobel Prize 1952.
• Introduction of the term "antibiotic" in its modern sense – Waksman, 1940s.
• The first human kidney allograft – Yuriy Voroniy, Kherson, 3 April 1933.
• Method of corneal transplantation using cadaveric tissue – Volodymyr Filatov, Odesa, 1931.
• The "round stalk" method in plastic surgery – Filatov, 1916.

4. Technology and Engineering

• The world’s first frame hive with removable frames, which marked the beginning of modern beekeeping – Petro Prokopovych, Chernihiv region, 1814.
• The first practical use of a kerosene lamp and the first emergency night-time operation performed by its light – Jan Zeg and Ignacy Łukasiewicz, Lviv, 1853.
• Electric arc welding – Mykola Benardos from Mykolaiv Oblast, one of the inventors (USPTO patent 363,320), 1881–1887.
• The first electronic digital computer with a stored programme in continental Europe
• The world’s first all-welded road bridge – the Paton Bridge, Kyiv, 1953.

5. Statehood and law

• One of the earliest European constitutional charters incorporating the principle of the separation of powers – the Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, Bendery, 1710.

6. Literary culture

• The first complete printed edition of the Bible in Church Slavonic – the Ostroh Bible, Ivan Fedorov, 1581.

7. Culture

• The founder of Suprematism (“Black Square”) – Kazimir Malevich, Kyiv/Petrograd, 1915.
• One of the first prototypes of a film camera – two years before the Lumière brothers – Yosyp Tymchenko, Odesa, 1893.

8. Agricultural sector

• The world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil – Ukraine, historically accounting for over 50% of global exports (USDA, 2021–2024).

9. Sport

• The world’s first 6.00 m pole vault – Sergey Bubka, Paris, 13 July 1985.