Ukraine is one of few countries of the world where aviation and space engineering are developed and manufactured and where skilled specialists are trained for these areas. The National Aerospace University Kharkiv Aviation Institute is the leading one among the Ukrainian educational institutions which turn out such specialists.The KhAI was founded in 1930. Its history is closely connected with the development of aircraft engineering and science. The University is famous for its creation of the first in Europe high-speed airplane with a retractable landing gear and the creation of the design of the turbojet engine developed by teacher of the KhAI A. M. Liulka who afterwards became the academician and designer of many structures of aircraft engines including the engine of the aircraft Su-27.
The KhAI is a unique higher educational institution where the airplanes developed by the Institute Design Burean under the supervision of professor I. G. Neman were produced serially at the aircraft plants and run on passenger airlines.
From 1977 to 1984 the Designer General O.K. Antonov run the department of airplane structure at the KhAI.
In 1978 the KhAI was given the name of N. Ye. Zhukovskiy. In 1980 the Institute was awarded with the order of Lenin. In 1998 the N. Ye. Zhukovskiy State Aerospace University “Kharkov Aviation Institute” was founded on the basis of the KhAI and in 2000 the University got a status of the National higher educational institution and got a name of the National Aerospace Uuniversity Kharkiv Aviation Institute.
During the period of its existence the University has trained about 60 ths engineers. More than 80% of the specialists with higher education who work in Ukrainian aerospace area are the graduates of the KhAI.