This book is about a man whose life is amazingly in tune with our time. All the activities of Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky, which took place on the border strip between science and technology, were aimed at strengthening their relationship, at mutual enrichment of theory and practice. The honorary name of the "father of Russian aviation," which was earned by the scientist, is widely known. The decree of the Council of People's Commissars is also known, with which Vladimir Ilyich Lenin noted the scientific and social activities of Zhukovsky for the benefit of the Motherland. Talking about the role of Zhukovsky in the formation of domestic aviation, the author, using a number of interesting documents and materials, some of which are unknown to the general reader, and some are published for the first time, shows Zhukovsky as a great, versatile scientist and engineer, engaged in such distant areas of knowledge as aviation and botany, rail transport and astronomy, ballistics and hydraulics, automation and computing.