The article examines the life and activities of the renowned expert in hydro- and aerodynamics, D. P. Ryabushinsky (1882-1962). In 1904 in his Kuchino estate near Moscow, he founded one of the first aerodynamic institutes in the world. Created with the assistance of Professor N. E. Zhukovsky, the institute operated under Ryabushinsky’s leadership until 1918. After the October Revolution, the Soviets viewed the extended Ryabushinsky family as the embodiment of the hostile capitalist sys tem. Under these conditions, Ryabushinsky saw to the nationalization of the institute and tried to preserve it for the benefit of the homeland before leaving Russia for good. In 1919 he settled permanently in France, where he received a doctoral degree and was elected corresponding member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He did not take French citizenship, however, remaining an ardent Russian patriot. Remarkably, in 1914 Ryabushinsky already included the problem of spaceflight as part of his institute’s research. In 1954, the international scientific community (with the exception of the Soviet Union) paid tribute to Ryabushinsky and commemorated the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Kuchino Aerodynamic Institute. In the Soviet Union the very mention of his work was, for all practical purposes, prohibited, and only in the 1990s did an extensive literature on Ryabushinsky begin to appear in Russia.