Vaja
Tordia.
Aircraft designer, mechanical engineer, scientist. Director of the Tbilisi aviation plant since 1978; founded TAM Management LLC in 2015 to restart continuous operations on the same factory floor.
Early life
From Etseri to Saratov, then back to Tbilisi.
Pantiko (Vazha) Tordia was born on 22 January 1935 in Etseri village, in present-day Zugdidi municipality, in western Georgia. He pursued aircraft engineering at the Saratov Polytechnic Institute in Russia, graduating in 1967 from the Faculty of Aircraft Engineering.
In the same year he joined the Tbilisi Dimitrov Aviation Plant as an engineer. The factory was already one of the principal airframe lines of the southern Soviet front, with a continuous airframe production history dating back to 1944.
Career
Six decades on the Tbilisi floor.
From engineer to plant director to founder. With brief periods in government and academia, the work always returned to the same Tbilisi workshop.
- 1935 Step 01
Born
January 22 — Etseri village, present-day Zugdidi municipality, Georgia.
- 1967 Step 02
Saratov Polytechnic
Graduated from the Faculty of Aircraft Engineering, Saratov Polytechnic Institute, Russia. Joined the Tbilisi Dimitrov Aviation Plant the same year as an engineer.
- 1978 Step 03
Plant director
Appointed director of the Tbilisi Dimitrov Aviation Plant. The factory enters serial production of the Su-25 attack aircraft.
- 1985 Step 04
General director
General director of the renamed Tbilisi Aviation Production Association — through to 1991.
- 1991 Step 05
Deputy minister
Deputy Minister of Industry of the Georgian SSR.
- 1993 Step 06
Presidential advisor
Advisor to the President of Georgia, through to 1998.
- 1998 Step 07
Plant director again
Returns as director of the Tbilisi State Aviation Production Association.
- 2000 Step 08
Tbilaviamsheni LLC
General director of Tbilaviamsheni LLC. Awarded Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi.
- 2002 Step 09
Professorship
Appointed Professor at the Tbilisi Aviation Institute.
- 2008 Step 10
Director · Tbilaviamsheni
Director of Tbilaviamsheni LLC through to 2013.
- 2015 Step 11
Founds TAMM
Founds TAM Management LLC and restarts continuous operations on the same factory floor where he began in 1967.
On the floor
Su-25 serial production. R-60 and R-73 missile lines.
Under his direct leadership the Tbilisi plant entered serial production of the Su-25 “Frogfoot” attack aircraft and its modifications. The factory became one of the principal Su-25 production nodes, with more than 800 units delivered for export.
Alongside the airframe lines, the plant ran serial production of the R-60 and R-73 air-to-air guided missiles. He directed a programme of technical re-equipment, computerisation and structural reform across the enterprise. He is the author of scientific works, rationalisation proposals and a number of inventions in the field.
Honors & titles
- Candidate of Technical Sciences 1991
- Honorary Citizen of Tbilisi 2000
- Professor · Tbilisi Aviation Inst. 2002
2015 — present
Founding TAMM.
In 2015, Tordia founded TAM Management LLC and restarted continuous operations on the same factory floor where his career began in 1967. The workshop was re-equipped to current technical and labor-safety standards, and the first new modernisation programmes began on equipment that had built the original airframes.
Today the plant runs modernisation, capital restoration, in-house engineering and new-build programmes side by side, across combat aircraft, helicopters and missile systems. Quality is audited annually by DEKRA against ISO 9001:2015 and EN 9100:2018.