In November 1938, the famous pilot Valery Pavlovich Chkalov arrived at his homeland, in the village of Vasilyovo, which by that time had become a town and had been known as Chkalovsk for a year. This was his last visit to the Nizhny Novgorod region. As usual, Chkalov met with his friends and relatives and was about to go hunting. But on December 1, the test pilot received an urgent telephoned telegram to come to Moscow.
The design bureau of the “king of fighters” Nikolay Nikolayevich Polikarpov was given the task of creating a new high-speed aircraft for destroying aerial targets. This is how the I-180 came to be.
The plane construction started in the summer and was completed in six months. In early December, almost two hundred defects were found in the design of the fighter. By December 12, when the first tests were scheduled, most of the problems had been eliminated, but the Council of People’s Commissars canceled the flight following the information in a secret letter from Beria. However, three days later, a new test flight was scheduled.
The tests took place at the central airfield of Moscow. Despite the good visibility, the temperature of 25 °C below zero was a bit concerning. However, according to the flight plan, Chkalov was supposed to make a small circuit at an altitude of 500–600 meters over the airfield, without retracting the landing gear, and land the plane in 10–15 minutes. At first, everything went according to plan. However, Chkalov went for the second circuit, and approximately one and a half kilometers away from the airfield, the plane swerved and disappeared behind the buildings.
The people who arrived at the scene of the accident saw the destroyed plane and the pilot bleeding to death. Valery Pavlovich Chkalov was sent to the nearest Botkin hospital, where he passed away without regaining consciousness.
The collection of the memorial museum contains a flight suit, which the hero was wearing on his last day. The exhibits also include a parachute, which Chkalov never used.
After the death of the heroic pilot, a letter was found in the pocket of his service shirt, in which Chkalov’s crew requested the government to develop and build an aircraft that could be used to fly over the South Pole.
After the flight to the USA, Chkalov cherished the dream of traveling around the world. Someday, he was going to, in his own words, “travel around the globe.”
The design bureau of the “king of fighters” Nikolay Nikolayevich Polikarpov was given the task of creating a new high-speed aircraft for destroying aerial targets. This is how the I-180 came to be.
The plane construction started in the summer and was completed in six months. In early December, almost two hundred defects were found in the design of the fighter. By December 12, when the first tests were scheduled, most of the problems had been eliminated, but the Council of People’s Commissars canceled the flight following the information in a secret letter from Beria. However, three days later, a new test flight was scheduled.
The tests took place at the central airfield of Moscow. Despite the good visibility, the temperature of 25 °C below zero was a bit concerning. However, according to the flight plan, Chkalov was supposed to make a small circuit at an altitude of 500–600 meters over the airfield, without retracting the landing gear, and land the plane in 10–15 minutes. At first, everything went according to plan. However, Chkalov went for the second circuit, and approximately one and a half kilometers away from the airfield, the plane swerved and disappeared behind the buildings.
The people who arrived at the scene of the accident saw the destroyed plane and the pilot bleeding to death. Valery Pavlovich Chkalov was sent to the nearest Botkin hospital, where he passed away without regaining consciousness.
The collection of the memorial museum contains a flight suit, which the hero was wearing on his last day. The exhibits also include a parachute, which Chkalov never used.
After the death of the heroic pilot, a letter was found in the pocket of his service shirt, in which Chkalov’s crew requested the government to develop and build an aircraft that could be used to fly over the South Pole.
After the flight to the USA, Chkalov cherished the dream of traveling around the world. Someday, he was going to, in his own words, “travel around the globe.”
