The ANT-25 is a legendary aircraft on which Valery Pavlovich Chkalov, Georgy Filippovich Baydukov, and Alexander Vasilyevich Belyakov made two non-stop flights: first, along the route Moscow — the Far East, and then across the North Pole to America.
Over the years of the first five-year plan, the USSR developed an aviation industry of its own. The Air Force received aircraft for various purposes — reconnaissance planes, fighter aircraft, and bombers. For the second five-year plan, Soviet aviation was assigned with the goal of flying higher, faster, and farther than anyone else.
The ANT-25 aircraft was created specifically to achieve the maximum flight range, so it was also referred to as “Rekord Dalnosti” (the Russian for “range record”), or RD for short. The government made a decision to build the plane in December 1931. The following year, the design bureau led by brilliant Andrey Nikolayevich Tupolev, began to design the plane.
In April 1933, the construction of the prototype model was completed, on June 22 of the same year, the test pilot Mikhail Mikhailovich Gromov first lifted the ANT-25 over the airfield, and a year later the Soviet crew under his leadership made a 75-hour non-stop flight in a closed circuit, breaking the world record of French pilots Bassutro and Rossi.
Along with this, another ANT-25 aircraft was built. On August 3, 1935, the Hero of the Soviet Union and polar pilot Sigizmund Alexandrovich Levanevsky, as well as the co-pilot Georgy Filippovich Baydukov and the navigator Viktor Ivanovich Levchenko set off on the route Moscow — North Pole — San Francisco. But the mission was not accomplished: a malfunction forced the pilots to return.
After that, Levanevsky became disillusioned with the plane. But the co-pilot, Baydukov, still cherished the idea of a transpolar flight on board the ANT-25. It was he who fascinated Valery Chkalov with this idea. Chkalov highly appreciated the aircraft and its design: a wingspan of 34 meters, the fact that the aircraft was able to take fuel almost one and a half times its own weight, and the possibility of landing on water. The aircraft had a set of radio equipment and aeronautical and control instruments that were perfect for the time.
Admittedly, even in 1937, the aircraft’s speed of 170 km/h and the altitude ceiling of 5,000 meters did not quite satisfy Chkalov’s crew, but it was compensated by the performance and reliability of the plane and its engine. Therefore, the idea of flying over the North Pole was superbly realized by the Soviet pilots.
Over the years of the first five-year plan, the USSR developed an aviation industry of its own. The Air Force received aircraft for various purposes — reconnaissance planes, fighter aircraft, and bombers. For the second five-year plan, Soviet aviation was assigned with the goal of flying higher, faster, and farther than anyone else.
The ANT-25 aircraft was created specifically to achieve the maximum flight range, so it was also referred to as “Rekord Dalnosti” (the Russian for “range record”), or RD for short. The government made a decision to build the plane in December 1931. The following year, the design bureau led by brilliant Andrey Nikolayevich Tupolev, began to design the plane.
In April 1933, the construction of the prototype model was completed, on June 22 of the same year, the test pilot Mikhail Mikhailovich Gromov first lifted the ANT-25 over the airfield, and a year later the Soviet crew under his leadership made a 75-hour non-stop flight in a closed circuit, breaking the world record of French pilots Bassutro and Rossi.
Along with this, another ANT-25 aircraft was built. On August 3, 1935, the Hero of the Soviet Union and polar pilot Sigizmund Alexandrovich Levanevsky, as well as the co-pilot Georgy Filippovich Baydukov and the navigator Viktor Ivanovich Levchenko set off on the route Moscow — North Pole — San Francisco. But the mission was not accomplished: a malfunction forced the pilots to return.
After that, Levanevsky became disillusioned with the plane. But the co-pilot, Baydukov, still cherished the idea of a transpolar flight on board the ANT-25. It was he who fascinated Valery Chkalov with this idea. Chkalov highly appreciated the aircraft and its design: a wingspan of 34 meters, the fact that the aircraft was able to take fuel almost one and a half times its own weight, and the possibility of landing on water. The aircraft had a set of radio equipment and aeronautical and control instruments that were perfect for the time.
Admittedly, even in 1937, the aircraft’s speed of 170 km/h and the altitude ceiling of 5,000 meters did not quite satisfy Chkalov’s crew, but it was compensated by the performance and reliability of the plane and its engine. Therefore, the idea of flying over the North Pole was superbly realized by the Soviet pilots.
