Airship W6 Osoaviakhim
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| W6 Osoaviakhim | |
|---|---|
 W6 OSOAWIAHIM |
|
| Type | semi-rigid airship |
| Manufacturer | Soviet airship program |
| Designed by | Umberto Nobile |
| Number built | 1 |
Airship W6 Osoaviakhim (Ossoawiachim, in German rendering) was a semi-rigid airship constructed as part of the Soviet airship program, and designed by the Italian engineer and designer Umberto Nobile. The name derives from the acronym for the Soviet Organisation for the Promotion of Defense, Aviation and Chemistry, OSOAVIAHIM (in Russian ОСОАВИАХИМ). Airship W6 was one of the largest airships built in the Soviet Union and one of the most successful. In October 1937 it set a new record for airship endurance of 130 hours 27 minutes.
Due to the secrecy surrounding Soviet aviation research, and conversely the propaganda surrounding some high profile projects such as airships, reliable information on Soviet Airships is difficult to come by.
[edit] Crash and aftermath
In February of 1938 a group of Soviet Arctic scientists were stranded on the drifting ice pack. It was decided to send the W6 on a rescue mission, starting from the city of Murmansk. The flight between the airship's base at Moscow, and Murmansk would serve as a test of the behavior of the airship in an Arctic climate.
During the flight, at 16:45 on February 5, 1938, the airship collided with Mount Neblo. Of the 19 people onboard, 16 perished. The official version of the accident determined that the "pre-revolutionary" chart being used had the wrong altitude marked on it. An unofficial version suggests instead that the crash was jointly due to the old charts, poor visibility, and human error. Supposedly, the commander Nikolai Gudovantsev ordered the airship to gain altitude and rise to 800 metres, but the second in command, Ivan Pankow, responded too slowly in carrying out the manoeuvre and the ship struck the mountain around the 300 metre mark.
The crew of W6 are buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. The incident was a severe blow to the Soviet airship program. In 1968 a monument was erected on the crash site by local authorities.
