Valery Chkalov
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Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (Russian: Вале́рий Па́влович Чка́лов) (February 2, 1904 – December 15, 1938) was a Russian aircraft test pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union (1938).
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[edit] Achievements
Chkalov developed several new figures of aerobatics. In 1936 and 1937, he participated in several ultralong flights, including a 63-hour flight from Moscow, Soviet Union to Vancouver, Washington, United States via the North Pole on an Tupolev ANT-25 plane (June 18–20, 1937), a non-stop distance of 8,811 kilometers (5,475 mi).
[edit] Tragic death
Chkalov was killed in a Polikarpov I-180 plane crash during a test flight. The series of events which took place on 15 December 1938, is not entirely clear but tragic. Neither Polikarpov nor Tomashevich approved the first flight, and no one had signed the form releasing the prototype from the factory. The famous Soviet test pilot Valery Chkalov took off and made a low altitude circuit around the airfield. For the second circuit, Chkalov flew farther away, climbing to over 2,000 m (6,560 ft) even though the flight plan specifically forbade exceeding 600 m (1,970 ft). Chkalov apparently miscalculated his landing approach and came in short of the airfield but when he attempted to correct the engine stalled. The pilot was able to avoid several buildings but crashed into a powerline. Chkalov was ejected from the cockpit, sustained injuries and died two hours later.
The official government investigation concluded that the engine stalled because it became too cold in the absence of the cowl flaps. Others hypothesized that Chkalov rapidly advanced the throttle and flooded the engine. As the result of the crash, Tomashevich and several other officials, including Arms Industry Department director S. Belyakin, who urged the first flight, were immediately arrested. Years later, fellow test pilot Mikhail M. Gromov blamed the designers for flawed engine cooling and Chkalov himself for deviating from the flight plan. Chkalov's son also claimed that a plan to assassinate his father had been in the works in the months preceding his death but the circumstances of the crash make foul play unlikely. Regardless, with Chkalov's death Polikarpov's reputation with Stalin suffered a blow from which he would never recover.
[edit] Commemoration
The village of Vasilyovo where Chkalov was born is now the town of Chkalovsk (Nizhny Novgorod Oblast). The city of Orenburg bore the name Chkalov from 1938 to 1957. There is a Chkalov Street in Moscow (part of Moscow's Garden Ring), Nizhny Novgorod, and several other Russian cities; a street in Vancouver, Washington has borne the name Chkalov Drive since the 1970s (Google map).
The subway systems of Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod each have a Chkalovskaya station. Yekaterinburg Metro is expected to have one by 2010 as well.
[edit] See also
- Pearson Field Airport Site of 1937 landing
- Pearson Air Museum
- Chkalovsk, Places named after Chkalov
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