Valeriy Chkalov

For the flight to the Far East, the entire crew was awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union with the awarding of the Order of Lenin: the Gold Star medal, introduced in 1939 after the death of Chkalov, was awarded only to his children in 2004. In addition, Chkalov was presented with a private U-2 plane (now located in the museum in Chkalovsk).

Soviet test pilot, brigade commander (1938), Hero of the Soviet Union (1936).

The commander of the crew of the aircraft, which made the first non-stop flight through the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver (Washington State) in 1937.

Chkalov continued to seek permission to fly to the United States, and in May 1937 permission was obtained. The start of the ANT-25 aircraft took place on June 18. The flight took place in much more difficult conditions than the previous one (lack of visibility, icing, etc. ), but on June 20 the plane made a safe landing in Vancouver, Washington, USA. The length of the flight was 8504 kilometers. All crew members have become celebrities in America. Among the welcoming crew on American soil were the USSR ambassador to the USA, Troyanovsky and J. K. Marshall, the future general and US secretary of state, who later received the crew members at home. For this flight, the crew was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

December 12, 1937 Valery Chkalov was elected to the Council of Nationalities of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from the Gorky Region and the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. At the request of the residents of Vasilyov, their village was renamed Chkalovsk.

The exceptional propaganda importance of this flight for its time is indicated by the fact that Stalin personally arrived on August 10, 1936 at the Shchelkovsky airfield near Moscow to meet the returning plane. From this moment, Chkalov gained popular fame in the USSR.

On May 5, 1935, aircraft designer Nikolai Polikarpov and test pilot Valery Chkalov were awarded the highest government award, the Order of Lenin, for creating the best fighter aircraft. Already on the island of Udd, the inscription "Stalin's route" was inscribed on board the plane, which was preserved on the next flight through the North Pole to America. Both Chkalov flights officially bore this name until the beginning of the struggle with the personality cult of Stalin.

Since January 1933, Valery Chkalov was back in stock and transferred to work as a test pilot at the Menzhinsky Moscow Aviation Plant No. 39.

In 1932, the Air Force Research Institute was transferred from the Khodynka field in Moscow to an airfield near the city of Shchelkovo, Moscow Region. Relocation from an ordinary event turned into the first air parade in the USSR with a flight over Red Square. 45 aircraft flew in a convoy of three cars in a row, and at the head was a TB-3 bomber with tail number 311, controlled by the crew of Valery Chkalov.

On December 3, 1931, Chkalov participated in the tests of an aircraft aircraft (air carrier), which was a heavy bomber carrying up to five fighter aircraft on its wings and fuselage.

In November 1930, Chkalov was reinstated in a military rank and sent to work at the Moscow Air Force Research Institute of the Red Army. In two years of work at the research institute, he completed more than 800 test flights, having mastered the technique of piloting 30 types of aircraft.

Together with his senior comrade Alexander Anisimov, he tested the latest 1930s fighter aircraft I-15 (biplane) and I-16 (monoplane) designed by Polikarpov. He took part in the tests of the fighter tanks "VIT-1", "VIT-2", as well as heavy bombers "TB-1", "TB-3", a large number of experimental and experimental vehicles of the OKB Polikarpov. The author of new aerobatics - an upward corkscrew and a slowed-down barrel.

In March 1928, he was transferred to serve in the 15th Bryansk Aviation Squadron, and his wife and his son Igor remained in Leningrad.

In 1927, Chkalov married a Leningrad teacher Olga Orekhova.

In 1926, the 1st Red Banner Fighter Aviation Squadron was relocated from the Commandant airfield to the Trotsk airfield (now Gatchina), where Chkalov served from 1926 to 1928.

In June 1924, a military fighter pilot Chkalov was sent to serve in the Leningrad Red Banner Fighter Squadron named after Nesterov (Commandant Airfield). The case when Chkalov flew under the Equality Bridge (Trinity) in Leningrad is widely known. For the film "Valery Chkalov" this flight was made by pilot Evgeni Ivanovich Borisenko.

At the end of the school, in 1923-1924, in accordance with the practice of preparing military personnel at that time pilots, he was trained at the Moscow Military Aviation School of Aerobatics, where he mastered combat aircraft (Martinsyde and Junkers fighters). Then he studied at the Serpukhov Higher Aviation School of Shooting, Bombing and Air Combat.

After graduating from it in 1922, he was sent to further studies at the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation School of Pilots, where he made his first independent flight on an Avro 504 aircraft.

In 1921, Chkalov got a referral to study at the Yegoryevsk Military Theoretical School of the Air Force.

In 1919, Valeriy Chkalov first saw a plane and, having a tingling dream of aviation, left for Nizhny Novgorod, where he met fellow villager Vladimir Frolishchev, who worked as an aircraft assembly team leader in the 4th Kanavinsky Aviation Park. On his advice, Valery, at the age of 15, volunteered for the Red Army and began working as an apprentice fitter.