USSR in 6 osoaviakhim. Airships of the country of the Soviets

The airship "SSSR-B6" was sent to rescue the expedition members " North Pole-1", but crashed into a mountain near the city of Kandalaksha. 13 crew members were killed, six survived.

"SSSR-B6" at the airfield of Dirigiblestroy. Photo: wikimedia.org

The crash of "USSR-V6" became biggest disaster airship in the history of the country.

In addition to the airship, ships also set out to rescue polar explorers led by Ivan Papanin from the drifting ice floe. But the crew of the airship under the leadership of Nikolai Gudovantsev could get there faster.

At the same time, according to some sources, the aeronauts had to navigate using maps from the early twentieth century, which supposedly did not indicate Mount Neblo, into which the airship crashed.

During his flight along the railway to Murmansk, fires were lit, but the balloonists, not knowing about this, were only surprised by the lights.

On February 6, 1938, at 18.56, the ship's radio operator transmitted the last radiogram from the ship. At about 7 p.m., navigator Georgy Myachkov saw that the outlines of a mountain appeared in the fog directly ahead. Second commander Ivan Pankov commanded: “Right to failure! To failure!”

Assistant commander Viktor Pochekin turned the steering wheel, but it was too late. Almost everyone who was in the bow of the gondola died. Those in the stern felt the impact differently. But almost immediately a fire started.

I found myself among a pile of fragments of metal parts of the nacelle and keel of the ship, and a shell covered me on top. A fire started immediately. I started to get out of the ship. Suddenly I accidentally fell into some hole, and this turned out to be my salvation.

from the memoirs of Viktor Pochekin, fourth assistant ("Collection of scientific and technical works on airship construction and aeronautics")

After 19.00 people on railway station The White Sea heard a strong dull explosion. A search team was sent and found the survivors.

It's a pity that our flight ended tragically. Burning with the desire to carry out a responsible government task, we gave all our strength to successfully complete the flight to remove the brave four Papaninites from the ice floe - this is from official message TASS, which conveyed the words of the aeronauts from Kandalaksha to members of the Council of People's Commissars.

The hot gondola cover burns your head. I bend over. I see snow and the burning shell of the airship. With my bare hands I lift the burning material, squeeze through to my waist, then brace myself with my hands and pull out my stuck leg. Finally freed. My hair and clothes are burning. Burying myself in the snow. I can’t get up and decide to roll away from the burning airship.

from the memoirs of Konstantin Novikov, flight mechanic ("Collection of scientific and technical works on airship construction and aeronautics")

There were also words of gratitude to “our government”, “determination to carry out any order of the party” and that “airship construction has a great future.”

In fact, this disaster, one might say, drew a line under airship construction in the USSR. Although experts noted that during the flight the airship worked flawlessly.

Was the airship doomed?

Alexey Belokrys is a historian of aeronautics and aviation, author of the book “Nine Hundred Hours of the Sky. Unknown story airship "SSSR-B6", published recently by the Paulsen publishing house. He has been studying the circumstances of that disaster for a long time.

We don’t know all the details and are unlikely to ever find out,” notes Alexey. - “Black boxes” did not exist then; radars did not monitor the airship. Therefore, I reconstructed the course of the flight based on the testimony of the surviving crew members, according to eyewitness reports from the ground, and radiograms.

On board the USSR-V6 there were two radio half-compasses - German and American. The first one failed almost immediately, the second one worked fine. However, it appears that they were not used at the critical moment. This is one of the mysteries. Everything suggests that for the last few hours the airship was guided exclusively by magnetic compass. This played a fatal role.

They say the airship was doomed. As if he could not rise higher, as icing began. But beyond Kandalaksha we would have to gain height in any case - there are mountains a kilometer high.

However, Alexey states that the assumption of icing is not confirmed: shortly before the collision, the ship rose 100 meters twice - and this did not cause any difficulties, there was no need to dump ballast:

Beyond Kandalaksha, in the Khibiny region, there were two options: to climb more than 1000 meters, overcoming mountain ranges at the top, or walk along the narrow valley between them. It is unknown exactly what the airshipmen intended to do.

Technically, the “B6” could easily climb one and a half to two thousand meters: the design allowed it, and the mass of the airship became significantly less after it burned about 2.5 tons of fuel during the 24-hour journey. But they didn’t reach Khibiny, and the collision with the mountain occurred at a very low flight altitude, and this had nothing to do with icing.

Why was the ship prepared by NKVD officers?

In the film "The Last Flight of the Air Giant" there is a version that the "B6" was prepared for takeoff by NKVD officers? If so, why? Or is this normal for that time?

The NKVD got involved in the work in the last 24 hours,” says Alexey. - People's Commissar Yezhov was a member of the government commission for managing the operation, and after a meeting with Stalin on the night of February 5, apparently, he received an order to personally address the issue.

The security officers in charge of preparations for the flight, of course, are not the rule, but the exception. Apparently, the whole point is extremely tight deadlines and the unusual nature of the task, which only the NKVD with its military discipline, enormous influence and unlimited powers could solve. Objectively, this played a positive role.

It should be noted that the most full version The investigation report into the disaster remained classified to this day. Not because there was some kind of secret hidden there: it was just that the turn didn’t come.

I submitted an application with a request to speed up this process, and a year later I was able to familiarize myself with the case,” says Alexey Belokrys. - But I was never able to find the solution itself to send the airship to the Papaninites. It should have been accepted by the Politburo or the Council of People's Commissars, but there is no such document in their archives. Probably, NKVD materials related to the preparation of the flight have been preserved, but nothing is known about them either. There is something for other researchers to do.

Alexey believes that when all secrecy stamps are removed, interesting details may be revealed. However, the circumstances of the death of the airship are already clear: there are enough open materials to restore the picture of events.

What was loaded on the airship?

“The government has provided us with everything necessary to complete this mission,” said a telegram from the surviving crew members. The phrase is certainly stereotyped, Alexey agrees. But he emphasizes that the airship was prepared in good faith, at the highest level.

Another thing is that no one knew exactly how to prepare such a flight, what was really necessary, and what could be sacrificed. To provide for all sorts of non-standard situations, to simulate the actions of the crew, the operation of equipment and to prepare the appropriate equipment and equipment for all such cases is an impossible task: there was no such experience, and not only here, but nowhere in the world.

In a hurry, a lot of property was loaded on board, which could have been dispensed with. Already during the flight, everything was dismantled and some of the things were put aside to be unloaded upon landing in Murmansk. There was almost a ton.

However, the reason for the death of "B6" was not that the airship pilots lacked something. The equipment worked properly, but no equipment can replace the experience, skills, and coordinated work of the crew and ground services. That's what I was with the main problem, - the researcher is sure.

What maps did the crew use?

As for the maps, Alexey says: “No one knows exactly what kind of flight maps the navigators used. It is believed that the maps were burned in a fire, although there are other versions.”

But, as in the case of equipment, it’s not about the cards, Alexey is sure:

Even with the most an accurate map it is impossible to restore orientation at night, in a snowstorm, with almost complete absence visibility, and the flight in last hours took place precisely under such conditions.

Why did the airshipmen ignore the signal fires?

By the way, fires for navigation along the railway are not a legend, but a reliable fact.

They were lit on the evening of February 6, but not local residents, and the railway workers were on the orders of the same NKVD, and precisely in order to facilitate the orientation of the airship,” explains Alexey. - The crew was not informed about this, but the helmsman still noticed the fires. Those on board should have understood that this was done to attract the attention of someone who was in the air: in fact, these signals were not given to trains! And there was only an airship in the air - air traffic with Murmansk had not yet been opened.

There was a chain of fires last chance, a guiding thread that would lead the ship along the railway through the Khibiny Mountains and lead to the final section of the route, which passed over an area with calm terrain. But the crew, for a reason unknown to us, ignored this opportunity. And this is another one of the mysteries in the case of the death of the USSR-V6.

How did the era of airships end?

The resonance after the disaster was enormous. The country's main newspaper, Pravda, published publications related to the disaster in six consecutive issues.

And two weeks later, the Papaninites were safely removed from the ice floe, nationwide rejoicing began, and they chose not to remember the lost airship anymore,” notes Alexey. - The surviving crew members were not even invited to the celebrations organized to mark the meeting of polar heroes in Moscow.

An attempt to demonstrate the capabilities of an airship in the Arctic failed. The tragedy of the USSR-B6 was on a par with other airship disasters of the 1930s, including the recent death of the German giant Hindenburg.

The golden age of airships was ending, including in the USSR, although not so quickly. For almost two more years we continued to design new airships, including large rigid and all-metal ones. But only two small training ships were built. And in February 1940, the airship construction program, which had reached a dead end, was closed.

The ship's commander died in the disaster Nikolay Gudovantsev; second commander Ivan Pankov; assistants Sergey Demin, Vladimir Lyanguzov, Taras Kulagin; navigators Alexey Ritsland, Georgy Myachkov; flight mechanics Nikolai Konyashin, Konstantin Shmelkov, Mikhail Nikitin, Nikolai Kondrashov; radio operator Vasily Chernov; synoptic David Gradus.

They were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

Survived fourth assistant commander Victor Pochekin, flight mechanics Alexey Burmakin, Konstantin Novikov, Dmitry Matyunin, engineer Vladimir Ustinovich, radio engineer Ariy Vorobiev.

AND AT THIS TIME...

In Kandalaksha they keep the memory of aeronauts

Events are traditionally held in Kandalaksha in memory of the USSR-V6 crew. This year everyone gathered at the memorial plaque again.

Our 10th school is located on Aeronautov Street. Kandalaksha is the only city in Russia where there is a street with that name - we conducted a study,” school teacher Elena Ivanova told a Rodina correspondent.

In the summer, school students and teachers climb Neblo Mountain, where a sign is erected in memory of the fallen aeronauts.

Several years ago, we repaired the monument together with members of the jeepper club. They also regularly make trips to Neblo Mountain,” said Elena Ivanova.

Last weekend, the dead aeronauts were remembered in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery. An exhibition is dedicated to them in local history museum Dolgoprudny near Moscow, where the USSR-V6 was built.

We have many exhibits. For example, the daughter of David Gradus, Nina Obizhaeva, gave us part of the keel of an airship that was brought from Neblo-Mountain,” said the chief curator of the museum, Natalya Trusova.

In addition, in Dolgoprudny, on the site of the house where crew members lived from 1936 to 1938, memorial sign with their names.

Even at the very beginning of airship construction in Russia, local engineers and designers correctly identified the role of aeronautics. Based on this, they did not intend to build expensive and huge combat airships, which increasingly entertained ordinary people with grandiose conflagrations in the sky. In Russia it was believed that airships should have a soft, or at least semi-rigid, structure and at the same time cost as little as possible. In Russia, airships were assigned a purely peaceful role; for example, they could deliver goods to remote settlements. After the First World War, new disasters came to our country in the form of revolution and the subsequent civil war. But they could not stop progress and airship construction.

Aeronautics in Soviet Russia, and only for peaceful purposes, began its revival already in 1920. First, the USSR carried out work and experiments on restoring old Russian airships, and then they began designing their own models. In the late 20s and early 30s of the last century, airships still played a role in the development of Siberia, but later they were finally forced out of the sky by airplanes. The 20th century was the century of aviation.

The first attempt to revive controlled aeronautics in the country of the Soviets was made in 1920. Analysis of what was inherited from Russian Empire equipment and parts of old airships showed that the shell of the Astra airship was in the best condition at that time, so a decision was made to work on its restoration. After the production of individual elements of the mechanical part and a new suspension, in the fall of 1920 in the village of Salizi (near Petrograd), the aeronautical detachment began work on assembling the airship, which was renamed the “Red Star”. This work ended in mid-November; on November 23, the shell of the airship was filled with gas, and on January 3, 1921, it made its first flight. In total, this airship performed 6 flights, the total duration of which was about 16 hours.

Airship "VI October"

The second Soviet airship was the VI October, which was built in 1923 by students of the Higher Aeronautical School located in Petrograd. The airship was built according to the type of English naval reconnaissance aircraft and was made from scrap materials. In particular, its 1,700 cc shell volume. meters was sewn from the shells of old tethered balloons. The total length of the airship was 39.2 m, diameter - 8.2 m, power plant power 77 kW. The airship made its first flight on November 27, 1923; it lasted about 30 minutes. On November 29, the airship took to the skies for the second time, this time the flight lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes, during the flight it reached an altitude of 900 meters. After this, flights of the airship "VI October" were stopped due to the very high gas permeability of the shell.

In 1923, at the Society of Friends air fleet The USSR created a special Air Center, whose tasks included promoting the development of airship construction in Soviet Russia. After some time, the Air Center was renamed the air section of Osoaviakhim of the USSR. Already in the fall of 1924, the construction of another soft airship called the “Moscow Rubber Chemist” (MHR) was completed here. Its name indicated that it was made at the expense of workers chemical industry Moscow and Moscow region. The auto industry of the project for this airship was N.V. Fomin.

Airship "Moscow rubber chemist"

The MHR airship had a shell volume of 2,458 cubic meters. meters, its length was 45.4 m, diameter - 10.3 m. The engine power was 77 kW, and maximum speed flight speed was 62 km/h. This airship could lift up to 900 kg into the sky. payload. The airship made its first flight on June 16, 1925, under the control of V.L. Nizhevsky, the airship spent 2 hours 5 minutes in the air. This airship was in operation until the fall of 1928, while it was modernized and rebuilt several times. In total, the Moscow Rubber Chemist made 21 flights, flying to total 43 hours 29 minutes.

Simultaneously with the cessation of operation of the MHR airship, almost all flight training work in the country stopped. For this reason, upon call printed edition"Komsomolskaya Pravda" collection has begun Money for the construction of a new airship. Work on its production was carried out by students of the Higher Aeromechanical School, and N.V. Fomin supervised the work. In order to speed up the construction of the new airship, it was decided to make maximum use of the MHR project with the introduction of a number of changes to it. The new airship was named "Komsomolskaya Pravda".

Airship "Komsomolskaya Pravda"

On July 25, 1930, the completed airship was filled with gas and made its first flight on August 29. The commander of the ship was E.M. Oppman. Already on August 31, 1930, Komsomolskaya Pravda flew over Moscow for the first time. In total, in 1930, the airship managed to make 30 flights, and the next year another 25. These training and propaganda flights had a very great importance to accumulate experience in operating airships and training aeronautics personnel.

On April 25, 1931, the Council of Labor and Defense adopted the Resolution “On the creation of a Base for Experimental Construction and Operation of Airships” /BOSED/ in the Civil Air Fleet, later renamed the Research and Development Plant “Dirizhablestroy”. The whole country followed his labor successes; the whole nation took part in the creation of the first domestic airships. A call was made: “Give me a squadron of Soviet airships,” and slogans rang out all over the country: “Save a penny, put it in the national piggy bank for the construction of airships.” In two years, 25 million rubles were collected.

This organization had to join forces different groups specialists working in this field, as well as to engage in the planned expansion of work in the field of design and subsequent construction of Soviet airships. The organization also had to devote time to conducting scientific research on aeronautical topics and improving the methods of operating airships.

Sinka - aircraft DP-4 (USSR B6), from the archives of Dirigiblestroy.

The first Soviet airship assembled at Dirigablestroy was the USSR V-3 airship, which belonged to the type of soft airships and was used as a training and propaganda ship. The project of this airship was created in design bureau"Dirizhablestroy", the gondola was built in its own workshops, the shell - at the "Kauchuk" plant.

The airship made its first flight from Leningrad to Moscow. On November 7, 1932, the airship took part in the parade on Red Square in Moscow.

The crews of the first Soviet airships consisted of young aeronauts who were in love with their profession, enthusiasts and patriots, brave and determined people. They built airships and flew their creations. In front of everyone technical difficulties and shortcomings, they strived to “fly farthest, highest and fastest.”

After mastering the construction of soft airships, to provide technical assistance In the design and operation of semi-rigid airships, the famous designer of Italian semi-rigid airships, Umberto Nobile, was invited to "Dirizhablestroy".

In May 1932, together with a group of designers and experienced workers, General Umberto Nobile arrived in the city of Dolgoprudny. Before that, he twice flew to the North Pole on the airships Norway and Italy. On the way back, the crew of the "Italy" found itself in a storm zone. The airship became icy, lost altitude and hit a huge hummock with force. The gondola broke away from the hull and fell onto the ice. Soviet icebreakers took part in rescuing the expedition, one of which was the Krasin, which picked up a group of five people. Umberto Nobile himself was taken out by a Swedish pilot.

A total of 9 Italian specialists arrived. Their contract was for 3 years, during which time it was supposed to train 8 Soviet specialists and design new models of airships.

Already in 1932, the new organization produced 3 soft airships - USSR V-1, USSR V-2 "Smolny" and USSR V-3 "Red Star", which were mainly intended for carrying out training and propaganda flights, as well as gaining experience in using airships in national economy. The minimum volume of the B-1 airship was 2,200 cubic meters. meters, airships B-2 and B-3 5,000 and 6,500 cubic meters. meters respectively. The airships also differed from each other in their engines, while having the same type of design. The shell of all three airships was made of three-layer rubberized material and had an internal partition that divided the volume into 2 equal parts. This partition made it possible to reduce the flow of gas along the shell when the aircraft was trimmed.

Airship USSR V-2

These three airships carried out a series of successful flights along the routes Leningrad - Moscow - Leningrad, Moscow - Gorky - Moscow, Moscow - Kharkov, etc. All three airships, as well as the USSR B-4 that joined them, passed on November 7 in the wake column over Krasnaya area. According to their flying characteristics Soviet airships B-2 and B-3 were almost as good as foreign analogues of this class. All this suggests that despite little experience and the lack of a sufficient number of qualified specialists, by 1933 the USSR was able to in full master the techniques of designing, manufacturing and operating soft airships.

One is associated with the USSR B-2 Smolny airship interesting case. On September 6, 1935, the airship, located at the Stalino airfield (Donbass), was torn from its bivouac by an incoming squall. At the same time, all 60 corkscrew anchors that held it were torn out of the ground. The airship commander N.S. Gudovantsev, who grabbed one of the cables, was able to reach the gondola at an altitude of 120 meters, in which at that moment there were 4 crew members and 11 pioneer excursionists. At an altitude of 800 meters the engines were started. After that, after waiting out unfavorable weather conditions in the air, the airship landed safely after 5 hours and 45 minutes. For this heroic act Gudovantsev was awarded the order Red Star.

Airship USSR V-5

Already at the end of February 1933, the first semi-rigid airship in the USSR, the B-5, was ready. On April 27, 1933, he took off for the first time. This airship had a relatively small sizes, its volume was only 2,340 cubic meters. meters. This was explained by the fact that the USSR V-5 was conceived in quality semi-rigid airship designed for practical acquaintance Soviet designers with the Italian semi-rigid system, as well as identifying the difficulties that could have been encountered in the USSR in the production of a larger airship. In addition, it was planned to conduct training for ground personnel and pilots on the B-5.

In May 1933, after passing a series of state acceptance tests, which were considered successful, the B-5 was accepted into the civil air fleet. In 1933, he made more than a hundred flights, which proved that this airship has a set of good stability characteristics and is also controllable in the entire range of weather conditions encountered. The experience gained during its construction and operation became the basis for the construction of the largest airship in the USSR, the B-6 Osoaviakhim.

Cylinder workshop. Folding the airship shell. 1935

The crowning glory of Soviet airship construction was, obviously, the USSR-V-6. Eighteen thousand “cubes” of hydrogen, original design; in the front part there was a suspended passenger cabin, capable of accommodating a person flying, and in the rear part - in a triangle - three small engine nacelles.

According to the Dirigiblestroy plan, the first air line on airships was supposed to connect Moscow with Murmansk. For this purpose, they were going to build in Petrozavodsk mooring mast, and in Murmansk - a hangar, gas facilities. But this and others air lines never appeared due to the lack of bases for storing and supplying airships: hangars were only in Dolgoprudny and near Gatchina.

Weighing the shell of the airship USSR-V6. 1935

The design of the USSR V-6 was based on the Italian airship of the N-4 type, with a number of improvements introduced into its design. The volume of the airship was 18,500 cubic meters. meters, length - 104.5 m, diameter - 18.8 m. Assembly of the airship lasted for 3 months. As a comparison, it can be noted that in Italy the construction of airships of similar sizes at more equipped airship-building bases took 5-6 months.

Back in 1934, the USSR V-6 was going to be used for flights between Moscow and Sverdlovsk. In the fall of 1937, a test flight took place, in which twenty people took part. An admiring correspondent for the Pravda newspaper wrote that a brilliant future was opening up for this wonderful mode of transport. Nobile especially noted Pankov’s good leadership qualities.

On September 29, 1937, the USSR V-6 took off with the goal of setting a world record for flight duration. The crew consisted of sixteen people, replacing each other every eight hours. There are 5700 liters of gasoline on board.

For 20 hours the airship moved on a given course, then due to bad weather- in the direction of the wind. We flew over Kalinin, Kursk, Voronezh, then over Novgorod, Bryansk, Penza, and again over Voronezh. On October 4, the airship landed in Dolgoprudny, staying in the air without landing for 130 hours and 27 minutes! The previous achievement - 118 hours 40 minutes - was achieved by Zeppelin LZ-72, which was more than three times larger in volume than Osoaviakhim.

The airship had to overcome strong headwinds, travel through torrential rains, and through fog. "USSR V-6", built entirely from domestic materials, withstood it with honor the most difficult test, and the aeronaut pilots demonstrated extraordinary flying skills.

In 1924, a state monopoly on helium was introduced. And just two years later, members of the expedition of the Geological Committee A. Cherepennikov and M. Vorobyov discovered gas outlets in the Ukhta River basin.

The government bodies of the USSR paid increased attention to this problem, since helium acquired strategic importance at that time due to the sharp expansion of its use in the military field - airship construction and underwater work. In 1931, a commission of the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, with the participation of Stalin, discussed issues of development of the North, including those related to the search for helium-bearing gases. A year later, a meeting on helium was held at the USSR State Planning Committee, chaired by V. Kuibyshev. At the same time, efforts were made practical steps to search for helium deposits. The head of the Ukhtokombinat, Y. Moroz, reported to the Komi Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “When drilling for oil in 1932 in the Verkhnyaya Chuti area with a well

The shell of the USSR-V6 airship is taken out of the workshop into the boathouse 1934

No. 25, a powerful accumulation was discovered in the oil-bearing formation natural gas with helium content up to 0.45%...". The discovery of helium gave rise to the leadership of Komi to declare the need to organize the extraction and partial processing of this gas in the Ukhta region.

In 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to build a helium plant with a capacity of 50 thousand cubic meters per year near the village of Krutaya, Ukhtinsky district, on the basis of the Sediel gas field.

And now RI ends and AI begins.

In February 1938, the airship "USSR V-6" turned out to be the only device capable of quickly reaching Papanin's polar explorers in distress and, hovering over the ice floe, lifting people and equipment.

Based on the results of the operation, the RKKF became interested in the airship. The Dolgoprudnensky plant was issued technical specifications for a patrol airship for the fleet, capable of performing the functions of a reconnaissance aircraft and a heavy bomber if necessary. In April 1940, the airship "USSR B-13" "White Fluffy" made its first flight. By June 22, 1941, the RKKF Air Force already had three similar devices.

Airship USSR V-6

Osoaviakhim made its first flight on November 5, 1934, Nobile himself flew the machine, the flight duration was 1 hour 45 minutes. Subsequent flights proved its high performance characteristics.

The passenger capacity of the airship was 20 people, the payload was 8,500 kg, the maximum speed was 113 km/h, the maximum flight range with a full load was 2,000 km. All this made it possible to consider the B-6 as the first Soviet airship that could carry out specific national economic tasks. Using this airship, the USSR planned to open the first long-distance passenger air lines.

Convincing proof of the B-6's suitability for long-distance passenger transportation was the world record flight duration of 130 hours and 27 minutes. However, these plans were not destined to come true. In February 1938, the airship crashed during a training flight to Petrozavodsk, killing 13 of its 19 crew members.

B-7, landing on water

Simultaneously with the B-6, the USSR B-7 airship was built in the USSR, named “Chelyuskinets”, its volume was 9,500 cubic meters. meters. It made its first flight in 1934. In 1935, a similar airship was built, designated V-7bis, and the following year the USSR V-8 with a volume of 10,000 cubic meters. meters. In addition, Dirigablestroy worked on a project for a semi-rigid airship with impressive parameters - a volume of 55,000 cubic meters. meters, length - 152 m, diameter - 29 m, cruising speed- 100 km/h, range - up to 7,000 km. In addition, the plans included the production of 2 high-altitude semi-rigid airships with volumes of 29,000 and 100,000 cubic meters. meters respectively. However, after the B-8, not a single semi-rigid airship was built in the USSR.

Airship "Pobeda"

Subsequently, the USSR built 4 more soft-design airships V-10, V-12, V-12 bis "Patriot", as well as the airship "Pobeda".

The Red Army Air Force also received airships. Thus, four airships took part in supporting the combat operations of the Red Army - "USSR V-1", "USSR V-12", "Malysh" and "Pobeda", despite the fact that the last three devices were built at the Dolgoprudny airship plant (+ another piece former plant, but still builds airships) in general, during the war years - B-12 (2940 m³) in 1942 (according to other sources - reassembly of a 1939 machine, dismantled in 1940), and "Pobeda" (5000 m³) and "Baby" - in 1944. At the same time, several airships were decided various tasks, one of the most important was the transportation of hydrogen, so to speak, “in kind”, because the hydrogen used in barrage balloons was extremely inconvenient for transportation - it flatly refuses to liquefy without extreme conditions, and compression does not give a significant effect - very heavy cylinders are required - and as a result To launch just one balloon, you need to make more than one or two flights of one-and-a-half. You can, of course, extract hydrogen from water, using banal electrolysis, but it’s good when a power source is at hand, and what if not? You can't get away with gasoline generators...

in the Cylinder Workshop of "Dirizhablestroy". 1935, The airship shell is made of three layers of rubberized fabric (percale) coated with aluminum paint. The weight of 1 sq.m of this material is about 340 grams.

So: The airships transported 194,580 cubic meters hydrogen and 319,190 kilograms of various cargoes. In total, during the Second World War, Soviet airships performed more than 1,500 flights. So, in 1943-44. the airship "USSR V-12" made 969 flights total duration 1284 hours. In 1945, the airships "USSR V-12" and "Pobeda" performed 216 flights with a total duration of 382 hours. One flight of the airship with associated cargo was enough to refuel 3-4 barrage balloons.

In 1933-1944, airships worked hard to transport hydrogen to numerous points. Well, and along the way, airships solved the problem of transporting small cargoes - and, in fact, for free; they also need additional ballast for transporting gas? Needed. So they loaded up with whatever they had to.

After the war, it was used quite successfully to search for sunken ships and uncleared mines.

In the late 20s and early 30s of the last century, airships still played a role in the development of Siberia, but later they were finally forced out of the sky by airplanes. The 20th century was the century of aviation.

The first attempt to revive controlled aeronautics in the country of the Soviets was made in 1920. An analysis of equipment and parts of old airships inherited from the Russian Empire showed that the shell of the Astra airship was in the best condition at that time, so a decision was made to work on its restoration. After the production of individual elements of the mechanical part and a new suspension, in the fall of 1920 in the village of Salizi (near Petrograd), the aeronautical detachment began work on assembling the airship, which was renamed the “Red Star”.
This work ended in mid-November; on November 23, the shell of the airship was filled with gas, and on January 3, 1921, it made its first flight. In total, this airship performed 6 flights, the total duration of which was about 16 hours.

Airship "VI October"
The second Soviet airship was the VI October, which was built in 1923 by students of the Higher Aeronautical School located in Petrograd. The airship was built according to the type of English naval reconnaissance aircraft and was made from scrap materials. In particular, its 1,700 cc shell volume. meters was sewn from the shells of old tethered balloons. The total length of the airship was 39.2 m, diameter - 8.2 m, power plant power 77 kW. The airship made its first flight on November 27, 1923; it lasted about 30 minutes. On November 29, the airship took to the skies for the second time, this time the flight lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes, during the flight it reached an altitude of 900 meters. After this, flights of the airship "VI October" were stopped due to the very high gas permeability of the shell.
In 1923, a special Air Center was created under the Society of Friends of the USSR Air Fleet, whose tasks included promoting the development of airship construction in Soviet Russia. After some time, the Air Center was renamed the air section of Osoaviakhim of the USSR. Already in the fall of 1924, the construction of another soft airship called the “Moscow Rubber Chemist” (MHR) was completed here. Its name indicated that it was made with funds from workers in the chemical industry of Moscow and the Moscow region. The auto industry of the project for this airship was N.V. Fomin.

Airship "Moscow rubber chemist"
The MHR airship had a shell volume of 2,458 cubic meters. meters, its length was 45.4 m, diameter - 10.3 m. The engine power was 77 kW, and the maximum flight speed was 62 km/h. This airship could lift up to 900 kg into the sky. payload. The airship made its first flight on June 16, 1925, under the control of V.L. Nizhevsky, the airship spent 2 hours 5 minutes in the air. This airship was in operation until the fall of 1928, while it was modernized and rebuilt several times. In total, the Moscow Rubber Chemist made 21 flights, flying a total of 43 hours and 29 minutes.
Simultaneously with the cessation of operation of the MHR airship, almost all flight training work in the country stopped. For this reason, at the call of the printed publication Komsomolskaya Pravda, fundraising began for the construction of a new airship. Work on its production was carried out by students of the Higher Aeromechanical School, and N.V. Fomin supervised the work. In order to speed up the construction of the new airship, it was decided to make maximum use of the MHR project with the introduction of a number of changes to it. The new airship was named "Komsomolskaya Pravda".

Airship "Komsomolskaya Pravda"
On July 25, 1930, the completed airship was filled with gas and made its first flight on August 29. The commander of the ship was E.M. Oppman. Already on August 31, 1930, Komsomolskaya Pravda flew over Moscow for the first time. In total, in 1930, the airship managed to make 30 flights, and the next year another 25. These training and promotional flights were very important for gaining experience in operating airships and training aeronautics personnel.
On April 25, 1931, the Council of Labor and Defense adopted the Resolution “On the creation of a Base for Experimental Construction and Operation of Airships” /BOSED/ in the Civil Air Fleet, later renamed the Research and Development Plant “Dirizhablestroy”. The whole country followed his labor successes; the whole nation took part in the creation of the first domestic airships. A call was made: “Give me a squadron of Soviet airships,” and slogans rang out all over the country: “Save a penny, put it in the national piggy bank for the construction of airships.” In two years, 25 million rubles were collected.
This organization was supposed to unite the efforts of different groups of specialists working in this field, as well as engage in the planned deployment of work in the field of design and subsequent construction of Soviet airships. The organization also had to devote time to conducting scientific research on aeronautical topics and improving the methods of operating airships.

Sinka - aircraft DP-4 (USSR B6), from the archives of Dirigiblestroy.
The first Soviet airship assembled at Dirigablestroy was the USSR V-3 airship, which belonged to the type of soft airships and was used as a training and propaganda ship. The design of this airship was created at the Dirigablestroy design bureau, the gondola was built in its workshops, and the shell was built at the Kauchuk plant.
The airship made its first flight from Leningrad to Moscow. On November 7, 1932, the airship took part in the parade on Red Square in Moscow.
The crews of the first Soviet airships consisted of young aeronauts who were in love with their profession, enthusiasts and patriots, brave and determined people. They built airships and flew their creations. Despite all the technical difficulties and shortcomings, they strived to “fly farthest, highest and fastest.”
After mastering the construction of soft airships, the famous designer of Italian semi-rigid airships, Umberto Nobile, was invited to provide technical assistance in the design and operation of semi-rigid airships.

In May 1932, together with a group of designers and experienced workers, General Umberto Nobile arrived in the city of Dolgoprudny. Before that, he twice flew to the North Pole on the airships Norway and Italy. On the way back, the Italia crew found itself in a storm zone. The airship became icy, lost altitude and hit a huge hummock with force. The gondola broke away from the hull and fell onto the ice. Soviet icebreakers took part in rescuing the expedition, one of which was the Krasin, which picked up a group of five people. Umberto Nobile himself was taken out by a Swedish pilot.
A total of 9 Italian specialists arrived. Their contract was for 3 years, during which time it was supposed to train 8 Soviet specialists and design new models of airships.
Already in 1932, the new organization produced 3 soft airships - USSR V-1, USSR V-2 "Smolny" and USSR V-3 "Red Star", which were mainly intended for carrying out training and propaganda flights, as well as gaining experience in using airships in the national economy. The minimum volume of the B-1 airship was 2,200 cubic meters. meters, airships B-2 and B-3 5,000 and 6,500 cubic meters. meters respectively. The airships also differed from each other in their engines, while having the same type of design. The shell of all three airships was made of three-layer rubberized material and had an internal partition that divided the volume into 2 equal parts. This partition made it possible to reduce the flow of gas along the shell when the aircraft was trimmed.

Airship USSR V-2
These three airships carried out a series of successful flights along the routes Leningrad - Moscow - Leningrad, Moscow - Gorky - Moscow, Moscow - Kharkov, etc. All three airships, as well as the USSR B-4 that joined them, passed on November 7 in the wake column over Krasnaya area. In terms of their flight characteristics, the Soviet airships B-2 and B-3 were almost as good as their foreign analogues of this class. All this suggests that despite little experience and the lack of a sufficient number of qualified specialists, by 1933 the USSR was able to fully master the technology of designing, manufacturing and operating soft airships.
One interesting case is connected with the USSR B-2 Smolny airship. On September 6, 1935, the airship, located at the Stalino airfield (Donbass), was torn from its bivouac by an incoming squall. At the same time, all 60 corkscrew anchors that held it were torn out of the ground. The airship commander N.S. Gudovantsev, who grabbed one of the cables, was able to reach the gondola at an altitude of 120 meters, in which at that moment there were 4 crew members and 11 pioneer excursionists. At an altitude of 800 meters the engines were started. After that, after waiting out unfavorable weather conditions in the air, the airship landed safely after 5 hours and 45 minutes. For this heroic act, Gudovantsev was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Airship USSR V-5
Already at the end of February 1933, the first semi-rigid airship in the USSR, the B-5, was ready. On April 27, 1933, he took off for the first time. This airship was relatively small in size, its volume was only 2,340 cubic meters. meters. This was explained by the fact that the USSR V-5 was conceived as a semi-rigid airship, intended for practical acquaintance of Soviet designers with the Italian semi-rigid system, as well as to identify the difficulties that the USSR could encounter in the production of a larger airship. In addition, it was planned to conduct training for ground personnel and pilots on the B-5.
In May 1933, after passing a series of state acceptance tests, which were considered successful, the B-5 was accepted into the civil air fleet. In 1933, he made more than a hundred flights, which proved that this airship has a set of good stability characteristics and is also controllable in the entire range of weather conditions encountered. The experience gained during its construction and operation became the basis for the construction of the largest airship in the USSR, the B-6 Osoaviakhim.

Cylinder workshop. Folding the airship shell. 1935
The crowning glory of Soviet airship construction was, obviously, the USSR-V-6. Eighteen thousand “cubes” of hydrogen, original design; in the front part there was a suspended passenger cabin, capable of accommodating a person flying, and in the rear part - in a triangle - three small engine nacelles.
According to the Dirigiblestroy plan, the first air line on airships was supposed to connect Moscow with Murmansk. For this purpose, they were going to build a mooring mast in Petrozavodsk, and a hangar and gas facilities in Murmansk. But this and other air lines never appeared due to the lack of bases for storing and supplying airships: there were hangars only in Dolgoprudny and near Gatchina.

Weighing the shell of the airship USSR-V6. 1935
The design of the USSR V-6 was based on the Italian airship of the N-4 type, with a number of improvements introduced into its design. The volume of the airship was 18,500 cubic meters. meters, length - 104.5 m, diameter - 18.8 m. Assembly of the airship lasted for 3 months. As a comparison, it can be noted that in Italy the construction of airships of similar sizes at more equipped airship-building bases took 5-6 months.
Back in 1934, the USSR V-6 was going to be used for flights between Moscow and Sverdlovsk. In the fall of 1937, a test flight took place, in which twenty people took part. An admiring correspondent for the Pravda newspaper wrote that a brilliant future was opening up for this wonderful mode of transport. Nobile especially noted Pankov’s good leadership qualities.
On September 29, 1937, the USSR B-6 took off with the goal of setting a world record for flight duration. The crew consisted of sixteen people, replacing each other every eight hours. There are 5700 liters of gasoline on board.

For 20 hours the airship moved on a given course, then, due to bad weather, in the direction of the wind. We flew over Kalinin, Kursk, Voronezh, then over Novgorod, Bryansk, Penza, and again over Voronezh. On October 4, the airship landed in Dolgoprudny, staying in the air without landing for 130 hours and 27 minutes! The previous achievement - 118 hours 40 minutes - was achieved by Zeppelin LZ-72, which was more than three times larger in volume than Osoaviakhim.
The airship had to overcome strong headwinds, travel through torrential rains, and through fog. The USSR V-6, built entirely from domestic materials, passed this most difficult test with honor, and the aeronaut pilots demonstrated extraordinary flying skills.
In 1924, a state monopoly on helium was introduced. And just two years later, members of the expedition of the Geological Committee A. Cherepennikov and M. Vorobyov discovered gas outlets in the Ukhta River basin.
The government bodies of the USSR paid increased attention to this problem, since helium acquired strategic importance at that time due to the sharp expansion of its use in the military field - airship construction and underwater work. In 1931, a commission of the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, with the participation of Stalin, discussed issues of development of the North, including those related to the search for helium-bearing gases. A year later, a meeting on helium was held at the USSR State Planning Committee, chaired by V. Kuibyshev. At the same time, practical steps were taken to search for helium deposits. The head of the Ukhtokombinat, Y. Moroz, reported to the Komi Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: “When drilling for oil in 1932 in the Verkhnyaya Chuti area with a well

The shell of the USSR-V6 airship is taken out of the workshop into the boathouse 1934
No. 25, a powerful accumulation of natural gas with a helium content of up to 0.45% was discovered in the oil-bearing formation...” The discovery of helium gave rise to the leadership of Komi to declare the need to organize the extraction and partial processing of this gas in the Ukhta region.
In 1935, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR decided to build a helium plant with a capacity of 50 thousand cubic meters per year near the village of Krutaya, Ukhtinsky district, on the basis of the Sediel gas field.
And now RI ends and AI begins.
In February 1938, the airship "USSR V-6" turned out to be the only device capable of quickly reaching Papanin's polar explorers in distress and, hovering over the ice floe, lifting people and equipment.
Based on the results of the operation, the RKKF became interested in the airship. The Dolgoprudnensky plant was issued technical specifications for a patrol airship for the fleet, capable of performing the functions of a reconnaissance aircraft and a heavy bomber if necessary. In April 1940, the airship "USSR B-13" "White Fluffy" made its first flight. By June 22, 1941, the RKKF Air Force already had three similar devices.

Airship USSR V-6
Osoaviakhim made its first flight on November 5, 1934, Nobile himself flew the machine, the flight duration was 1 hour 45 minutes. Subsequent flights proved its high performance characteristics.
The passenger capacity of the airship was 20 people, the payload was 8,500 kg, the maximum speed was 113 km/h, and the maximum flight range with a full load was 2,000 km. All this made it possible to consider the B-6 as the first Soviet airship that could carry out specific national economic tasks. Using this airship, the USSR planned to open the first long-distance passenger air lines.
Convincing proof of the suitability of the B-6 for long-distance passenger transportation was the set world record for flight duration - 130 hours 27 minutes. However, these plans were not destined to come true. In February 1938, the airship crashed during a training flight to Petrozavodsk, killing 13 of its 19 crew members.

B-7, water landing
Simultaneously with the B-6, the USSR B-7 airship was built in the USSR, named “Chelyuskinets”, its volume was 9,500 cubic meters. meters. It made its first flight in 1934. In 1935, a similar airship was built, designated V-7bis, and the following year the USSR V-8 with a volume of 10,000 cubic meters. meters. In addition, Dirigablestroy worked on a project for a semi-rigid airship with impressive parameters - volume - 55,000 cubic meters. meters, length - 152 m, diameter - 29 m, cruising speed - 100 km/h, range - up to 7,000 km. In addition, the plans included the production of 2 high-altitude semi-rigid airships with volumes of 29,000 and 100,000 cubic meters. meters respectively. However, after the B-8, not a single semi-rigid airship was built in the USSR.

Airship "Pobeda"
Subsequently, the USSR built 4 more soft-design airships V-10, V-12, V-12 bis "Patriot", as well as the airship "Pobeda".
The Red Army Air Force also received airships. So, four airships took part in supporting the combat operations of the Red Army - “USSR V-1”, “USSR V-12”, “Malysh” and “Pobeda”, despite the fact that the last three devices were built at the Dolgoprudny airship plant (+ another piece former plant, but still builds airships) in general, during the war years - B-12 (2940 m³) in 1942 (according to other sources - reassembly of the 1939 machine, dismantled in 1940), and "Pobeda" (5000 m³) and "Baby" - in 1944.
At the same time, airships solved several different problems, one of the most important was the transportation of hydrogen, so to speak, “in kind”, because the hydrogen used in barrage balloons was extremely inconvenient for transportation - it flatly refuses to liquefy without extreme conditions, and compression does not give a significant effect - required very heavy cylinders, - and as a result, to launch just one balloon you need to make more than one or two flights with a semi-truck. You can, of course, extract hydrogen from water, using banal electrolysis, but it’s good when a power source is at hand, and what if not? You can't get away with petrol generators...

In the Cylinder Workshop of "Dirizhablestroy". 1935, The airship shell is made of three layers of rubberized fabric (percale) coated with aluminum paint. The weight of 1 sq.m of this material is about 340 grams.
So: The airships transported 194,580 cubic meters of hydrogen and 319,190 kilograms of various cargo. In total, during the Second World War, Soviet airships performed more than 1,500 flights. So, in 1943-44. The airship "USSR V-12" made 969 flights with a total duration of 1284 hours. In 1945, the airships "USSR V-12" and "Pobeda" performed 216 flights with a total duration of 382 hours. One flight of the airship with associated cargo was enough to refuel 3-4 barrage balloons.
In 1933-1944, airships worked hard to transport hydrogen to numerous points. Well, and along the way, airships solved the problem of transporting small cargoes - and, in fact, for free; they also need additional ballast for transporting gas? Needed. So they loaded up with whatever they had to.
After the war, it was used quite successfully to search for sunken ships and uncleared mines.

In 1931, the Airship Construction was organized under the Civil Air Fleet Administration; one of its leaders was the Italian Umberto Nobile, who came to the USSR under a contract. Already in April next year The first airship, the USSR V-1, is born at the Dirizhablestroy shipyards. Following it, the airship "USSR V-2" appears, doubling bigger size(volume 5000 cubic meters), and the airship "USSR V-3" ("Udarnik"), volume 6500 cubic meters. m, built with the participation of an Italian designer.

Many years later, ninety-year-old Nobile, awarded on the days of his anniversary with a silver medal from the Geographical Institute in Italy, will say: “After being rescued, I lived in Russia for five years. It was one of the happiest periods in my life. If I had stayed there, the Soviet government would have done everything possible to ensure that I could carry out my plans for Arctic exploration. But my daughter persistently called me to Italy, and I returned. In the United States, where I had to go because the Nazis deprived me of any opportunity to work, I was not so happy.".

On November 7, 1932, three airships, together with the airships built by that time, “USSR V-4” (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”) and “USSR V-5,” took part in an air parade on Red Square.
In 1934, the airship "USSR V-6" (Osoaviakhim), with a volume of 19,000 cubic meters, entered service. m, equipped with three 240-horsepower engines. IN October days 1934 "Osoaviakhim" with Umberto Nobile on board makes its first flight over the capital.

According to the Dirigiblestroy plan, the first air line on airships was supposed to connect Moscow with Murmansk. For this purpose, they were going to build a mooring mast in Petrozavodsk, and a hangar and gas facilities in Murmansk. But this and other air lines never appeared due to the lack of bases for storing and supplying airships: there were hangars only in Dolgoprudny and near Gatchina.

For 20 hours the airship moved on a given course, then, due to bad weather, in the direction of the wind. We flew over Kalinin, Kursk, Voronezh, then over Novgorod, Bryansk, Penza, and again over Voronezh. On October 4, the airship landed in Dolgoprudny, staying in the air without landing for 130 hours and 27 minutes! The previous achievement - 118 hours 40 minutes - was achieved by Zeppelin LZ-72, which was more than three times larger in volume than Osoaviakhim.
(IMG: http://s7.hostingkartinok.com/uploads/images/2015/02/b3807387b6ec4b73b79c11352d719e41.jpg)
The airship had to overcome strong headwinds, travel through torrential rains, and through fog. The USSR V-6, built entirely from domestic materials, passed this most difficult test with honor, and the aeronaut pilots demonstrated extraordinary flying skills.

At the beginning of 1938, the airship was preparing for a long flight along the Moscow - Novosibirsk route, designed to mark the beginning of the country's first cargo-passenger airship line. However, the crew of the USSR V-6 had to change their plans.

May 20, 1937 four Soviet aircraft landed at the North Pole. For the first time in the world, a drifting ship was founded polar station"North Pole-1" ("SP-1"); it was headed by Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin.

On February 1, 1938, polar explorers radioed Mainland: “As a result of a six-day storm, at 8 o’clock in the morning on February 1, in the area of the station, the field was torn by cracks... We are on the fragment of a field 300 m long, 200 wide... There is a crack under a residential tent.”.

The icebreakers Taimyr, Ermak and Murman were sent to rescue the polar explorers. But they are moving very slowly. The planes may not land on the ice floe on which the Papaninites are floating. Only the airship was able to quickly fly to the polar explorers and, hovering over the ice floe, lift people and equipment. "USSR V-6" was perfectly suited for this purpose.
The crew of the airship consisted of the best people of the squadron, the most knowledgeable commanders, navigators, and flight mechanics. All nineteen people, despite their youth, are experienced airship operators. True, Nobile considered it a mistake to appoint the young pilot N.S. as commander of the B-6. Gudovantsev instead of I.V. Pankov, who had mastered the control of this airship well.

This appointment probably happened because Gudovantsev once corrected his own mistake with a heroic act. The B-2 airship under his leadership, having completed a training flight, landed in Donetsk. Contrary to the operating rules, the entire crew left the gondola and began attaching the airship to the stoppers. By the commander’s condescension, curious boys climbed into the gondola. A sudden gust of wind tore the airship from its anchors, and, uncontrolled by anyone, it began to rise. Then Gudovantsev, grabbing the cable, began to pull himself up by hand and with great difficulty reached the gondola. Having started the engine, he safely brought the airship to the airfield. Gudovantsev was awarded the order for his resourcefulness and courage.

On the airship "USSR V-6" together with N.S. Gudovantsev pilots I.V. went to the North Pole. Pankov, S.V. Demin, engineer V.A. Ustinovich, navigator A.A. Ritsland, meteorologist A.I. Gradus, flight mechanic D.I. Matyushin and other brave balloonists.
Despite the bad weather and blizzard, the launch was scheduled for February 5, 1938. The ship's commander, last time Having checked the condition of the airship and its engines, the readiness of the crew, he reported to the government commission.

Six tons of fuel fit into 18 tanks suspended along the 100-meter keel of the ship. Four 200-liter ballast tanks are filled with antifreeze - water mixed with alcohol. The B-6 carried a three-month supply of food, sets of warm clothing, tents, guns, a lot of other equipment, as well as boxes of pyrotechnics - it is a polar night in the Arctic, and in order to find the black tent SP-1, it may be necessary to drop flare bombs by parachute. But now all the preparations are completed - the USSR V-6 set off on a test flight to Murmansk.

The airship was flying at an altitude of 200-300 m. The weather report was not encouraging: low clouds, snow, icing; B-6 entered an area of heavy fog. In such conditions the flight took place for five hours. Then the weather temporarily improved - the clouds rose, visibility increased to 20-30 km. Using a tailwind, the airship reached a speed of more than 100 km/h. After another two hours, the ship again entered a zone of dense clouds. For safety reasons, the flight altitude was increased from 300 to 450 meters.

To prevent balloonists from getting lost on the way, workers lit bonfires along the railway to Murmansk on their own initiative. But the aeronauts, not warned about this, were only surprised by the lights.

The airship flew in a straight line, using maps from 1906. Even the experienced Ritsland did not know exactly where they were. At 18:56 on the same day, the radio operator of the USSR V-6 ship transmitted another report on the progress of the flight, but did not make contact again. What happened?

At about 19 o'clock, not far from the city of Kandalaksha, right ahead of the airship, in the breaks in the fog, the outlines of a two-headed mountain suddenly appeared. Myachkov shouted: “Mountain! We're flying up the mountain! “Right to the limit! - Pankov commanded. - To failure!

Pochekin turned the helm; Pankov threw the depth rudder to the left, also to failure, lifting the bow of the ship. He didn’t have time to do anything else: neither pull the crutches - open the ballast tanks, nor signal the flight mechanics to turn off the engines. At great speed, the airship began to knock down trees. The gondola tossed, shook, everything around creaked piercingly, breaking apart with a crash. The light immediately went out.

Hitting his temple against the frame of the window, Penkov fell dead; Myachkov was thrown to the other end of the cabin. Pochekin, flying forward, smashed the windshield with his head. Covered in blood, losing consciousness, he tried to get up but could not.

From the passenger compartment, from under the boxes, chairs, bales - everything that was there, came the groans of crashed, deafened people who still did not understand what had happened. The clang, crunch of metal breaking into pieces... Uprooting huge pine trees, the ship made a clearing. The gondola began to fill with something caustic and suffocating.

For those who slept in the stern of the airship, the first blow was not so noticeable. They were shaken hard in their hammocks, thrown aside, someone raised a voice in bewilderment in the darkness, someone didn’t even wake up...

A spark, believed to have arisen from a short circuit in the power supply, started a fire. Ustinovich was the first to see a fire break out on the bow of the ship and shouted: “Guys, we’re burning!”

A terrible explosion of pyrotechnics tore apart the walls of the gondola, lifted the steel keel that had fallen on top of it, threw burning pieces of bulkheads, tin boxes of food, fragments of burning boxes tens of meters away, and scattered steel mooring cables to the sides.

The whole ship is already like one roaring fiery volcano. Gasoline tanks and boxes of ammunition burst with a roar. The flames rushed towards the clouds in a giant column.

The tragedy occurred 39 kilometers from Kandalaksha. At 19.00 people at the White Sea railway station heard a strong dull explosion.
All thirteen people in the cabin were killed. Only six aeronauts, who were in the engine nacelles and in the tail, were saved. Wounded and burned, they fell into the snow. Having recovered from the shock, they lit a fire and began to wait. In the morning they were found - a group of skiers and a search party on reindeer sleds.

As experts later noted, during the entire flight the material part of the airship worked flawlessly. The causes of the disaster were the lack of reliable navigation aids on board and the imperfection of the control system. On the map used by the aeronauts, instead of the ill-fated mountain, a swamp is indicated.

The surviving aeronauts wrote a telegram:

“MOSCOW Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), to the Council of People's Commissars from KANDALAKSHY. 02/10/1938

I'm heartbroken that our flight ended so tragically. Burning with the desire to carry out a responsible government task, we gave all our strength to successfully complete the flight to remove the brave four Papanins from the ice floe; To complete this task, the government provided us with everything necessary. The entire crew was firmly convinced that they would achieve their intended goal without any risk. It is painful to come to terms with the idea that we have not fulfilled the government’s instructions. An absurd incident cut short our flight. We deeply mourn our fallen comrades.

We thank our government for its fatherly care for the families of our fallen comrades. The death of the airship will not break our will, our determination to carry out any order of the party and government. Airship construction has a great future; accidents that occur cannot reduce the advantages of the airship. We will continue to work hard with redoubled energy to build even more powerful, improved airships. Soviet airship construction is developing successfully, and will develop even more under the leadership of our government, our beloved party.

The crew group of the airship "USSR V-6" Matyunin, Novikov, Ustinovich, Pochekin, Burmakin, Vorobiev."

Telegraph agency Soviet Union(TASS) reported:
“Comrades were killed in the disaster: Gudovantsev N.S. - first commander of the airship “USSR V-6”, Pankov I.V. - second commander, Demin S.V. - first assistant commander, Lyanguzov V.G. - second assistant commander, Kulagin T.S. - third assistant commander, Ritsland A.A. - first navigator, T.N. Myachkov - second navigator, N.A. Konyushin - senior flight mechanic, Shmelkov K.A. - first flight mechanic, Nikitin M.V. - flight mechanic, Kondrashev N.N. - flight mechanic, V.D. Chernov - flight radio operator, Gradus D.I. - weather forecaster."

The governments of many countries sent condolences to the Soviet government and the families of the deceased aeronauts. Thirteen urns were installed in the stone wall of the Novodevichy cemetery under a triple gun salute. Above them froze the metal outline of an airship flying skyward.
In Donetsk, Lugansk and Kazan, streets are named after Gudovantsev, Ritsland, Lyanguzov. Dirigibles Street appeared in the city of Dolgoprudny.

And Papanin and his three comrades were taken off the ice floe on February 19, 1938 by the icebreakers Taimyr and Murman.

The crash of the airship "USSR V-6"

On February 5, 1938, the airship "USSR V-6" crashed into a mountain near the city of Kandalaksha. 13 people died.

Many years later, ninety-year-old Nobile, awarded a silver medal from the Geographical Institute in Italy on his anniversary, will say: “After my salvation, I lived in Russia for five years. It was one of the happiest periods in my life. If I had stayed there, the Soviet government would have done everything possible to ensure that I could carry out my plans for Arctic exploration. But my daughter persistently called me to Italy, and I returned. In the United States, where I had to go because the Nazis deprived me of any opportunity to work, I was not so happy.”

On November 7, 1932, three airships, together with the airships built by that time, “USSR V-4” (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”) and “USSR V-5,” took part in an air parade on Red Square.

In 1934, the airship "USSR V-6" (Osoaviakhim), with a volume of 19,000 cubic meters, entered service. m, equipped with three 240-horsepower engines. In the October days of 1934, Osoaviakhim, with Umberto Nobile on board, made its first flight over the capital.

The airship had to overcome strong headwinds, travel through torrential rains, and through fog. The USSR V-6, built entirely from domestic materials, passed this most difficult test with honor, and the aeronaut pilots demonstrated extraordinary flying skills.

On May 20, 1937, four Soviet planes landed at the North Pole. For the first time in the world, the drifting polar station “North Pole-1” (“SP-1”) was founded; it was headed by Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin.

On February 1, 1938, polar explorers radioed to the mainland: “As a result of a six-day storm, at 8 o’clock in the morning on February 1, in the area of the station, the field was torn by cracks... We are on the fragment of a field 300 m long, 200 wide... A crack has appeared under a residential tent.”

The crew of the airship consisted of the best people of the squadron, the most knowledgeable commanders, navigators, and flight mechanics. All nineteen people, despite their youth, are experienced airship operators. True, Nobile considered it a mistake to appoint the young pilot N.S. as commander of the B-6. Gudovantsev instead of I.V. Pankov, who had mastered the control of this airship well. This appointment probably happened because Gudovantsev once corrected his own mistake with a heroic act. The B-2 airship under his leadership, having completed a training flight, landed in Donetsk. Contrary to the operating rules, the entire crew left the gondola and began attaching the airship to the stoppers. By the commander’s condescension, curious boys climbed into the gondola. A sudden gust of wind tore the airship from its anchors, and, uncontrolled by anyone, it began to rise. Then Gudovantsev, grabbing the cable, began to pull himself up by hand and with great difficulty reached the gondola. Having started the engine, he safely brought the airship to the airfield. Gudovantsev was awarded the order for his resourcefulness and courage.

Despite the bad weather and blizzard, the launch was scheduled for February 5, 1938. The ship's commander, having checked the condition of the airship and its engines and the readiness of the crew for the last time, reported to the government commission.

The whole ship is already like one roaring fiery volcano. Gasoline tanks and boxes of ammunition burst with a roar. The flames rushed towards the clouds in a giant column.

The tragedy occurred 39 kilometers from Kandalaksha. At 19.00 people at the White Sea railway station heard a strong dull explosion.

All thirteen people in the cabin were killed. Only six aeronauts, who were in the engine nacelles and in the tail, were saved. Wounded and burned, they fell into the snow. Having recovered from the shock, they lit a fire and began to wait. In the morning they were found - a group of skiers and a search party on reindeer sleds.

The surviving aeronauts wrote a telegram:

“MOSCOW Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), to the Council of People's Commissars from KANDALAKSHY. 02/10/1938

The crew group of the airship "USSR V-6" Matyunin, Novikov, Ustinovich, Pochekin, Burmakin, Vorobiev."

The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) reported:

“Comrades were killed in the disaster: Gudovantsev N.S. - first commander of the airship “USSR V-6”, Pankov I.V. - second commander, Demin S.V. - first assistant commander, Lyanguzov V.G. - second assistant commander, Kulagin T.S. - third assistant commander, Ritsland A.A. - first navigator, T.N. Myachkov - second navigator, N.A. Konyushin - senior flight mechanic, Shmelkov K.A. - first flight mechanic, Nikitin M.V. - flight mechanic, Kondrashev N.N. - flight mechanic, V.D. Chernov - flight radio operator, Gradus D.I. - weather forecaster."

The governments of many countries sent condolences to the Soviet government and the families of the deceased aeronauts. Thirteen urns were installed in the stone wall of the Novodevichy cemetery under a triple gun salute. Above them froze the metal outline of an airship flying skyward.

In Donetsk, Lugansk and Kazan, streets are named after Gudovantsev, Ritsland, Lyanguzov. Dirigibles Street appeared in the city of Dolgoprudny.

And Papanin and his three comrades were taken off the ice floe on February 19, 1938 by the icebreakers Taimyr and Murman.

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