V.P. Tckalov's flights to the Far East and through North Pole in USA

Nowadays a question arises: "what was the purpose of the flights and who was interested in them?"

At the beginning of the 30-ies people's commissar of defense of the young Soviet state K.E. Voroshilov used to say: " he, who is strong in the air, is generally strong nowadays". And this slogan was rather topical and not only in our country, but also all over the world. Flights were the demonstration of force and power of this or that state; in other words, they had, first of all, a political significance.

The most developed, in the scientific and technical respects, countries tried to win the record of range in a straight line (the shortest distance between points of the take-off and landing). France, England, the USA, Italy, Germany competed one with another. So, in 1931 the USA won the record (8560 kms). In 1932 it passed to England (8544 kms), then to France (9104,7 kms).

And the fact that the young Soviet state joined the competition for this record in the middle of the 30-ies was, certainly, a sign of its increased force in the aircraft.
At the end of the year of 1931 the Soviet government made a decision to create a plane, which would be able to cover long distances. The machine's designing started by A.N. Tupolev's design office. The chief of the brigade was P.O.Sukhoy.

In 1933 the first sample of "ANT-25" was constructed. In September 1934 M.M.Gromov's crew piloting this plane set up a world record of the range of a nonstop flight in an exclosed circle. For that M.M.Gromov was awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

In August, 1935 Hero of the Soviet Union, polar pilot S.A.Levanevsky, second pilot G.F.Bajdukov and navigator V.I.Levchenko attempted to make a flight on board the plane "ANT-25" on the route Moscow - the North Pole - San Francisco. But the pilots suffered a failure -some malfunction in the oil pipeline forced them to turn back. Levanevsky lost his faith in the possibility of a transatlantic flight on the single-motor plane. Second pilot G.F.Bajdukov believed in the reliability of the engine of the plane "ANT-25". He inspired Tchkalov with the idea of such a flight over the North Pole to the USA.

At first Tchkalov did not pay much attention to Bajdukov's suggestion. He was a fighter- pilot and did not fly much on heavy planes. But at the end of 1935 he tested "ANT-25", and he liked the machine a lot. In the spring of 1936 the newly-formed crew (which consisted of V.P.Tchkalov, who was the commander, G.F.Bajdukov was the second pilot, and A.V.Beljakov was the navigator), sent a letter to the Political bureau of the Central Committee of the C.P.S.U. (B) with a request for the sanction to fly over the North Pole to America.

But the government, remembering Levanevsky's failure, suggested another route: Moscow - Petropavlovsk - Kamchatsky.
The flying diary of this flight is kept in V.P.Tckalov's museum. There is a note, made by Beljakov, on the first page: " The time of the take-off is 2.45 Greenwich mean time. July 20, 1936 ". So the flight, which was full of difficulties, began.

At first in order to investigate the Arctic conditions the crew flew in the direction of the North Pole up to the island of Victoria (in latitude 82o North). Having passed Arctic open spaces and Yakutia, the plane appeared over the Okhotsky sea.

The crew reached Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and threw down a pendant over it. The task was completed, but the stock of fuel made it possible to fly further. Tchkalov directed the plane onto the continent. But extremely unfavourable conditions - a storm with low overcast and rain forced the crew to land on a small island of Ude.

It was on July 22, 1936. And in the morning on July 24 a governmental telegram was delivered on the island. It was said there: "… We praise your courage, endurance, persistence and skill. Came to the Central Committee of the Soviet Union with the petition to give you the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union and monetary premium…". So three more Heroes of the Soviet Union appeared in the country. Tchkalov was the ninth pilot who got this title; Bajdukov and Beljakov became the tenth and the eleventh respectively. After the flight to the Far East Tchkalov, Bajdukov and Beljakov continued working each in his own place, but the idea of realization of the route, which had been planned to be the first, did not leave them. In the spring of 1937 they wrote letters first to people's commissar of defense Voroshilov, and then to Stalin, all with one and the same request for the sanction of a flight to the USA.

It became possible to receive the sanction for this flight only after the construction of the drifting station "North Pole-1", which could establish a radio communication with the plane and transfer on its board the weather report.

The station started working on May 21, 1937, and on May 25 Tchkalov crew was called to the Kremlin to make a report on the plan of the flight, and after that they received a permission to start preparing for it.

Finally the date of the start was appointed. On June 18 at 4.05. by Moscow time Tchkalov lifted the hardly loaded machine from a concrete path of the Shchelkovsky air station and the plane headed for the north. This flight was as full of hardships as the first one. Breakages of different kinds and nature caused the plane's crew a lot of trouble: now the oil flowed from the oil pipeline then water in the system of cooling was freezing. But the most dangerous thing was the icing of the plane, of its wings and propeller. It might have caused an accident. It was necessary to go up above the clouds and reach the height of 4000 -6000 meters in order to avoid icing. And it was difficult to breathe there, because there was not enough oxygen on that height.

The pilots had not expected that cloudiness and cyclones would follow them almost during the whole way. The stock of oxygen on board the plane was limited. By the end of the flight they had almost run out of it. A lot of time, energy and fuel were spent on detouring the cyclones, but nevertheless the struggle against the Arctic elements ended in a victory of the brave crew. Having flown over the Canadian coast of the Arctic Ocean, the pilots got to the northwest region of America. They failed to reach their final destination San Francisco, as the fuel was coming to an end. The pilots chose an appropriate place for landing. On June 20 after 63 hours of the exhausting flight the plane "ANT-25" landed in the air station of Baraks in the city of Vancouver.
The citizens welcomed the crew most heartily. Thousands of them came to the air station of Baraks to meet the Soviet pilots and congratulate them on the end of their flight. President of the USA Franklin Roosevelt at his place received the heroic crew. Then came press conferences, reports and acquaintance with America. Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, New York - this is the way of honour of the Soviet pilots.

In the hall of the New York hotel "Valdorf Astoria" the Club of Researchers and the Russian - American Institute of culture arranged a reception in honour of the Russian pilots. At the reception Tchkalov made a speech in which he said: "Receive from a hundred and seventy million of Soviet people their best regards and friendship, which we have brought to you on our wings."
It was not only the triumph of Tchkavov and his two companions, but also the triumph of all the Soviet aircraft. The increased level of Soviet engineering, and that of the aircraft construction in particular was shown to the whole world. A new route that linked the two continents had been laid. But the most important result was that the flight had prompted the development of mutual understanding between Soviet and American people and that was very valuable at the 30-ies.

Tchkalov and the members of his crew were decorated with the Order of the Red Banner for realization of this flight.

The crew had not managed to reach the place of the planned destination, which was San Francisco. Thus the crew had established a national record of a range of a flight in a straight line, but the world's record had not been beaten. But in that succeeded another crew, which followed Tchkalov's example. It consisted of chief pilot Gromov, second pilot Yumashev and navigator Danilin. At Gromov's disposal was the first experimental sample of "ANT-25 № 1". On July 12, 1937 the pilots started their flight following the same route, as Tchkalov, but they managed to cover practically for the same amount of time (62 h 17 m) a much greater distance - 11500 km, and in a straight line - 10148 km. The world record of a range was beaten. It was a triumph of the Soviet aircraft.

The results of Tckalov's first flight were of great importance for the setting up this record. For instance, having taken into account Tckalov's experience, Gromov's crew took for the flight a three times greater stock of oxygen and antifreeze for the airscrew.

After this flight Gromov was decorated with Order of the Red Banner (as he already had the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union), and Yumashev together with Danilin were decorated with Order of Lenin and were conferred the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In the summer of 1937 the initiator of the flight over the North Pole to the USA Levanevsky was already burning with the desire to fulfill his own dream. For the flight he chose the heavy four-engine plane "N-209", designed by Bolkhovitinov.

The crew was formed. It consisted of second pilot N.G.Kastanayev, navigator V.I.Levchenko, flight mechanics G.T. Pobezhimov and N.N.Godovikov, radio operator Galikovsky.
On August 12, 1937 at 18.15 the plane "N-209" started in its flight to the north. The next day at 13.40 the plane was flying over the North Pole. At 14.35 a disturbing aerogramme was received from the plane and it appeared to be the last one as the communication with the plane was then broken. All that happened to Levanevsky's crew after the last radiogram was received is covered with a mist of uncertainty.
Prompt actions were taken as to find the plane and the crew. All the ships, which were in the Tchukotsky Sea and the polar aviation, were involved in the searching. American pilots also took part in the rescue operation. But all the efforts were in vain. In March 1938 the search for the crew was stopped