Aces pilots. They performed feats both in peacetime and in wartime. They spent hundreds of hours in the sky, and it became their real home. In our material, quotes from legendary pilots who performed glorious history Russian Air Force.
If so, then be the first.
Valery Chkalov, Soviet
test pilot
,
Hero Soviet Union
It seems that I have always longed for the sensations that now constitute my belonging, the belonging of a lucky man who has penetrated the air. I often happened to fly in a dream, and the dream was intoxicating.
Sergei Utochkin, one of the first Russian aviators
and
test pilots
Where I am a pilot, I am a pedant. But I'm also a romantic. I am fond of logic, psychology, literature,
painting.
Mikhail Gromov, Soviet
test pilot
,
The hero of the USSR
Courage without hardening is a blank shot.
ace pilot , three times Hero of the Soviet Union
Our squadron was called "singing" due to our affection for the song, and my call sign is Maestro. From our squadron, 11 pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, this honor fell to me twice. And every title, every combat award were paid at the cost of risk, skill, military superiority and real victories.
Vitaly Popkov, pilot, twice Hero of the Soviet Union
Height is the key to victory. The one who is higher can dive on an enemy aircraft at any moment and, having developed a high speed, reach it.
, honored
test pilot
THE USSR,
twice Hero of the Soviet Union
Once upon a time read the words as a child V.P. Chkalova : "If to be, then to be the first." That's what I'm trying to be and will be until the end.
cosmonaut , The hero of the USSR
Nesterov went to research the capabilities of the aircraft, making a loop. Artseulov proved that it is possible to take the plane out of a spin. And the air rams with which Soviet pilots achieved victory over the German aces? You don't discount this. For the Russian soul, incomprehensible to anyone, there are no barriers!
Viktor Pugachev, Honored
test pilot
THE USSR,
The hero of the USSR
Many boys after the end of the Great Patriotic War dreamed of becoming pilots. No one really thought about how difficult it is to fly in the sky. It seemed to the guys that the pilots were romantics who got great pleasure from the flight.
How did the first Hero pilots get their ranks?
For the first time the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded in 1934, although since the founding Soviet state there were no wars until 1939, that is, the pilots did not carry out combat missions. Note that it was the pilots who became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union. These names are not as well known as the names of some aviators of the WWII period. Let's remember who these first pilots are - the Heroes of the Soviet Union.
As you know, in 1934 there was an operation to rescue the Chelyuskinites. Without the participation of aircraft, it was not possible to save people. At the same time, the technology at that time was still poorly developed, and the rescue mission could only get a positive result thanks to the high professionalism and heroism of the pilots.
The first Heroes by name
Nikolai Kamanin received the Gold Star of Hero No. 1 at the age of 25. He made 9 sorties over the Arctic, while saving 34 people (on the sunken icebreaker "Chelyuskin" the crew consisted of 104 people). In the photo below, Kamanin is shown on the left.
The complexity of the mission to rescue the sailors was that the area was insufficiently studied at that time. Also, the pilots did not have complete confidence in the reliability of the engines, because at that time they practically did not fly at such long distances.
Mikhail Vodopyanov made three difficult sorties, during which he was able to save more than 10 people. The uniqueness of the participation of this pilot in the rescue operation lies in the fact that a few months before that he received severe injuries and was treated for a long time. The authorities did not want to allow him to the operation, but he insisted.
Also such pilots - Heroes of the Soviet Union, as Ivan Doronin, Sigismund Levanevsky, Vasily Molokov, Mauritius Slepnev took part in this operation. Each pilot made a huge contribution to saving people in the Arctic Ocean.
War and great pilots
Analyzing orders to confer the titles of Heroes of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, we find an interesting trend: more than 50% of the marked legendary warriors who defended our Motherland from invaders are pilots. Of course, fighting on the ground is also not easy, but air battles are much more difficult than ground ones. Level of courage, endurance Soviet pilots just amazing. WWII pilots - Heroes of the Soviet Union made a huge contribution to the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany.
In this section, it is worth mentioning about Alexei Maresyev and Peter Shemendyuk. These heroes, even despite severe physical injuries, continued to serve in aviation.
For example, Maresyev is a well-known hero of B. Polevoy's work "The Tale of a Real Man".
His plane was shot down over the territory controlled by the Germans at that time. The pilot could not eject. Fell to the ground along with the car. It so happened that during the impact on the ground he was thrown out of the cab. For 18 days, the hero crawled to the front line. Discovered by Soviet children in the Novgorod region. After that, he was treated for some time in the Novgorod village. After a long treatment and amputation of both legs, he was able to return to service and made more than one sortie.
Fighter pilots - Heroes of the Soviet Union often returned to the front after being wounded. According to verified but little-known information, about 20 Soviet pilots fought against the Nazis with amputated legs, arms or other severe limb injuries.
It is worth noting that for many pilots the Second World War was not the first combat experience. Everyone knows that many Soviet military took part in the hostilities in Spain ( Civil War). For example, Sergei Gritsevets is considered one of the aces pilots of the 1930s. Belarusian by nationality, he was born in 1909 in the Grodno province. He came to aviation on a Komsomol ticket in 1931. The track record of the pilot, according to official information, is 40 downed aircraft.
The development of military aviation of the USSR
Pilots - Heroes of the Soviet Union showed themselves perfectly during the Second World War. Although initially the technical level of German aircraft exceeded the equipment and quality of Soviet aircraft, but the level of skill of the "red" pilots, some time after the start of the war, more than compensated for all the shortcomings in technology.
The improvement of Soviet military aviation actually took place already during the war. The fact is that in the first days of hostilities, most Soviet aircraft were destroyed at airfields during Nazi bombing. According to many experts, this is even better. If the wooden planes had entered into battle with the Junkers or other fighters, then they would not have had a single chance to win in an air battle. Such decisiveness of the Nazis saved the lives of many Soviet pilots.
During the war years, according to approximate estimates, the aces shot down more than 4,000 of the best German aircraft. The rating of Soviet aces is determined primarily by the number of Junkers shot down. Let's talk about each of the best separately.
The legendary Ivan Kozhedub was born in 1920 on the territory of the Shostka region of modern Ukraine. After graduating from school in 1934, he entered the chemical-technological technical school. Aviation for a long time was nothing more than a hobby for him. Kozhedub's path in aviation began with military service in 1940. He got to the front at the end of 1942 after working as an instructor at an aviation school. By the way, the first battle in the air for the legendary pilot could also be the last one, because first his plane was shot down by the Germans, and then by "our own". Kozhedub passed this test and was able to land his car. In the photo below, it is shown on the right.
Such pilots - three times Heroes of the Soviet Union, like Ivan Kozhedub, quickly become professionals in their field. They don't need much time to prepare. So, for some time after this accident, Kozhedub did not fly. The stellar time of the pilot has come during the battle on Kursk Bulge. For several sorties in July 1943, he managed to shoot down 4 Junkers. Until the beginning of 1944 in track record the hero had already several dozen victories. Until the end of the war, he was able to shoot down 18 aircraft of this brand.
Semyon Vorozheikin and other twice Heroes of the USSR
This result was not surpassed by anyone, and only Vorozheikin Arseniy Aleksandrovich could repeat. This pilot was awarded the Star of the Hero twice. The total combat result of Vorozheykin is 46 enemy aircraft shot down. Besides him, pilots - twice - are:
- Alekseenko Vladimir Avramovich;
- Alelyuhin Alexey Vasilievich;
- Amet Khan Sultan;
- Andrianov Vasily;
- Begeldinov Talgat Yakubekovich;
- Trouble Leonid Ignatievich;
- Beregovoy Georgy Timofeevich;
- Gulaev Nikolay Dmitrievich;
- Sergei Prokofievich Denisov.
For successful use aviation technology it must pass flight tests. That's what test pilots are for. Very often they risk their lives, because no one has flown before them on the aircraft model being tested. Many were awarded the Star of the Hero of the USSR. The most outstanding tester of aviation technology of the Soviet period is considered
Crews under the leadership of Chkalov made 2 record air flights for their time (Moscow-Vancouver via North Pole and Moscow- Far East). The length of the route to Vancouver was 8504 km.
Other Soviet test pilots include Stepan Mikoyan, Vladimir Averyanov, Mikhail Gromov, Ivan Dziuba, Nikolai Zamyatin and Mikhail Ivanov. Most of these pilots did not have a technical education at first, but the entire aviation elite is united by one feature: they underwent theoretical training in the system of aviation clubs developed at that time. Such peculiar schools enabled the students to receive theoretical and practical training at a fairly high level.
Assault aircraft of the USSR during the Second World War
Attack pilots, Heroes of the Soviet Union during the war years, take pride of place in the lists of people marked state awards for exploits during the air battles of 1941-1945. According to historical data, more than 2,200 pilots received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Moreover, it is the attack aircraft that can be found on the list most of all (860 names).
There are also many representatives of this type of aviation in the lists of twice Heroes of the Union. As you know, two heroic Golden Stars had 65 pilots in their assets. In this list, attack aircraft also occupy the first place (27 people).
Who could get the title of Hero three times?
Alexander Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub - these pilots, three times Heroes of the Soviet Union, inscribed their names in golden letters in the annals of the Second World War.
The fact is that three times the state marked such high rank only three people. In addition to two pilots, this is Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny, a military man known since the revolution. Pokryshkin received his awards by orders of May 24 and August 24, 1943, and also on August 19, 1944. Ivan Kozhedub was marked by orders of the Commander-in-Chief of February 4 and August 19, 1944, as well as after the end of hostilities in August 1945.
The contribution of Soviet pilots to the victory over the enemy is simply invaluable!
Valery Pavlovich Chkalov- Soviet test pilot, Hero of the USSR. He was the commander of the aircraft that made the first non-stop flight over the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver.
Chkalov began his dizzying career as a pilot as an aircraft fitter in the 4th Kanavinsky Aviation Park in Nizhny Novgorod.
From December 3, 1931, he participated in tests - he tested the latest fighter aircraft of the 1930s I-15 and I-16 designed by Polikarpov. He took part in the testing of tank destroyers VIT-1, VIT-2, heavy bombers TB-1, TB-3, a large number of experimental and experimental vehicles of the Polikarpov Design Bureau.
Chkalov was famous for his "recklessness". After the accident that occurred in Bryansk, Chkalov was accused of numerous violations of discipline. By the verdict of the military tribunal of the Belarusian military district of October 30, 1928, Chkalov was sentenced to a year in prison, and was also dismissed from the Red Army. He served his sentence for a short time, at the request of Kliment Voroshilov, less than a month later, the sentence was replaced with a suspended sentence.
Chkalov became the author of new aerobatics - an ascending spin and a slow roll. 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.
On July 20, 1936, the flight of Chkalov's crew from Moscow to the Far East started. It lasted 56 hours before landing on the sandy spit of Udd Island in the Sea of Okhotsk. Total length record route was 9375 kilometers.
On June 18, 1937, Chkalov's flight began on an ANT-25 plane across the North Pole from Moscow to Vancouver (Washington, USA). The flight took place in difficult weather conditions. On June 20, the plane made a safe landing in Vancouver, Washington, USA. The length of the flight was 8504 kilometers.
Stalin personally offered Chkalov to take the post of People's Commissar of the NKVD, but he refused and continued to do flight test work. Chkalov died on December 15, 1938 during the first test flight on the new I-180 fighter at the Central Airfield.
Stalin, Voroshilov, Kaganovich, Chkalov and Belyakov. Meeting after the flight to the Far East. Shchelkovsky airfield, August 10, 1936
STEPAN MIKOYAN
Stepan Mikoyan was born on July 12, 1922. He is the son of a famous politician Anastas Mikoyan. Stepan Mikoyan - Hero of the Soviet Union, lieutenant general of aviation. In 1940, he entered the Kachin Military Aviation Pilot School in the Crimea. In 1941, he retrained for the Yak-1 fighter and in December was sent to a fighter aviation regiment defending Moscow.
From the first days of 1942, Stepan began to participate on the Yak-1 in flights to cover our troops in the Volokolamsk region. In the winter of 1941-1942, Stepan Mikoyan made 10 successful sorties as part of this regiment. The 11th sortie to cover Istra on January 16, 1942 almost became fatal for Mikoyan - his Yak was mistakenly shot down by junior lieutenant Mikhail Rodionov from the 562nd regiment.
Mikoyan mastered 102 types aircraft and flew about 3.5 thousand hours. By October 1942 he completed 14 sorties. After 3 air battles, he shot down 6 enemy aircraft as part of a group. Stepan Mikoyan ended the war with two orders.
Photo: Hayk/Wikimedia Commons
MIKHAIL GROMOV
Soviet pilot Mikhail Gromov was born on February 12, 1899. He became Colonel-General of Aviation, Hero of the Soviet Union. As an extremely gifted person, he early showed a variety of abilities, including music and drawing. After high school, he entered the medical faculty of Moscow University and then served as a military doctor.
Gromov tested many famous aircraft. Performed a number of long-haul flights across Europe, to China and Japan.
On September 10–12, 1934, on an ANT-25 aircraft, he made a record flight in terms of range and duration along a closed route - 12,411 km in 75 hours. In 1937, on the ANT-25-1, he made a non-stop flight Moscow - the North Pole - the USA, setting 2 world aviation records. For this flight, Gromov was awarded the Order of Lenin.
VLADIMIR AVERYANOV
Colonel, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Vladimir Averyanov was born on October 11, 1934. In 1953, Averyanov graduated from the Stalingrad flying club. In 1955 he graduated from the Armavir Military aviation school pilots, then served as a pilot in air defense aviation.
From May 1965 to December 1968 he was a test pilot at the Kazan Aviation Plant. In 1965-1966, he tested serial Tu-16 and Tu-22 jet bombers, in 1966-1968 - Il-62 passenger aircraft (co-pilot), as well as their modifications.
From January 1969 to September 1994 he was a test pilot at the Saratov Aviation Plant. He tested serial passenger aircraft Yak-40 (in 1969-1981) and Yak-42 (in 1978-1994). He has many medals and is an honored test pilot of the USSR.
Photo: testpilot.ru
IVAN DZYUBA
Colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union, Honored Test Pilot of the USSR Ivan Dzyuba was born on May 1, 1918. He graduated from the Odessa flight school (1938), participated in the Great Patriotic War as a fighter pilot.
From June 1941 to September 1943 he made 238 sorties, conducted 25 air battles. By February 1942, he personally shot down 6 and in a group 2 enemy aircraft.
On July 21, 1942, for the exemplary performance of combat missions of the command on the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Major Ivan Dzyuba was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. From 1943 he served as a test pilot.
NIKOLAI ZAMYATIN
USSR test pilot, captain Nikolai Zamyatin was born on May 9, 1916 in Perm, graduated from Sverdlovsk in 1940 State University and Sverdlovsk flying club.
In January-November 1942 he served as a pilot of the 608th Bomber Aviation Regiment, in November 1942 - December 1944 - a pilot, senior pilot and flight commander of the 137th Bomber Aviation Regiment.
Zamyatin fought on the Karelian front. Participated in the defense of the Arctic. He made 30 sorties on a Pe-2 bomber. From 1947 to 1971 he was a test pilot at the Flight Research Institute. Carried out tests of the refueling system on Tu-2 aircraft, tests of turbojet engines: VK-7 on Tu-4LL, AL-7 on Tu-4LL, VK-3 on Tu-4LL, AM-3M on Tu-16LL, VD-7 on M-4LL. Awarded with the Order October revolution, two orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd degree.
MIKHAIL IVANOV
The famous test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Mikhail Ivanov was born on July 18, 1910. Since 1925 he worked as an apprentice turner in Poltava. Passed the course theoretical training in the Poltava aviation circle of Osoaviahima. AT Soviet army- since 1929. In 1932 he graduated from the Stalingrad Military Aviation Pilot School, then served in the Air Force combat units.
In 1939–1941, he was a test pilot for the military acceptance of aircraft factory No. 301, he tested serial UT-2 training aircraft and Yak-1 fighters. In 1941, he was a test pilot for the military acceptance of aircraft factory No. 31. Ivanov tested serial LaGG-3, La-5FN and Yak-3 fighters.
In November 1941, during the evacuation of the aircraft factory in Tbilisi, he took part in the fighting on Southwestern Front. In total, he made about 50 sorties.
On April 24, 1946, he tested one of the first Yak-15 fighters. Conducted tests of various modifications of the Yak-3, Yak-11 fighter. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal for the strength and courage shown when testing new aircraft.
The cosmonaut who was the first to go into outer space presented his autobiography “The Time of the First. My destiny is myself ... ". With the permission of the AST publishing house, we publish the most interesting passages.
Recognized by birthmark
There are still many insinuations around the death of Yuri. What was the reason?
For the investigation, the State Commission was created, which Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov headed (at that time Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU), and Marshal Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov, Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, was the deputy. Of the seven people who were part of it, only two remained today: me and Stepan Mikoyan - a test pilot, lieutenant general of aviation, the son of People's Commissar Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan. (Alas, while the book was being written, Mikoyan died. - Ed.)
We were involved in the investigation as specialists were involved. As a result of the work, a very strange statement was made: the supposedly training MiG-15, piloted by Gagarin, made a sharp maneuver associated with a lapel from foreign objects - a flock of geese, for example, a balloon-probe - and fell into a tailspin. As a result, it collided with the ground and the crew died ... But as an expert, I categorically disagreed with this. And he gave arguments. At the time of the disaster, I was practicing skydiving with my “lunar” group nearby, in Kirzhach. We heard an explosion and a supersonic sound - they rang out almost simultaneously - and determined the direction from where it came from. Later, the wreckage of the plane was found there.
They arrived at the place of death by nightfall. And the remains of the guys were seen (together with Yura, test pilot Vladimir Seregin died). Little is left of them. No, well, how to determine what they were, it was possible. According to clothes - Seregin's blue demi-season jacket was found, according to a body fragment with a mole - I saw it on Yura's neck the day before, when we were at the hairdresser, I saw it. It's such a terrible memory...
"The pilot of the Su-15 descended too low"
I spoke with three peasants who indicated that they had seen a low-flying aircraft. During the investigative experiment, they independently identified the Su-15 among ten full-size models. According to them, smoke first went out of his tail, then fire, and he soared into the clouds. It is clear that this is not Gagarin's plane.
We know that on that day, March 27, 1968, Gagarin and Seregin were supposed to fly at an altitude of up to 10,000 meters, and above - the tests of the Su-15, which took off from the experimental airfield of the LII (Flight Research Institute) in Zhukovsky, took place. In short, the pilot of this fighter-interceptor violated the regime: he went down under the clouds, looked at the landscapes - they often do this, then he turned on the afterburner and in the clouds next to Gagarin's plane, without seeing him, passed at supersonic speed.
Disturbed by the flow, this Su-15 training MiG-15 turned over, drove it into a deep spiral. Yuri's last report at an altitude of 4200 meters was made: "I, the 625th, have completed the task in RIP1 *, I'm going to the line **."
I thought that the official version could not stand up to any criticism, but I was told then: there are serious examinations here, do not arise, colonel. All the same, I did not agree with the conclusion of the State Commission and, as it turned out later, I was right: the rest were all lying.
"Rewrote my testimony"
In 1991, when the 30th anniversary of the first manned flight into space was celebrated, Gagarin's death was discussed by all and sundry, and the most absurd versions were put forward: that the pilots were allegedly drunk, that they were hunting ... It was impossible to endure, and we The country's leadership was asked to open the documents collected by the commission and re-investigate. We were allowed. After that, using modern computer technology, a wind tunnel, Academician Sergei Mikhailovich Belotserkovsky checked everything.
Calculations confirmed that an aircraft flying at a speed of 750 could descend in 55 seconds from a height of 4200 meters to zero, only by entering a deep spiral. Only one route is possible (one!), others simply do not fit into this data.
By the way, among the documents on the investigation of the disaster, I found my act - it was completely rewritten by someone, and the interval between supersonic and explosion from 1.5 - 2 seconds to 15 - 20 was increased: this should have meant that the distance between the planes was 50 there were kilometers and the Su-15 is not to blame.
"This pilot is over 90"
In 2013, I turned to Putin: “Vladimir Vladimirovich! Forty-five years have passed since Yuri Gagarin died, open the documents.” Opened. Everything, as I said: an unauthorized aircraft next to the “spark” (the so-called two-seat version of a single-seat fighter or sports aircraft) passed, turned it over, and then they asked me not to name the name of this test pilot ...
By the way, he's alive. He is already over ninety. In 1988, the Hero of the Soviet Union became ...
It turned out that the head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, knew about this, the aircraft designer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev knew, but when a letter from comrades who confirmed my version, the first deputy chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Nikolai Sergeevich Stroev got to (in 1954 - 1966 he was the head of the LII), he ordered: “Do not raise this issue - kill the pilot. He did it unintentionally."
Now there is no mystery in this, but there is sloppiness and violation of the flight regime, but something else upsets me: that the people who worked on the commission knew the truth, but pretended that this was not so. I would like everyone to know the truth about Gagarin's death.
I have been fighting alone since 1968, proving something. I, as a specialist invited to work in the commission, wrote my vision of what happened, I was present at the study, and I heard everything, I was thirteen kilometers from the site of Gagarin's fall.
Now I was given the opportunity to announce the true cause, provided that I did not name the pilot who violated discipline and created an emergency. I gave my word that I would not. But he is to blame. He was supposed to fly at the same height, but went down. I talked with the peasants at the investigative experiment, who each individually said that they saw a plane that looked like a balalaika ... And this is the Su-15, it has such a triangular wing ...
Bullets for Brezhnev
On January 22, 1969, I was in a car fired upon by officer Viktor Ilyin during the assassination attempt on Brezhnev.
It just so happened that bullets meant for Leonid Ilyich hit the car with the astronauts ... He then approached me at the reception and asked me to show the trace of the bullet on my overcoat. What am I? Since the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU asks, we went to the locker room, and I showed him the trace of a bullet that flew along a tangent. Brezhnev was then very confused. He examined everything carefully and said:
Don't worry, it's not you, but I was shot.
Ballistics later conducted an examination and found that I was miraculously not hooked. So they said:
God save you, Leonov.
I replied:
So I will pray...
This Ilyin managed to shoot 16 times in a few seconds. The first bullet hit the driver in the head, and I turned sharply in his direction. If I had continued to sit in my previous position, the next bullet would have landed right in my temple. Another passed near the stomach, the third touched the overcoat on the left side of the chest, the fourth hit the upholstery of the chair behind her back. It was as if someone from above was really taking the bullets away from me ... A man from a distance of nine meters fired point-blank with two pistols ...
In the 9th Directorate of the KGB, they probably knew about the impending assassination attempt, they were already looking for Ilyin, after all, he had left his military unit near Leningrad, taking two pistols and four magazines for them. Therefore, at the entrance to the Kremlin, the car with Brezhnev (A. N. Kosygin was still sitting there with him) separated from the cortege and headed for the Spassky Gates, and another car was allowed through the Trinity Gates, where the astronauts were sitting: in front - the driver and Chekist Kostya, on the central seats - Beregov and I (he is on the right, I am on the left), in the back - Tereshkova and Nikolaev. We had exactly the same car as Brezhnev's - ZIL-111.
At the Trinity Gate, Ilyin, dressed in a blue police uniform, stood in a cordon. He missed the first ZIL-111 and opened fire on the second, being sure that he was shooting at Brezhnev. In all honesty, security officers in body armor should have been sitting there, but I ended up in their place ...
"Ilyin was not mentally ill"
To my house (fifteen years have passed) they brought this shooter Ilyin. He asked for forgiveness. Like, I didn’t aim at you, I wanted to rid the country of the usurper. Well, I say, what a usurper he is ... And he kept asking: “What should I do now?” I told him:
You killed a man, and he left two children. Find the widow of the driver you shot, the fatherless children. Fall at their feet, beg for forgiveness... Help somehow, if you can...
Such was the conversation. This Ilyin was not mentally ill, as they later wrote. Absolutely normal, adequate. He served his time. Already in the 90s, he was released from the psychiatric hospital, and he was very sorry that he had taken the life of an innocent driver ...
ALMOST A JOKE
"Alcohol in orbit"
On my first day in orbit, I did a great prank on the Americans with vodka. ( It's about about the famous docking of our "Soyuz" and the American "Apollo", which happened on July 15, 1975, it is also called the "cosmic handshake". - Ed.) The MCC did not know about this, no one knew. It was purely my idea. Even before the flight I took out the labels: "Stolichnaya", "Russian", "Starka" and "Moskovskaya". I put them in the logbook and I had scotch tape. And after we went into orbit, I stuck vodka labels on tubes of borscht. He also wrote a slogan from Shakespeare: “Oh wondrous new world that has such people." And he made friendly caricatures for everyone.
When, after docking, we sat down at the table, Kubasov and I took out tubes of vodka. We explain to the Americans: “Guys, we must honor the Russian custom in space as well. And according to tradition, before dinner, we have to drink. Tom Stafford began to deny:
Impossible... I can't... (Impossible... I can't...)
Type - it is impossible, violation. And shows on TV cameras. And I tell him:
I'll turn it off so no one can see. And turned it off. And from the Earth they shout:
Turn it on!
I gave everyone a tube, everyone looked at the labels and said:
Listen, we'll get hurt for this.
Nothing...
Open: chin-chin! And there ... borscht ...
Never, they shout, we will never forgive you for this: we took such a risk, and you fooled us!
Then I saw - a close-up of Donald Slayton's face was shot when he says: “Listen, why did you cheat? It would be better if there was vodka! But no one believes that we did not drink vodka. None.
"The theory of the use of cognac in space"
And we really didn’t have a gram of alcohol. Although Academician Oleg Georgievich Gazenko, the founder space medicine, was convinced: a little cognac in orbit would not hurt.
There was such a moment. When Lebedev and Berezovoi flew, they both turned forty years old in flight. On a cargo ship, I decided to secretly send them cognac: I cut out the middle in a loaf of bread and hid a flask there.
So then Valya Lebedev wrote “The Theory of Drinking Cognac in Space”: you need to take a bottle in your mouth, make a sharp nod of your head - it will be exactly thirty grams. And he published it in a scientific journal!
There is a collegium of the ministry. Minister Afanasyev is blacker than a cloud. Show log:
Who did this?
I got up and said:
Sergei Alexandrovich, I did it. They have been flying for so long, they are forty years old, a bottle of cognac for half a year ...
And from the hall they shout:
Few! Few!
The general, Yuri Pavlovich Semyonov, gets up and says:
Alex discussed this with me. I agreed and we sent this bottle of cognac.
*RIP - test flight area.
** Line - line of decline.
