Russian Imperial Air Force

In December 1869, the Aeronautics Commission was created, which was tasked with assessing the prospects for the use of balloons in military affairs . In 1870, the first balloon was raised ^[3] .

In February 1885, the Aeronautical team was formed, in 1890 transformed into a Separate Aeronautical Park , which was at the disposal of the Aeronautics Commission, pigeon mail and watch towers.

On the maneuvers of 1902-1903 for the first time, several balloons were used in the Kiev Military District for conducting air reconnaissance and adjusting artillery fire ^[4] .

Convinced of the advisability of using tethered balloons, the Ministry of War decided to create special aeronautical units at the fortresses in Warsaw , Novgorod , Brest-Litovsk , Kovna , Osovce and the Far East, which included 65 balloons.

In 1903, the publication of the ballooning magazine began .

After the defeat of the Russian Empire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. , The Ministry of War began military reforms ^[5] , which were supposed to correct the serious shortcomings identified during the war in the central administration, organization, manning system, combat training and technical equipment of the armed forces.

A great role in the creation of Russian military aviation was played by the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich , who later became the chief of the Imperial WWF. In January 1908, the Imperial All-Russian Aero Club (IWAC) was created, whose chairman in 1916 was Alexander Mikhailovich.

The manufacture of airships in the Russian Empire began in 1908.

At the same time, the engineering department was incredulous about the idea of ​​using aviation for military purposes. Only in 1909 did it suggest that the Training Aeronautics Park (chief - Major General A. M. Kovanko ) build five airplanes . Then the military department purchased from several foreign companies several Wright and Farman planes .

In 1909, Aeronaut Magazine became the IWAC publication.

On January 30, 1910, the Air Fleet Department was created in the Special Committee for the Restoration of the Navy, headed by the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, for the voluntary donation.

From the memoirs of Alexander Mikhailovich: “... Minister of War gene. Sukhomlinov shook with laughter when I spoke to him about airplanes. “I understand you correctly, Your Highness,” he asked me between two fits of laughter: “are you going to use these toys of Bleriot in our army?” ... - Do not worry, Your Excellency. I ask you only to give me a few officers who will go with me to Paris , where they will be taught to fly with Bleriot and Voisin . As for the future, the one who laughs last laughs well. The sovereign gave me permission to travel to Paris officers I have elected ... "

In March 1910, a group of Russian officers was sent to France for flight training. Returning to Russia, they began to teach other officers the flights ^[6] .

In the summer of 1910, the first military pilot training school was opened ^[7] , for which French-made airplanes were purchased for France. Since May 1911, the school was located in Gatchina .

June 19, 1910 (in a new style) made the first flight of an airplane, which was fully developed and built in Russia. It was called "Gakkel-III" and was designed by engineer J. Gakkel .

On November 21, 1910, the second flight school was opened in Sevastopol.

In 1911, the first experiment on the creation of an armed airplane was carried out in Russia - a machine gun was installed on one of the airplanes ^[7] . In addition, in 1911, the experience of aerial photography of the area was first conducted ^[8] .

The air fleet of Russia should be stronger than the air fleets of our neighbors. This should be remembered to everyone who cherishes the military might of our country.

- Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich , “To the Russian people”, magazine “Heavier than the Air”, 1912 , No. 6.

In November 1911, an aviation detachment was formed at the 4th Siberian Aviation Company (in Chita , later known as the 23rd corps aviation detachment). On December 31, 1911, the second aviation detachment was formed - at the Siberian Aeronautical Battalion in the village of Spasskoye (later known as the 1st Siberian Corps Aviation Detachment) ^[10] . In total, in November-December 1911, on the basis of the previously existing aeronautical detachments, six aviation detachments were created ^[7] .

February 25, 1912 a commission was created to study the issue of arming airships. The members of the commission conducted experiments on firing ground targets from the airship from the Madsen machine gun, getting hit in the 9 × 7 m shield from a distance of 1,500 m. The commission developed an installation for mounting the Madsen machine gun in the gondola of the airship, as well as the installation under the Maxim machine gun for mounting on the crest of the airship "Albatross" ^[11]

Until the summer of 1912, aviation and aeronautics were considered an integral part of engineering and were administered by the aeronautical department of the Main Engineering Directorate of the Ministry of War. On August 12, 1912, by order of the military department, issues of aeronautics and aviation were removed from the jurisdiction of the Main Engineering Directorate and transferred to a specially created body - the Aeronautical Unit of the General Staff, headed by Major General M. I. Shishkevich . This date is considered the day of formation of the military aviation of Russia ^[12] .

On August 15, 1912, the Officer Aeronautical School conducted shooting experiments with the airships "Swan", "Hawk", "Albatross". Shooting from a Madsen submachine gun at ground targets from a height of 600 m yielded good hit results ^[11] .

The first Russian pilots made a significant contribution to the development of aviation: M. N. Efimov , S. I. Utochkin , N. E. Popov , A. A. Vasiliev and a female pilot L. V. Zvereva .

The first 18 aviation units received the following names : serfs — Kovensky , Osovetsky , Novogeorgievsky , Kara , Brest-Litovsky ; 1, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 19, 23rd corps; 1st and 5th Siberian, aviation detachment of the Guards Corps ; 3rd field aviation detachment. In 1914, serf aviation detachments were additionally formed: Grodno , Sevastopol , Vladivostok ; and corps - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25th; 4th Siberian. Thus, on the eve of World War I, the Russian army had 39 aviation units. Each wartime aviation detachment in wartime should have had 6 aircraft, the fortress - 8, each corps and field aviation detachment should have 7 pilots (5 officers and 2 lower ranks). Six aviation companies were formed for the logistics of aviation: 1st ( St. Petersburg ), 2nd ( Brest-Litovsk ), 3rd ( Kiev ), 4th ( Lida ), 5th ( Bryansk ) and 6th ( Zhmerynka ). Aircraft companies were subordinate to the commander of the military districts ^[10] .

The emergence of Russian aviation was made possible largely due to the activities of the creator of aerodynamics N. E. Zhukovsky and the talented aircraft designer I. I. Sikorsky . The development of aviation in 1911-1913. went slowly. In 1913, in the Russian Empire, there were 4 small factories and 2 workshops for the production and assembly of aircraft, and only in May 1914 the Ministry of War placed an order for the production of 292 aircraft ^[13] . The development of aviation was restrained by the weakness of the material part and the need to supply aviation components from abroad, especially aircraft engines (there were no aircraft engines in Russia until the start of World War I in 1914, except for the department of the Gnome factory in Moscow, which produced no more than 5 aircraft engines per month ) ^[14]

In the years 1912-1913. D. P. Grigorovich developed the design of hydro-airplanes of type M (M-1 and M-2) ^[7] .

In 1913, I. I. Sikorsky built at the Russian-Baltic Plant the world's first four - engine biplane , the Russian Knight , and the world's first passenger aircraft, and subsequently the Ilya Muromets bomber .

At the competition of military airplanes in St. Petersburg in 1913, a biplane of I.I. Sikorsky was presented, armed, except for bombs, with a Madsen submachine gun on a pivot in the center section of the upper wing ^[11] .

In July 1913, the War Department purchased 10 American Lewis light machine guns, which were transferred to the Officers Rifle School. Later, after studying the design and completing the testing of machine guns, the Lewis was transferred to the disposal of military aircraft ^[15] .

In December 1913, the Aeronautical part of the General Staff was liquidated, and its functions in terms of supplying aviation equipment were transferred to the Aeronautical Department of the Main Military Technical Directorate of the Ministry of War, and in terms of organization and combat training, it was transferred to the department for the arrangement and service of troops of the General Staff.

In early 1914, the Russian aviator Y. I. Nagursky made the first Arctic flights in search of the missing expedition of G. Ya. Sedov .

The first military pilots wore uniforms of those branches and units of troops from which they were sent to flight training. By order of the military department No. 4 dated 3.01.1914, pilots introduced a navy blue tunic (a protective all-army tunic was also allowed) and a folding cap ( cap ) made of black cloth, with black velvet valves, red edging at the seams, cockade, as on a cap, the tulle crosswise is trimmed with a narrow silver galloon with two thin red gaps ^{[16] [17]} .

Aeronautical and aviation units of engineer troops

• Aeronautical parts
  • Brest-Litovsk serf aeronautical company (quarter Brest-Litovsk , Grodno province.)
  • Vladivostok fortress aeronautical company (quarter fortress Vladivostok , Primorsky region)
  • Grodno Fortress Aeronautical Company (quarter of Grodna )
  • Kars fortress aeronautical company (quarter Kars fortress)
  • Kovenskaya serf aeronautic company (quarter of Kovna )
  • Novogeorgievskaya serf aeronautic company (quarter Novogeorgievsk , Varashavskaya province.)
  • Osovets Fortress Aeronautical Company (quarter fortress Osovets
  • Sveaborg serf aeronautical department (quarter Sveaborg fortress, Nyuland province)
  • 2nd aeronautical company
  • 3rd aeronautical company
  • 4th aeronautical company
  • 9th aeronautical company (quarter Lida , Vilenskaya province)
  • 10th aeronautical company (quarter Berdichev , Kiev province.)
  • 11th aeronautical company
  • 12th aeronautical company
  • 13th aeronautical company
  • 14th aeronautical company
  • Siberian aeronautical company (quarter Peschanka, near Chita, Transbaikal region)
  • reserve aeronautical battalion

• Aviation parts
  • 1st Aviation Company (quarter St. Petersburg)
  • 2nd Aviation Company (quarter of Sevastopol)
  • 3rd aviation company (quarter Kiev)
  • 4th aviation company
  • 5th aviation company

By the beginning of the Great War, Russia had 39 aviation units , four to six aircraft in each.

Insignia

• Insignia of ranks in aviation of RIA of the Armed forces of Russia / Emblem and shoulder straps
•  

  Emblem of a pilot on an officer shoulder strap.

•  

  Officers of the air squad : lieutenant colonel and staff captain of 1909-1917.

•  

  The headquarters captain who received the title of military pilot in 1909-1917.

•  

  mediocre commander in the post of sergeant major of the 5th aviation company.

•  

  Epaulette of an ordinary educational unit.

Participation in World War I

In August 1914, the Field Aviation and Aeronautics Directorate was established at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander.

At the beginning of World War I, the Imperial Air Force was the largest in the world and consisted of 263 ^{[2] [18]} airplanes (of which 224 ^[19] included 39 ^[7] air units) and 14 airships ^[20] . Russian aircraft were not armed - in those days they were just exploring the possibility of putting weapons on aircraft. Unarmed were the planes of all the armies of the world that possessed them.

Aviators went flying sometimes armed with personal weapons - pistols, guns and the like ^[21] . In addition, the development of weapons in this direction was limited by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which prohibited all types of aircraft weapons known at that time ^[22] .

The personnel problem was serious - Russian aviation had 129 qualified pilots in the entire aircraft fleet ^[23] .

At the time of the declaration of war, the armament of the Russian aviation consisted mainly of “Newpores” with 70 horsepower engines, and in some units there were Farman training apparatuses of types XVI and XXII. The material part in many detachments was completely worn out, and the detachments went to war with planes that had flown for two years. Even the “Newpors” of the Shchetinin factory, built according to the wrong drawings, which had negative angles of attack of the wings, which led to a number of fatal accidents, were sent to war. Despite this, the apparatus remained in service and was sent to war ^[14] .

By the beginning of World War I, the pilots of the airplanes were armed with German Mauser C96 pistols ^[24] .

At first, aircraft were used only for reconnaissance and adjustment of artillery fire, but the first air battles soon began ^[14] .

Soon after the outbreak of war, the number of airplanes decreased significantly (in East Prussia, air units assigned to the 2nd Army of General A.V. Samsonov died, there were losses in other units) and on August 12, 1914, the Commander-in-Chief Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich issued an order demanding the use of aviation “Only if it is really necessary” ^[25]

In the future, the development of the armed forces was restrained by the weakness of the materiel and the need for deliveries from abroad of aircraft components, especially aircraft engines (there were no aircraft engines in peacetime in Russia, except for the department of the Gnom plant in Moscow, which provided no more than 5 aircraft engines in month) ^[14] .

On August 28 (September 8), 1914, the pilot P.N. Nesterov made the first air ram .

Russia was the only country to have long-range bomber aircraft at the beginning of the war. In October 1914, the Ilya Muromets bombers combined aircraft into the Squadron under the command of Major General Mikhail Shidlovsky , which was based in the village of Staraya Yablonna in the north-western front ^[26] .

At the beginning of 1915, the formation of the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th Army Aviation Units capable of "... conducting long-range reconnaissance in the interests of the Army Command" ^{[10] was completed} .

In the winter of 1914-1915 many aviation detachments were in a critical situation due to the complete deterioration of airplanes and engines, and these detachments had to be withdrawn to the rear for rearmament and for retraining pilots. Some of the units that had the “Newpors” were re-equipped with Moran-Parasol airplanes, some of the units received German and Austrian airplanes (captured and repaired), but the rearmament was carried out without a plan and was rather chaotic ^[14] .

January 17, 1915 was ordered to equip airplanes with light machine guns (Lewis and Madsen) ^[11] .

At the beginning of 1915, a decision was made to create a meteorological service - on February 21, 1915 the first flight was developed using weather data, on April 20, 1915 a decision was made to create a weather service as part of the WWF of four weather stations (one Central weather station and three weather stations at squadrons) ^[27]

By the spring of 1915, most of the aviation units were rearmament and reappeared at the front ^[14] .

March 31, 1915 pilot A. A. Kozakov completed the second air ram ^[8] .

On May 31, 1915, Lieutenant General P.K. Kondzerovsky sent a letter to the head of the GVTU, in which he proposed to drop "incendiary shells" from airplanes. In June 1915 incendiary shells of the ensign's design were made at the Imperial Moscow Technical SchoolB.N. Yuryev in the form of a glass bottle with a pyrotechnic igniter filled with a mixture of fuel oil, gasoline and kerosene. In the future, Molotov cocktails began to enter the aircraft parts ^[28] .

The Central Directorate of the WWF begins to form in January 1915, when the Office of the Head of the Organization of Aviation in the Army (Air Guard) was created . Management was headed by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich . All aviation of the active army was subordinate to him, except for the Squadron of aircraft, subordinated directly, through the squadron commander, to the Supreme Commander (was his strategic reserve ).

In 1915, the M-5 flying boat ^[7] was adopted as a naval scout.

In the spring of 1916, aviation divisions were formed under the armies, which included air units. In the 2nd, 7th and 12th armies fighter aviation units were formed. In July-August 1916, another 11 fighter aviation units appeared on the front. In early 1917, they began to form three more fighter aviation units (13th, 14th and 15th), which became part of the new fighter units - combat aviation groups ^[10] .

In March 1916, in the Ministry of War to replace the liquidated Aeronautical Division of the GVTU and the aviation divisions of the General Staff troop unit, the Office of the Military Air Fleet (Uvoflot) was created, headed by Major General N. V. Pnevsky. Fleet management is becoming centralized. From this moment on, one can talk about the full existence of the Imperial Air Fleet, before that there were only separate aviation and aeronautical units.

In June 1916, French airplanes arrived in Russia, which were transferred to aviation units, but by this time they had become obsolete. Most of the air battles between the German "Fokkers" and Russian airplanes during this period did not end in favor of the Russian aviators ^[14] .

At the end of July 1916, a special fighter group of three air corps detachments was created on the South-Western Front : the 2nd, 4th and 19th, which later became famous as the 1st combat aviation group of the famous pilot ace Alexander Kozakov .

At the end of 1916, the aviation of the Russian army was better than at the beginning of the war. But if we take into account the fact that during the 2.5 years of the war Germany, France and Britain took huge steps along the path of developing their air forces, it turns out that by the end of 1916 the Russian army had become even more defenseless in the air than it had been in 1914 year ^[14] .

In the years 1916-1917. in Reval harbor (now Tallinn ) reinforced concrete hangars for hydroplanes of the Baltic Fleet were built, which became the first reinforced concrete hangars for aviation in the world ^[29] .

By order of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief No. 203 of February 18, 1917, it was prescribed to form the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th combat aviation groups with the inclusion of the 1st, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 14th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 24th and 30th corps aviation units. At the beginning of 1917, they began to form three more fighter aviation units (13th, 14th and 15th), which became part of combat aviation groups ^[10] .

After the February Revolution

By February 1917, there were 1,039 airplanes in the Russian Empire ^[7] .

The history of the Imperial Air Force ended in 1917, after the February Revolution of 1917, which led to chaos in Russia, in its armed forces and aircraft industry.

The management of the air fleet was distributed between three central authorities ^[30] :

• The Directorate of the Military Air Fleet (Uvoflot or UVVF) , subordinate to the Minister of War, was in charge of aviation in the internal military districts, educational institutions, the organization of supply of front-line units and the purchase of aircraft. After the February Revolution, at the head of Uvoflot stood the professor of the Nikolaev Military Engineering Academy, Major General D.V. Yakovlev.
• Maritime Aviation Administration (UMA) - headed the aviation of the Russian Imperial Fleet.
• The Aviation and Aeronautics Field Directorate at the headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (PUAiV ) , formed on April 16, 1917 on the basis of the Aviakants (Office of the Field Inspector General of Aviation), was in charge of the combat use of aviation at the fronts. On April 23, 1917, Colonel S. A. Nemchenko was appointed head of the PUAiV with the rights of a corps commander. Then he was briefly replaced by Colonel S. A. Ulyanin, who was more popular in aviation circles, but he, citing ignorance of his field of activity, never took office. On June 6, 1917, the famous combat pilot Lieutenant Colonel V. M. Tkachev was appointed head of the PUAiV ^[31] .

In September 1917, in the wake of general democratization, another governing body emerged - the public All-Russian Aviation Council (Air Council) , elected by the First All-Russian Aviation Congress and approved by order of the Minister of War, Major General Verkhovsky. This public organization with an unclear status, but with great ambitions was led by an observer pilot, member of the Socialist-Revolutionary Lieutenant D. D. Chrysoscoleo. The multi-party composition of the Air Council caused its split immediately after the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks. Some deputies, for one reason or another, supported the Bolsheviks, while the rest met the Bolshevik revolution with hostility ^[30] .

On the eve of the October Revolution, the Russian air fleet consisted of more than 300 different units and divisions, including 14 aviation divisions, 91 aviation units, 4 combat units of Ilya Muromets aircraft, 87 aeronautical units, 32 naval aviation units, 11 aviation and aeronautical schools, a division of naval aviation, eight fleets, as well as numerous train-workshops, airbases, aeronautical parks, etc. Up to 35,000 soldiers and officers served in aviation units and there were about 1,500 aircraft various types ^[30] .

Most of the first Russian pilots died during the First World War and the Civil War or emigrated from Russia. A certain number of aviation units of the former Imperial Air Force fleet went over to the Bolsheviks, the rest fought in the White Aviation .

Aircraft parts ^{[ when? ]}

Aircraft units of the Russian Imperial Fleet

The first balloon carrier - “ Rus ” - appeared in the Russian Imperial Navy on November 19, 1904, it was bought with donations from Count Stroganov in Germany. "Rus" carried on board 8 balloons and 1 spherical balloon. The Balloon "Rus" did not take part in the Russian-Japanese war, and shortly after the defeat at Tsushima - sold "as unnecessary."

In 1909, the captain of the Marine Engineers Corps, L. M. Matsievich , made a report in St. Petersburg on the need to create aircraft carriers, and six months later he proposed a project for the construction of an aircraft carrier for 25 aircraft, with preliminary experiments on one of the destroyers.

In the spring of 1910, Lieutenant Colonel K. Konkotkin proposed a much cheaper project to remake the obsolete Admiral Lazarev ship, a real aircraft carrier with a flight deck and a hangar. Both projects were not rejected, but the project of L. M. Matsievich was archived after his death in a plane crash in the fall of 1910, and the Konkotkin project, having received initial approval, was closed after its transfer to the Amur Flotilla, with the wording “ It ’s a matter of production by itself discontinued . "

With the outbreak of World War I, the maritime department again remembered aircraft carriers, but since it was already too late to build real aircraft carriers, it was decided to convert the ships Empress Alexandra , Emperor Alexander I , Emperor Nicholas I , and Romania into air transport, as well as to supplement the armament of the cruiser " Almaz" with a hydroplane.

After the February Revolution of 1917, “Empress Alexandra” was renamed “ Eaglet ”, and “Emperor Alexander I” and “Emperor Nicholas I” to “ Republican” and “ Aviator” . All these hydro-aircraft carriers (including the cruiser Almaz) managed to take an active part in the war. ^[32]

Until the pilot takes down 5 enemy vehicles, they do not pay much attention to him. But as soon as he crossed the cherished boundary, he is rightly called an ace : he is excluded from the general order and is given the opportunity to fly alone whenever and wherever. From this moment on, all his work is based on his own ingenuity and initiative.

- The commander of the 2nd aviation detachment of fighters, captain E. Kruten .

During the First World War, 26 pilots of the Russian army became aces ^[8] , through the dash - the number of aircraft shot down:

• The icon-monument to the Russian Air Fleet (the triptych of the icons of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. George the Victorious and Elijah the Prophet) was installed in the cathedral of Alexander Nevsky, in Paris , in the late 1920s, was made according to the drawings of the pilot R. L. Nizhevsky. The monument was erected by N. S. Sakov .

• Field Aviation and Aeronautics Administration
• USSR Air Force
• Air Force of the Russian Federation

• Russian aviation of the First World War and the Civil War // on the site War is Over
• Aviation and Ballooning of the First World War // on the website of Retroplan
• Russian Army Aviation in the First World War // Sky Corner website
• Russian aviation in the First World War
• "Aeronautical Park." Website dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Officer Aeronautical School
• The birth of Russian attack aircraft
• Ballooning and aviation in Russia until 1907. Collection of documents and materials
• Cheltsov V.F. The history of the creation and activities of the headquarters of the Air Force. 1912-1945 (unavailable link) // Military History Journal, 2007, No. 8
• Kuznetsov V. Century of aircraft manufacturing in Russia // AviaSoyuz. October-December (No. 5-6) 2010. c. 2-5
• Khayrulin M. A. "Ilya Muromets" - the pride of Russian aviation. - M.: Collection: Yauza, Eksmo - 2010 .-- 144 p.