Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots

Flight training was carried out in the training aviation regiments (UAP) of the school at the aerodromes located in the settlements: Chernigov , Gorodnya , Dobryanka (Chernihiv region) , Konotop , Maleyki, Svessa , (Pervomaisk), Klimovo , Uman , Ivangorod.

In different years, the school trained fighter pilots on the following types of aircraft: U-2 (Po-2) , I-15bis , I-16 , Yak-1 , Yak-7B , Yak-11 , Yak-18 , L- 29 , MiG-15 , MiG-17 , L-39 , MiG-21 , MiG-23 .

Ground

On the orders of the People's Commissar of Defense of November 6, 1940, the formation of the Chernihiv Military Aviation Pilot School (CHVASHP) began. The head of the school was appointed Colonel Kurdubov.

January 1, 1941 the school was fully equipped with a permanent staff.

World War II

From the very beginning of the war, the aviation school took part in the hostilities. From the school personnel in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, 3 air regiments and 3 separate air squadrons were formed and sent to the active army on I-15bis, I-16, U-2 aircraft, a total of 1285 people.

In July 1941, the ChVASHP was evacuated to the city of Zernograd, Rostov Region, and merged there with the Fastov Aviation School, known as Zernograd. By order of the People’s Commissar of Defense of October 21, 1941, it was returned to its previous name: Chernihiv Military Aviation Pilot School. At the end of November 1941, the Chernihiv military aviation school was evacuated with the families of officers to Turkmenistan in the cities of Kyzyl-Arvat and Kazanzhik . The aircraft U-2, UT-2, I-16, UTI-4 were sent along the route Zernograd- Salsk - Budennovsk - Grozny - Makhachkala , the rest of the property, as well as personnel, were transported by train to Makhachalu, where cars, property and personnel were transported by ferries across the Caspian Sea to Krasnovodsk and then delivered by rail to Kyzyl-Arvat. Part of the personnel and families of the military personnel were sent by rail along the route Zernograd – Stalingrad – Uralsk – Aktyubinsk – Aralsk – Kzyl Orda – Chimkent – Tashkent – Samarkand – Bukhara – Mary – Ashgabat – Kyzyl – Arvat. The headquarters of ChVASHP, 1 and 3 air squadrons were located in Kyzyl-Arvat at two aerodromes, and 2, 4 and 5 air squadrons in the settlements of Kazandzhik, Eger-Bugaz and Kara-Bugaz, respectively.

In February 1942, a new stage began in combat training. Cadets began to be taught on the latest Yak-1 and Yak-7b aircraft. The flights were carried out in very difficult conditions: the temperature in the summer reached 50 ° С and higher, therefore the flights began at sunrise, stopped at 11-12 hours and resumed at 17 hours. In such conditions, the school trained flight personnel until March 1944 . With the advance of our troops to the west, in March 1944 CHVASHP relocated to the Kuban , in the village of Leningradskaya . Over the years of the war, 2230 fighter pilots were trained at CHVASHP. 14 graduates were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Post-war time

In September 1945, the aviation school was transformed into the Chernihiv Military Aviation School. In July 1946, the school was disbanded. By the decision of the government, several new military educational institutions were created, including the 57th military aviation school of the Air Force pilots. The places of deployment were determined by the cities of Chernihiv and Gorodnya. The formation of the school was initiated by the directive of the General Staff of the SA of February 15, 1951 .

On March 18, 1951, the first convoy of motor vehicles arrived from Kiev to form the rear base of the new school ^[1] . The overhaul of the barracks and the preparation of buildings for the flight training department (ULO) began. September 2, 1951 507 cadets of the first set began to study theoretical disciplines. The school was headed twice by Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel Mikhail V. Kuznetsov .

On March 16, 1952, the first flight on a MiG-15 jet aircraft was performed from Maleyka airfield. The aircraft was piloted by Lt. Col. L. E. Sopelnichenko and Colonel M. V. Kuznetsov. And already in 1953 the first graduation of pilots on the MiG-15 took place. In 1957, the head of the school was the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Aviation Nikolai Fedorovich Kuznetsov , later the first head of the cosmonaut training unit. One issue followed another. From 1953 to 1959 , working under the secondary program, the school produced ten graduations and gave the country thousands of highly qualified fighter pilots.

On October 1, 1959, in accordance with the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR of May 23, 1959 and the directive of the General Staff of the Air Force of July 20, 1959, the school was transformed into the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots with a four-year training period. The first graduation of the pilot engineers of CVAAUL took place in 1963 . In the same year, the school was given the task of mastering a Czechoslovak-made jet aircraft L-29 and at the same time begin retraining for the MiG-21 aircraft. In October 1968, the Chernigov School was named after the Lenin Komsomol.

In 1973, the flight and cadet personnel began retraining for the new training aircraft L-39. The school was the first to start flights on L-29 aircraft, the first on L-39. For the first time in ChVVAUL, the Air Force began training cadets on MiG-23 aircraft in 1977 .

The Brezhnev era ( 1964 - 1982 ) was the heyday of the Air Force and ChVVAUL in particular, the school trained thousands of engineering pilots for fighter aircraft.

In 1988, training on the MiG-23 was discontinued, and in 1990 the last graduation on the MiG-21 was made, and the school switched to a fundamentally new flight training system. Previously, a cadet for 3-4 flight courses mastered 3-4 types (L-29, MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-21). Training on complex types was carried out already in combat regiments. The 1991-93 editions were taught only on L-39 aircraft, but according to the complex programs of the new KULP US IA-90. The cadets performed independent flights for aerobatics, for complex aerobatics by a couple, for combat maneuvering by a couple, for difficult aerobatics at low altitudes, for air combat of a pair for a couple, for intercepting air targets by a link, for combat maneuvering by a pair with the development of defensive-offensive maneuvers of the type " Knot1 ”,“ Knot2 ”,“ Hook ”,“ Fork ”,“ Corner ”,“ Shell ”and others, for firing NAR at ground targets as part of a link from complex types of maneuver, for pair landing. They also received tolerances during the day at UMP 200x2 (set minimum weather) and at night in SMU 400x4 (difficult weather conditions). In addition, cadets regularly participated in the annual day and night flight technical training (flight-tactical exercises) conducted on a school-wide scale (all points of the school were simultaneously involved in the training), for example, at the technical training college in July 1990 in the air zone of Pevtsy-Gorodnya airfields -Nobryanka was recorded by the simultaneous presence of more than 50 aircraft of various types. A graduate of CHVVAUL 1991-92 in terms of training corresponded to the level of a military pilot of the 2nd (Air Force) class.

Disbandment

In the fall of 1995, the school was disbanded. The school was disbanded by order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine from December 1, 1995.

See also the category Graduates of the Chernihiv Higher Military Aviation School of Pilots

• CHVVAUL Alumni Forum
• Chernihiv VVAUL-76
• CHVVAUL-81