Aeronautical Training Park

On December 22, 1884 (the city), a prominent Russian reformer and Minister of War, General P.S. Vannovsky, spoke at the Military Council: “... Sovereign Emperor, recognizing the need to provide ... funds for thorough development of issues of development of aeronautics for us and for military purposes, pigeon mail and various tower systems, the highest command deigned: - To organize a special fund ...; - The expenditure of this amount to produce with the permission of the Minister of War ...; “To form a personnel team of aeronauts ...”

In December 1884, in Russia , under the chairmanship of the Head of the Galvanic (later - Electrical) part of Major General M. M. Boreskov, a "Commission for the Use of Aeronautics, Pigeon Mail and Watchtowers for Military Purposes" was created. Lieutenant A. M. Kovanko , who had previously graduated from the Nikolaev Engineering School, was appointed her secretary-clerk. ^[2]

According to the conclusion of this commission, in February 1885 the Aeronautical Team was formed - the first regular unit of its kind in the Russian army - under the command of Lieutenant A. M. Kovanko. The team consisted of two non-commissioned officers and 20 privates. In 1887 , the team already had 6 officers and 51 soldiers. The officers taught the soldiers gymnastics, telegraphic alphabet, photography, the use of telephones, the arrangement of balloons , filling them with gas, the preparation of signal balloons from parchment paper, the handling of a gas production unit and a steam winch. ^[3]

The military aeronautical team was stationed south of Volkova Village, on the Volkov Field, in the old barracks of the artillery test range.

On October 6, 1885, the first successful flight from Volkov to Novgorod in a French balloon was made. The crew consisted of 3 people under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Kovanko, founder and head of the aviation team. From here for the first time 2 air balloons “Eagle” and “Falcon” took off.

On May 18, 1886 , A.M. Kovanko carried out the first experimental aerial photography over St. Petersburg. This marked the beginning of the development of air photography in our country. Kovanko received the first photograph from a height of 800 m, the second from 1200 m; both - with the tilted position of the optical axis of an ordinary sliding camera with a simple instant shutter and a 12 x 16 cm image format. The third shot was taken over the Peter and Paul Fortress from a height of 1350 m with an approximately vertical position of the camera’s optical axis. ^[four]

On the territory of the Aeronautical Park was the 1st pigeon station. Homing pigeons were used when flying balloons and airships over long distances to inform the state of emergency. And even on the first flights of aircraft, pigeons were also taken.

In April 1887 , the Aeronautical Team was renamed the Training Personnel Aeronautics Park , and in May 1890 , the provision on the Aeronautical Unit was approved and by Order No. 126 on the military department of July 14, 1890 , the Training Aeronautical Park was formed. The training ground for training officers and privates of the aeronautical service also began to be called. Here, tests of "aeronautical shells" - aircraft, were carried out, equipment was made for aeronautical parts. For these purposes, ball and network workshops, a training pigeon station, a meteorological station, mechanical workshops and various laboratories were deployed.

The St. Petersburg newspaper Novoye Vremya, dated May 16 (3), 1901, reported:

“On May 1, at the suggestion of the chairman of the International Meteorological Commission, Dr. Gergesel, from many points in Western Europe ( Paris , Strasbourg , Berlin , Munich , etc.), as well as from St. Petersburg, the 17th international flight of balloons without balloonists took place, but only with the necessary recording meteorological instruments for automatic recording at different altitudes, temperature, pressure and humidity ... Hoisting ball proceeded smoothly to 8 o'clock, the yard training aeronautic park (in the Volkov field).

The military personnel of the training aeronautical park participated in the maneuvers of 1902-1903 . in Krasnoye Selo , Brest, and Vilna where methods of using balloons in the interests of artillery (reconnaissance, fire adjustment) and for air reconnaissance (observation) were tested. Convinced of the appropriateness of using tethered balloons, the War Ministry decided to create special units at the fortresses in Warsaw , Novgorod, Brest, Kovno , Osovets and the Far East, which included 65 balloons.

At the beginning of the 20th century , a boathouse was built on the field to store balloons and airships - a massive building, upon seeing which passengers of the Nikolaev Railway determined that they were approaching Art. "Aeronautical Park . "

Military aeronauts mastered balloon control techniques here, conducted experiments with tethered balloons , and launched balloons and probes. From this airfield, the first Russian-controlled Swan balloon flew up.

All this time, the UVP ( Training Ballooning Park ) was led by Alexander Kovanko, who had gone from lieutenant to lieutenant general. In 1904 , as part of the UVP , the Military Aeronautical School was opened, with which D.I. Mendeleev , N.E. Zhukovsky collaborated.

The St. Petersburg newspaper Novoye Vremya dated July 18, 1907 reported:

Launched on July 14, the Aeronautical Training Park balloon (1,500 cubic meters in volume), the 5-hour flight field safely descended south of Lake Ladoga, at 40 ver. from Voybakala station, Vologda railway, Novoladozhsky uyezd, Petersburg Bay. Aeronauts (cap. Agapov, assignment. Cherpakov, backwater. Samoilo and Umanets) flew in a straight line about 85 ver., Reaching the highest point of 2,050 meters., At the lowest temperature +5 C.

So far, nothing has been done in the field of promoting private aeronautics. Ballooning is concentrated exclusively in the field of its use for military purposes; So, we have an aeronautical unit under the Main Engineering Directorate. Then we have a training aeronautical park , which is a school of Russian military aeronautics. We do not go further.

- V. Korn, "Russian Aero Club", Aeronaut , 1907 , No. 12.

^[five]

The manufacture of airships in the Russian Empire began in 1908 at the same time the first flight of the Russian airship "Training" took place here. Military aeronauts mastered ballistic control techniques and conducted experiments with tethered balloons. In August 1909, the first Russian-controlled Lebed balloon flew up from here.

By the fall of 1909 , the UVP received permission from the Ministry of the Imperial Court to arrange an aerodrome for testing and flying airplanes. In 1909, the Engineering Department proposed to the head of the training aeronautical park, Major General A. M. Kovanko, to build 5 airplanes. Soon, two hangars were built on the allotted area, and on September 22, airplanes were placed in them for completion, which were being built in the park on the Wolf Field.

“... in pursuance of this, the SMI ordered in France the airplanes of br. Wright and Voisin ... and at the same time acquired 7 gasoline engines for placing them on airplanes and for testing the suitability of various types of engines for such devices. The construction of five airplanes in the Training Balloon Park is ending, and in the coming fall, these airplanes will be tested by flight on the Gatchina military field ... "

- Report of the Head of the Main Engineering Department of the General Engineer N.F. Alexandrova to the Military Council .

In 1910 , the Aeronautical Training Park was reorganized into an Officer Aeronautical School with aviation and aeronautical departments.

On July 30 of the same year, the first Russian airship Krechet launched with UVP .

Composition

• control
• officer class
• non-commissioned officer class
• ball workshop
• network workshop
• training pigeon station
• weather station
• mechanical workshops
• various laboratories
  • wind tunnel laboratory ^[6]

After October 1917 , A. M. Kovanko was removed from his post, and the Higher Military Aeronautical School was established at the airport. Here the commanding staff of aeronauts and airship pilots was prepared for the Worker - Peasant Red Army. In Soviet times, the tests continued: in 1923, through the efforts of the Higher Military Aeronautical School, the airship “VI October” was built and launched into the air. The school was disbanded in 1926 , and the territory of the Aeronautical Park was given to the military unit involved in the repair of aircraft. In memory of this, the railway station was named. Aeronautical Park platform and Aeronautic street. The building of the former Aeronautical School (Parkovaya St. 7) has memorial plaques dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the UVP (1885-1985) and in honor of the centenary of P.N. Nesterov (1887-1914), who graduated from the Aeronautical School in 1912.

After the military aeronautical school was liquidated in 1926, and the former wasteland began to overgrow with industrial buildings, the boathouse disappeared somewhere. The building of the former forge, which built both balloons and airships, and the first aircraft that were designed by Russian officers of the aeronautical school, has been preserved. Around 1923-1926, the Church of Elijah the Prophet was destroyed on the territory of the Balloon Park .

During the Great Patriotic War in the street. Park House No. 7 in addition to aircraft engine repair was located workshop for the repair and restoration of the famous "Katyusha" ^[7] .

The importance of the Training Balloon Park for the development of Russian science and military affairs is difficult to overestimate. It was here that experiments were conducted on the first Russian airplanes and parachutes, systematic atmospheric studies using balloons were organized (the honor of the birth of aerology as a science belongs to Russia; its founder is M. M. Pomortsev, professor of the Training Aeronautical Park and professor at the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy ).

It was established on February 24, 1896. It is a silver wreath of laurel and oak leaves, on which a silver national emblem is placed on the upper part and silver axes crossed below, on top of which is a golden emblem of the aeronautical units of the engineering troops . Sign height 49 mm, width 38.5 mm. The right to wear the badge had officers who graduated from the officer classes of the UVP. The sign is worn on the left side of the chest on the uniform , uniform , coat , tunic in the middle of the distance from the waist to the collar. The badge could be worn as a regimental badge by the ranks of the Training Aeronautical Park . ^[eight]

The combined sign of the training aeronautical park and the military-electrotechnical school . Established on February 4, 1897. It is a silver wreath of laurel and oak leaves, on which in the upper part a silver state emblem is applied and below are silver crossed axes. At the bottom of the badge are the golden emblem of the aeronautical units of the engineer troops and crossed lightning bolts. Sign height 41 mm, width 33 mm. The right to wear the badge are officers who have completed first-class officer classes at the Military Electrotechnical School and officer classes at the Training Aeronautical Park. The sign is worn on the left side of the chest on the uniform, uniform, coat, tunic in the middle of the distance from the waist to the collar. A very peculiar sign. It was not used as a regimental badge for the ranks of the Electrotechnical School or the Aeronautical Training Park. This mark can only be worn by officers, and those who have completed excellent training courses in two educational institutions - the Military Electrotechnical School and the Aeronautical Training Park. ^[eight]

In Poetry

• Alexander Kushner, The Balloon Park ( 1962 )
• Alexander Gorodnitsky, The Balloon Park ( 1972 )

In titles

• Balloon Street
• Balloon Park (platform)

• V.P. Zakharov, First Military Airfield, M., Military Publishing , 1988
• E. N. Sheveleva, Badges of the Russian Army, Farn. St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg), 1993.
• V.V. King. Earth and sky of General A. M. Kovanko, St. Petersburg, Polytechnic, 2005

• Balloon Park . (inaccessible link)
• Balloon Amnesia
• In the villages of Volkovo and Kupchino.
• History of the Gatchina airfield
• "Aeronautical Park." Aeronautical Officer School Website
• Badges of military ranks of engineering troops of the Russian Army of the late XIX - early XX centuries.
• Aviation and aeronautics before the Second World War.
• The complex of buildings of the Officer Aeronautical School, Citywalls.RU
• "Military Literature", Memoirs, Militer.