History of Aviation in Russia

The history of Russian aviation is usually counted from the beginning of the 20th century. However, the obvious prerequisites for its development can be observed already in the XIX century.

In 1870, the Russian Aeronautics Society was created. In 1880, at the initiative of Dmitry Mendeleev , a aeronautical department was created at the Russian Technical Society ^[1] . However, according to a study published in 1962 by MATI associate professor G. A. Slomyansky, innovations in the field of aviation devices began in Russian aeronautics much earlier: the first aviation devices in Russia were used in a balloon flight as early as 1804. At the World Exhibition in Vienna (1873), Russian balloonists demonstrated the world's first autopilot ^[2] .

At the same time, in the second half of the 19th century, balloons were in service with the Russian army. At the end of the century there was a separate aeronautical park ^[3] .

It is generally accepted that Mozhaisky’s plane is the invention of the young and talented naval officer Alexander Fedorovich Mozhaisky . In fact, the concrete realization of the plans of the Russian inventor occurred when he, in the rank of rear admiral, was already 60 years old. Another question is that before that he had carried out various kinds of research in the field of flights (including bird flight) for thirty years, the result of which was the design of the aircraft.

In Soviet (and partly later Russian) history, it was generally accepted that Mozhaysky's plane became one of the first (if not the first) aircraft in the world heavier than air, which managed to take off the ground and make a manned flight. However, in world science this point of view is not mainstream, and the Wright brothers , whose successes were officially registered only after 15 years, are quite clearly recognized as pioneers. Unfortunately, the documents directly recording the test progress of the Mozhaisky aircraft were not preserved, which radically reduces the room for maneuver in discussions about priority. Nevertheless, for the development of Russian aviation, Mozhaisky’s aircraft is, without a doubt, the main reference point.

Mozhaisky's plane took its place in Russian culture - and does not lose it in our days. So, in Victor Pelevin ’s novel “Lamp of Methuselah ” (2016), the story of the creation of the aircraft and the collisions associated with it form the basis of the main storyline of the work.

In 1902-1903, maneuvers took place in Krasnoye Selo, Brest, and Vilna, during which ways to use balloons in the interests of artillery and for air reconnaissance were tested. Based on the results of the tests, it was decided to create special units at the fortresses in Warsaw, Novgorod, Brest, Kovno, Osovets and the Far East. The total number of balls was 65. In 1908, Russia began to manufacture airships.

However, at the same time, research was already conducted in the field of aircraft heavier than air. In 1904, an aerodynamic institute was created in Kuchino, the leader of which was the outstanding Russian scientist Nikolai Zhukovsky , the creator of aerodynamics (and hydrodynamics). The Institute carried out work aimed at improving aviation technology. At the same time, Russian designer Dmitry Grigorovich began his work on the creation of the world's first seaplanes. Before the start of World War I, the first flight schools were opened ^[4] .

The forerunners of the first aircraft factories in the Russian Empire were workshops that repaired the planes of foreign pilots who arrived in Russia on tour. Soon, however, orders began to arrive not only for repair, but also for the production of new aircraft. The Russian aviation industry began in 1909, and a year later began to produce aircraft. The first-born of the Russian aircraft industry was the Russia-A biplane, launched by the factory of the First All-Russian Aeronautical Partnership based on the design of Henri Farman ^[5] .

In the 10s of the last century, the first full-fledged aircraft factories began to open in Russia: often, on the basis of large companies and enterprises from the field of transport engineering. So, in 1909, lawyer Sergei Schetinin set about creating the first aviation production in Russia. At the beginning of 1910, a workshop was opened for the money loan received from the Ministry of War in St. Petersburg, which was called the First Russian Ballooning Partnership - PRTV (since 1915 - the Gamayun plant) ^[6] .

In the same 1909, the first aircraft was produced at the Dux factory , which, several years later, became the main aviation supplier of the Russian army. By 1918, when the plant was nationalized, its product range was 22 types of aircraft, including hydroplanes . It was on an airplane manufactured by Dux in 1913 that the pilot-captain Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov performed the “ dead loop ” for the first time in the world. Nikolai Polikarpov began his career as an aircraft designer in the Petrograd branch of the plant.

The plant owned four hangars on the outskirts of the Khodynka field, where in 1910 the first full-fledged airfield was opened in Moscow, which existed until 2003. In fact, the first aviation cluster in Russia was formed here: in the future, the leading aviation design bureaus: Sukhoi , Mikoyan , Ilyushin , Yakovlev , were built precisely in the vicinity of the Khodynsky field .

In 1912, the workshop of the aviation department of the Russian-Baltic Carriage Works began in St. Petersburg ; Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky was invited to the post of chief designer. In 1913, under the leadership of Sikorsky, the world's first four-engine aircraft, the Russian Knight , was built, giving rise to heavy aviation. In the same year, the public was shown a prototype of the first ever multi-engine bomber Ilya Muromets . In December 1914, Emperor Nicholas II approved the decision to create a squadron of aircraft Ilya Muromets, which became the first formation in the world, which included heavy four-engine bombers. This date is considered to be the beginning of Long-Range Aviation in Russia ^[7] .

After the revolution and subsequent nationalization, the plant and its aircraft bureau were reorganized and renamed several times, becoming, inter alia, the basis for the creation of the plant named after M.V. Khrunichev , one of the leading enterprises in the Russian space and rocket industry.

In 1914, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Lebedev, one of the first Russian aviators , opened the plant in St. Petersburg, later on as president of the All-Russian Aero Club and holder of the Order of the Legion of Honor ( France ). In terms of area, the enterprise significantly exceeded the plants of both Shchetinin and Dux. Subsequently, the “Association of V. A. Lebedev and K” implemented several more similar projects, the most successful of which was the Taganrog Aircraft Plant .

By the beginning of the First World War, the Russian Empire possessed the largest fleet of military aircraft among all the warring powers - 263 aircraft. However, most of the aircraft were quite worn out and obsolete, with virtually no weapons on board. In addition, for every two aircraft, there was less than one trained pilot ^[8] . Towards the end of the war, the qualitative lag turned into a quantitative one: in October 1917, Russia had 700 aircraft, significantly inferior to other warring countries in this indicator.

At the same time, only until November 1, 1916, 883 aircraft and 2326 engines were received from abroad (65% of aircraft and 90% of engines were purchased in France, 25% of aircraft in Italy, 10% in England: it is easy to see that the losses were the following year became very significant (as in previous years of the war).

It should be noted that the control system became another problem of the Empire’s aviation: the Air Force entered the war with virtually no clear leadership. Until 1916, the aeronautical department at the General Staff Main Intelligence Directorate worked, and later the Air Force Department was created, which was mainly concerned with staffing and supply. In parallel, at the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander was the Aviation Chancellery (Aviakants), which from the end of 1915 was headed by Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich , the man who stood at the origins of the officer aviation school opened near Sevastopol in 1910. However, senior management did not have the necessary knowledge and experience in the field of aviation. A famous example is the visit of Minister of War Vladimir Sukhomlinov to a test airfield in St. Petersburg in 1913. Upon learning that new aircraft should be tested in flight for an hour and a half, the Minister ordered the reduction of test flights to 30 minutes, completely ignoring the protests of pilots and engineers. The result, among other things, of this decision was that in the first period of the war, the main percentage of losses occurred in accidents. By the beginning of October 1914, squads of the 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th armies out of 99 aircraft lost 91 as a result of accidents (and, accordingly, no more than eight as part of combat losses) ^[9] .