In-flight landing gear repair
prehistory
The background is like this.
I once talked with my fellow countryman; we lived at the same time in the same yard on the street. Chelyuskintsev 17 "A" in Orenburg. And as the conversation progressed, he remembered that as a child, in the late 50s, he saw a picture on the wall at the Orenburg Navigation School, where a pilot, while on the wing of a biplane, was either repairing the wing braces or doing something else.
History had a sequel.
It turns out that it was an instructor pilot from the Orenburg Flight School who repaired the R-1 landing gear in flight (put a wheel on the landing gear).
Journalists then did not publish anything without permission; the report about this flight accident in TASS and about the awarding of the pilots was agreed upon by the head of the Red Army Air Force Alksnis with the People's Commissar of Defense Voroshilov (event - May 26, publication - May 30).
To the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Comrade Voroshilov
At the same time, I present a description of an incident that actually took place in the Orenburg school according to a report from the head of the school - a wheel coming off in flight and putting it on in the air.
Such a case occurs for the first time in the history of our Air Force. Fleet.
I petition:
1. Allow the note to be printed.
2. About rewarding comrade. Zverev and Semenov.
ATTACHMENT:
1. Note.
2. Report from the head of the school.
Chief of the Red Army Air Force
Commander 2nd rank Alksnis.
The newspaper “Orenburg Commune” wrote about the event on May 30, 1936. The spelling and style of the newspaper article have been preserved (authors without initials, etc.).
An example of courage and dedication
Heroic deed of Comrade Zverev
40 minutes on the landing gear
Arzamastsev, Grigorenko, Zhdanov.
After several windy days, the morning of May 26th promised a nice, calm day. Exactly according to the daily routine, one friend after another taxis from the red line of the P-1. Without wasting time, having taken off, they begin performing the next flight exercises.
Instructor-lieutenant comrade. Zverev, after a ten-day illness with malaria, changed in appearance - he lost weight. But he is still cheerful and responsive. He breathes youth. He is an excellent athlete. Yes, he is only 23 years old, and he is already teaching the 4th graduating class of cadets. He teaches only excellently and well.
Today he is the first to place Comrade Semenov in the cockpit and, having given the task, takes off to the low-flying strip. Comrade Semenov makes his 1th flight on the R-6. He flies well, is a good and excellent student, a good candidate for membership in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), editor of the Red Army newspaper of the unit.
At the main start, the starter unexpectedly raises a prohibition sign high above his head. Various guesses are being made. A car is planning to land. And people looking for the reason for the closure of flights turn their attention to this machine. Yes, that's the reason.
During her previous normal landing, her left tire came off.
Now, obviously not noticing the impending accident, this car is landing. The height becomes smaller and smaller, the attention of those watching the car grows, and the attention of those watching the car becomes tense. “Now there’s a breakdown... an accident... a catastrophe” - annoying thoughts flash through your mind. But the car didn’t start.
Noticing the threatening danger, the unit commander, senior lieutenant Comrade Gudovich, himself became a finisher and a sign - with panels he signaled to the emergency vehicle in which Comrade Zverev and Comrade Semenov were located that it did not have a left wheel.
T. Zverev, to make sure more accurately, makes several landing approaches, but the sign about a possible accident is not removed. The people watching the car from the ground, everyone somehow wants to help Comrade Zverev. Seeing the car at a low altitude, they slap their hands on the left leg, show the wheel, and the impatient ones try to convey it in words.
T. Zverev understood. On the last approach, he throws off his glove with a note - “Give me the wheel, I’ll put it on in the air” - and gains altitude.
The unit commander, Captain Tabarchuk, with his hands behind his back and a cigarette in his mouth, calmly and quietly walks away from those watching. Everyone knew that the captain would indicate how to prevent the impending emergency.
The captain's decision is put into action. A spare wheel is taken and tied under the fuselage of the R-1 so that when Comrade Zverev’s vehicle goes several meters higher, the wheel can be lowered on a rope. A locking pin and a note on how and what to do to put the wheel on are tied to the wheel. The wheel will be served by Captain Comrade. Tabarchuk, the plane is piloted by the division commander of Art. Lieutenant Comrade Dubovoy.
Under the intense gaze of instructors, technicians, and cadets, the car takes off and is escorted until it approaches Comrade’s car. Zverev, who, having entered the nearest zone, performs turns and combat turns.
Here both cars converged on top of each other. As they move away, they move smoothly against the wind. Those observing began to express their opinions on what they would do, how best to do it, and the qualities of the aircraft crews were assessed.
The cars disperse. One of them begins to slide steeply. Loses altitude. Landing. The supplied wheel did not hit the car, but with a broken rope fell to the ground from a height of 1 meters.
The second wheel is tied quickly and firmly. In case of another failure, the unit commanders Comrade Gudovich and Comrade Shevchenko board the second plane and also tie the wheel.
In the air, three cars move orderly with a left bearing.
Captain Comrade Tabarchuk pushed the wheel over a few meters. Comrade received him. Zverev. The car moves away and parks on the left side, as if watching what comrades Zverev and Semenov will do.
Comrade Semenov expresses a desire to get out onto the chassis and put on the wheel, but Lieutenant Zverev decides to do it himself, and Comrade. Semenov is trusted to pilot this sensitive, capricious machine. At an altitude of 2 meters, having tied the wheel to a rope, Zverev, without removing the parachute, climbs out of the cockpit and, clinging to the fuselage, descends onto the landing gear.
After 40 minutes in the jet of normal aircraft speed, comrade. Zverev put the wheel on, but the pin for securing the wheel turned out to be poorly tied and, untying it, Comrade. Zverev dropped it. Climbing into the cabin for a new hairpin means killing off your last strength.
Except for the rope, comrade. Zverev had nothing at his disposal. I decided to cover the wheel with braid. In order to put the wheel on the axle, it was necessary to expend enormous force, especially since Zverev was under a strong stream of air, which made it difficult to work and breathe.
Exhausted by this unusually difficult work, Comrade only left the hospital yesterday. Zverev returned to the cockpit with difficulty. 2 planes watched his work, walking nearby.
At the same speed Comrade. Zverev went to land.
They keep an eye on the approaching plane. So he took off the gas. Planning. Both wheels are clearly visible under the fuselage. Silence. Is everything okay?
The ignition is turned off. The car is perfectly leveled, a three-point landing. Everything is fine. Left roll. The car makes a U-turn, dragging its wing on the ground, and stops, as if limping on one leg.
Catastrophe? Accident? No. Breaking. People go to the car.
Comrades Zverev and Semenov climb out of the cabin. Serious, a little worried, but safe, alive, healthy - two people, two lives that were close to the end.
After three hours of flight comrade. Zverev had a delicious lunch and came to play billiards. He is the same as yesterday, but today he accomplished a heroic feat, showed his courage, love for his work, and devotion to our Motherland.
The school command awarded him a month's salary and nominated him for an award from the Red Army Air Force. After 3 hours, a team of cadets brought the aircraft into full readiness for tomorrow’s flights.
An incident worthy of fame excites everyone who hears about it.
Captain Comrade Tabarchuk, calmly exchanging opinions, says:
“When making the decision to throw the wheel into the air, I knew that Comrade was in the plane. Zverev is our perfectly physically developed person. We teach and train people well, but not everyone has such strength, determination and dexterity.”
And here is how the pilot himself described the event.
The accident was averted
Zverev
On May 26, I carried out training flights on the P-1 with a cadet from my group, Comrade. Semenov, and the left wheel flew off the plane in the air. During the landing approach, I noticed that the finisher was holding the wheel and making signs that I was left with one wheel (the right one), I understood the sign.
When I tried to sit on one wheel at the main T, I kept getting a no-landing sign. While waiting for permission to land, I had enough time to change my decision (land on 1 wheel) and accept the second one, which is the only way to ensure the preservation of the plane.
I sent a note to the flight director in which I asked him to send a wheel into the air (they responded with consent), and after about 40 minutes at an altitude of 1 m I successfully accepted the wheel from the captain, Comrade. Tabarchuk, and from that moment, as soon as the wheel was in my hands, I handed over control of the plane to cadet Semenov, and he climbed out of the cockpit onto the left plane, dragging the wheel behind him.
It was difficult to move towards the landing gear, but I still had fresh strength. When I got to the landing gear, strengthened myself with my feet on the plane’s axle and pulled the wheel off the plane, I had to hold it with both hands so as not to let go. Here I felt a strange feeling that my strength had a limit, and this feeling did not go away until the end of the work, which lasted 40 minutes on the chassis.
Having finished the work and securing the wheel to the axle with a rope, since there was only one pin that flew out when the wheel fell, I began to return to the cabin. I managed this with great difficulty, since I had no more strength left, and I had to rest in all comfortable positions where I could hold on.
Returning to the cockpit, I took control from the cadet, who, despite the fact that he had only 6 flights on this type of aircraft, coped with the task and flew the aircraft well while the work was being done, at economic speed.
I made a landing with a normal profile and with a left drift, so that the wheel would not fly off for as long as possible. At the end of the run, the wheel fell off the axle, and the car was damaged.
The accident was averted.
Report
A report from the People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Voroshilov addressed to Stalin about the feat of the 3rd High School of Lithuania and Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Zverev, who in May 1936 prevented a plane crash by installing a wheel on the plane in the air to replace the one that had come off.
Central Committee of the CPSU (b)
Comrade Stalin I.V.
On May 26 of this year, during a training flight on an R-1 aircraft, piloted by an instructor-pilot of the 3rd Military School of Pilots and Observer Pilots, Lieutenant Comrade. Zverev and cadet Semenov, the left wheel separated in the air. Lieutenant Zverev dropped a gloved note to the squadron commander asking him to deliver the wheel to him on the plane.
Squadron Commander Comrade. Tabarchuk, together with the flight commander, Senior Lieutenant Dubov, lowered the wheel from the plane onto Zverev’s plane using a rope.
Comrade Zverev, having transferred control of the plane to cadet Semenov, who had never flown independently, climbed out onto the plane of the plane with a wheel and a parachute and then descended onto the landing gear. Putting on the wheel, Zverev climbed into the cockpit of the plane, took control, and landed safely at the airfield.
Noting the heroism and resourcefulness of Lieutenant Zverev, who for the first time in the history of the Air Fleet put a wheel on an airplane in the air, I petition for an award:
Comrade Zverev - Order of the Red Star,
cadet Semenov - the Order of the Badge of Honor.
People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR
Marshal of the Soviet Union
K. Voroshilov
At the time of the event, the flight school was called the Third Military School of Pilots and Observer Pilots (3rd VSL and LN). In June 1938, the 3rd VSL and LN from the school was transformed into a college, and became known as the 3rd VAUL named after. K. E. Voroshilova.
In December 1938, Orenburg was renamed Chkalov. In February 1939, the school was divided into two independent schools: the First Chkalov Military School aviation Pilot School named after K. E. Voroshilova and the Second Chkalov Military Aviation School of Navigators.
On March 29, 1938, the story continued, ending with the death of Zverev and the loss of the R-5 aircraft.
Source:
RGVA, fund 29 “Office of the Chief of the Air Force of the Red Army”, inventory 47 “Personnel Department of the Air Force Department of command and command staff of the Air Force Air Force Personnel Directorate”, file 376 “Material (reports addressed to Comrade Stalin and Comrade Voroshilov, award sheets, reports, lists) on awards for Air Force personnel,” 01.01/31.12.1936–300/12/13, 14 sheets, sheets 16, 17, 18, XNUMX, XNUMX, XNUMX.
Information