Amet Khan Sultan
The famous test pilot Amet-Khan Sultan was a Crimean Tatar by mother. According to his father, he was a lak (Dagestan highlander). He was born on October 25, 1920 in Alupka. When I finished 7 classes, I entered the railway FZU. Then he worked as a locksmith. In the same years, he began flying in Simferopol aero club. And in 1939, on the recommendation of the enterprise, he was admitted to the Kachinsky Military aviation school.
22 June 1941, Junior Lieutenant Amet-Khan was in the 4-IAP under Chisinau. On the first day of the war, Sultan made several assaults on his I-153. And by October 1941, the pilot already had 130 sorties for reconnaissance and attack of the enemy troops and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. However, Amet-Khan won his first aerial victory only next year.
31 May 1942 of the year, wasting the entire ammunition of his continuously attacking Hurricane, wasted, the Sultan left wing with a twin-engine Ju-88 rammed from the bottom, ready to bring tons of explosive death to the civilians of Yaroslavl. The bomber went down, dragging the fighter Amet Khan stuck in his robust hull into oblivion. He was already jumping from burning debris. Colossal exposure and the presence of the spirit was enough to break out of an unusual trap, so as not to pull the parachute exhaust ring immediately and not burn your only chance for salvation.
During his ram ram the junior pilot of the 4 Fighter Regiment became an honorary citizen of Yaroslavl and the owner of the nominal hours. In the characteristics compiled in those days, it was noted: "Comrade Amet-Khan in military work is tireless. In battle he is courageous, stubborn and persistent. He has courage in decision-making. He is a master of aerial reconnaissance, one of the first in the regiment to fight with an enemy bomber in twilight. "
In the summer, the sophisticated air fighter had to jump again from the thick of a fierce air battle, but now over Stalingrad. He then did not become an honorary citizen of another Volga city, although, perhaps, he deserved it. The victory was too far away then and the enemy was too close. Wing to wing with Sultan in a special group of "hunters" for the vaunted German aces fought such masters of air combat as V.D. Lavrinenkov, A.K. Ryazanov, I.N. Stepanenko, I.G. Borisov, B.N. Eremin. Being close to them meant the highest recognition of professional flight and combat qualities, regardless of official position and number of awards for past merits. The fact is that to confirm this highest and, at the same time, severe difference was necessary in every combat departure.
They constantly studied themselves and taught the skilled and experienced enemy to recognize and recognize themselves by a special grip and clear handwriting, which themselves often determined the outcome of the battle. By the time of fierce fighting in the skies of Voronezh and Stalingrad, Amet-Khan had successfully mastered and used to the limit all the potential combat capabilities of the fighters I-15, I-16, I-153, Hurricane, Yak-1, Yak-7б.
Over the Kuban, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Melitopol, the Crimea, Sultan fought on the American Aerocobra. It was then that his tendency to maximize the full potential of the new aircraft in combat conditions was clearly manifested. Constant transfers from one type of fighter to another only enriched him with experience and new knowledge.
In this regard, indicative of the next episode. In January, 1944, he was paired with the Hero of the Soviet Union, IG Borisov brought to his airfield a coherent "Fizeler-Storch", giving him his firm installation for landing. After a cursory examination of the military trophy without consulting the captive crew, he successfully flew around a completely unfamiliar machine, which, by the way, had complicated wing mechanization.
With regard to the development of new technology, fate clearly favored him. Over East Prussia and Berlin, he fought on the newest La 7. On this fighter Amet-Khan and put his last point in the Great Patriotic War, April 29 1945, knocked over his last airfield Tempelgof his last - Fw-190.
Under the broad shoulders and in the record of the Guard Major, Assistant Commander of the Regiment for the Air Rifle Service, Hero of the Soviet Union, there were 603 combat sorties. Of these, 70 - to attack, when a light fighter is almost defenseless in front of a firestorm, rushing from a dangerously close land. His nerves sustained 150 air battles, in which they shot him down and in which he shot down 30 enemy planes in person and 19 in the group.
22 June 1945, the twenty-five-year-old pilot is given the title Hero for the second time, and in August, the doors of the prestigious academy opened to the son of the tinker from Alupka, behind which the contours of the future general's career were clearly visible. But at the beginning of 1946, with his directness and honesty, he puts on a hefty cross. “Soberly weighing the level of my knowledge, I do not see the possibility of further study. Therefore, I ask you to deduct me, as I am not sure that I will survive five years of study at the academy,” he wrote ingenuously in a team report.
It was much more difficult to return to the beloved work in the peaceful post-war days. It is good that there were still quite influential fighting friends nearby. Only in February, 1947, Amet-Khan becomes an ordinary test pilot of the Flight Research Institute and begins to master, in essence, a new profession. In this most difficult and dangerous work, he will truly find himself, and will help him invaluable combat experience, war-polished flight and volitional qualities.
In the shortest possible time, Amet Khan is among the best. In 1949, the 3 class is assigned to it, and then with an interval of one and two years - the 2 class and the 1 class of test pilot. With the strictest method of selecting testers according to the categories of complexity of the tests performed, such a rapid take-off was possible only for the most capable and worthy. Golden Stars and Orders with such a statement almost lost their considerable weight.
He started with the “flying laboratories” of the LL-1 and LL-2 designs by P.V. Tsybina. The glider, equipped with a powder rocket engine, ran, towed by an airplane, on a special dumping cart, and sat down on a ski. After uncoupling, the glider, when diving, was accelerated by a powder engine to a speed corresponding to the number M = 0,87. This was the way to get the most valuable experimental material on the aerodynamics of various wings.
Somehow, after the takeoff of the LL-1, the trolley did not come off. Landing with her could lead to serious consequences, until the death of the car. And yet the tester decided to land. After a dangerous landing on the wheels of the carriage deprived of brakes, he prudently and coolly did not leave attempts to unhook it. Only at the very end, having flown almost the entire runway, he succeeded in this and he sat down properly, as it should be on the ski. At this time, the ill-fated "cart" still continued its frantic mileage.
In June, the 1949 of the year, he performed the first in-country refueling in the air from wing to wing using a twin-engined Tu-2. How much strength and nerves they gave together with A.P. Yakimov for testing and fine-tuning the system developed by V.S. Vasyanin and I.I. Shelestom, now very few people know. Only the stingy, laconic entries in the flight book remained, dull testifying to the drama of those days.
By the end of the same year, Vernikov and Amet-Khan were entrusted with the most difficult task: testing an experienced all-weather two-seat interceptor fighter of the OKI Mikoyan I-320 ("Р-2") fighter. And in 1951, the capricious fate of a test pilot sits him in a KS projectile, or rather, its counterpart. The projectile after uncoupling from the carrier Tu-4 was supposed to fly to a large surface target-ship.
In January, Sultan Amet-Khan performed the first flight on an analogue, starting from the ground, and four months later - separated from the four-motor carrier. In one of the flights, the engine did not start immediately after separation, and only at the very ground did the tester succeed. At the price of an incredible nervous tension and thanks to the famous pilot excerpt, the tests were successfully completed. For the courage and heroism shown, Amet-Khan Sultan is presented for the third time to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the approval at this time did not happen.
One is connected with Amet Khan’s service at LII story. The command of the Air Force found that the test pilot's salaries were too high relative to other pilots. And so that everything looked “beautiful”, they ordered the pilots to write about their consent to pay cuts. Amet-Khan wrote, like his colleagues, about consent, but attributed: "That's just my wife strongly opposed." I.V. Stalin always showed an interest in aviation and in the course of testing new machines. When he saw the postscript of the eminent pilot, he imposed his resolution: “I fully agree with Amet-Khan’s wife.” Salaries for testers left unchanged.
In February, the 1953 of the year for the successful tests of the K-like aircraft, the brave pilot was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the State Prize. In the same year, he mastered the "supersonic", exploring it on the SI-10, based on the MiG-17. Four years later, they recalled his flights on a projectile analogue. Together with V.G. Pavlov and V.P. Trofimov on the CM-20, imitating the K-20 cruise missile, he experiences special equipment, carrying out dangerous launches from the Tu-95K carrier aircraft. It seems that flights on the analogs of cruise missiles have become an accompanying specialty of the Sultan.
In the fifties, the work of Amet Khan was associated with the testing of ejection seats for supersonic fighters, carried out by test-paratroopers V.I. Golovin and V.S. Kochetkov. 12 November 1950 of the year in one of the test flights at the UTI flying laboratory of the MiG-15 there was a spontaneous explosion of the ejection seat squib. Fuel poured from the punched tank into both pilot's cabins, which instantly transformed into kerosene baths. The explosion ruined the guide rail of the ejection seat, which prevented the paratrooper Golovin from leaving the damaged aircraft. The serial UTI MiG-15 was not a valuable test object, and if there were no “troubles” with the guide catapult, it would be possible to leave the car with a clear conscience, which suddenly became an incendiary time bomb. Saving the life of a comrade, Sultan went on a risky landing and so softly “lapped” his winged “lighter” to the runway, that there were no sparks and fires.
In April, for the first time in 1959, he was flying the experimental HM-1 aircraft of the P.V. Tsybina and successfully conducting his tests. Autumn 1961 of the year he meets as "Honored Test Pilot of the USSR". For testers this title is the highest reward.
The famous Avar writer Rasul Gamzatov recalled:
“I had a famous friend, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Amet-Khan Sultan. His father is a Dagestanian, and his mother is a Tatar ... Dagestanians consider him their hero, and the Tatars theirs.
- Whose are you? - I asked him once.
“I’m not a Tatar or Lak hero,” answered Amet-Khan, “I’m a Hero of the Soviet Union.”
- And whose son?
- Father with mother. Is it possible to separate them from each other? "
Death will overtake a wonderful flyer and a man after 10 years. This happened on February 1 1971 of the relatively low-speed, serial Tu-16 bomber, converted into a flying laboratory for testing new jet engines. On this day, Amet Khan flew to the "flying laboratory" to conduct tests of the TRD. The motor under test was placed inside the fuselage of the TU-16 and went down to launch. When the crew began to produce the engine, the radio operator reported to the "tower" about the beginning of the flight mission. This was the last message from the airship. Tu-16 crashed into a swamp. The crew died. What happened at that tragic moment is still unknown. Most likely, an experienced engine exploded.
By this time, Amet Khan had flown 4237 watches, mastered and tested around 100 (!) Aircraft types, was awarded two stars of the Hero of the Soviet Union, three orders of Lenin, four orders of the Red Banner, orders of Alexander Nevsky, 1-nd degree Patriotic War, Red Star, "Badge of Honor" and many medals, but the general did not. A native of Alupka, an honorary citizen of Yaroslavl and a resident of Zhukovsky near Moscow will be buried in Moscow on Novodevichy. Later, a mountain peak in Dagestan, streets in Alupka, Volgograd, Zhukovsky and Makhachkala will be named after him.
Sources:
Babakov A.A. Heroes of the Soviet Union. M .: Voenizdat, 1987. C. 51.
Butaev B. Amet-Khane Sultan. M .: Politizdat, 1990. C. 12-17, 48-51, 111-128, 180-184, 202-226.
Hajikurbanov S. Recalling Amet-Khan Sultan // Newspaper “New Time”. No. 43. 29.10.10.
Simonov A. A. Honored testers of the USSR. Moscow: Aviamir, 2009. C. 21-22.
Simonov A., Boboshin N. Freeman of Yaroslavl. // Wings of the Motherland. 2001. No. 4. C.30-31.
Shishov L. Vorozheikin A. Fly born // Wings of the Motherland: Sat. articles. M .: DOSAAF USSR, 1983. C.132-133.
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