8y Major V. Mo s hk ovskv

Pi\RACHUTE·JUMPINGAND GLIDING

POPULARSOVIET SPORTS

By MAJOR Y. MOSHKOVSKYORDEIl OF LENIN, ETC.

CH IEF OF T H E AIR SPO RTS SECTIO :, OF T HE

CII KA LO V CENT RAL AERONA UTI CAL CLUB

ACE PARACH UT E' J UMPER

FOREIGN LANGUAGES PUBLISHING HOUSEMOSCOW 19.'39

ARTIST: A . SUVOROV

PRINTEIl IN THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS

S OVI E T aviation owes its ac h ieveme ntsn ot only t o the high devel opment of our air-cr aft industry . Much is due al so t o thepopularity of a ir sp or ts in our cou nt ry.with their t en s of thousands of ent h us iasts .The great fund of t al en t they represent h asalready give n us many fine aviat ors ofwh om it can truly b e sa id that the a ir istheir nativ e cle me nt.

P arachute-jumping and g l id ing arc themost popular air spo r ts in our count ry. Thewo u ld -be amateur pilot ob t a ins his firstintroduction t o aviat ion through the nu-m er ou s p arachute-jumping and g liding clubswh ich have b een formed in our large facto-

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ries, offices and collective farms. These clubswhich run classes in elementary aeronauticsare maintained under the auspices of theOsoaviakhim, a society, numbering millionsof m embers , whose purpose is to promotethe development of aeronautics and chem-ical defense (decontamination of areas af-fected by chemical bombardments, etc.), Thelocal centers from which they are directedare the aeronautical clubs and parachutestations. In view of the wide appeal ofthese sports in our country it is not sur-prising that most of the world records forparachute-jumping and gliding are held b ySoviet sportsmen .

1. P ARACHUTE -JUMPING

The h istory of parachute-jumping takesus back rather less than twenty years. Onlyaft er the American pilot Lieutenant Harrisjumped to safet y from his plane, as it fellto pieces in mid-air , did the parachutebegin to win ge ne r a l r ecognition from avia-tors , who had previously considered it ausel ess enc u m br ance .

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Parachute tow er in Zaporozh yc,Ukrainian S .S .R.

In the Soviet U n ion parachute-jumpingcame to our notice even later. The firstcase in the U .S .S .R. of an airman sav inghis life b y parachute was in July 1927.The famous Sov iet airman and H ero of theSov iet Un io n, Mikhail Gro mov, then a t estpilot , had to take to his parachute when theplane he was flying go t into a tail- spin andcou ld no t b e r ighted. After him , t wo othert est pilots esc ape d death thanks t o t he irparachutes , one of t he m, Pisarenko, ab an-doning his machine a m er e 300 fee t fro m thegro und .

The first practise jumps and the first par-ac hute clubs to b e organized in t he Sov ie tUn ion date back to 1930 .

It is a fa ct to be n oted that parachute-jumping as a sp or t was introduced in theSoviet Union by women . The names ofthese pioneer s in amateur parachute-jump-ing wer e Kuleshova, Gr okh ovskaya , Ch ir-kova, F yodorova. Howev er , its history asa mass sp ort begins with the inclusion ofparachute-jumping in the activities of theOsoaviakhim and the formation of the firstspecia l co llege, training hundred s of p ar-

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achute instructor s . On A ir D ay , A ug . 18 ,1933 , this college demonstrated a sp ec tac-ular sim u ltane ous descent of sixty-two par-ach ute-j u m pe rs from three airplanes. Thiswas the first m ass p arachute jump in his-tory.

After that, the or g anization of p ar ac hut eclubs spread to all p arts of the co u nt ry.To jump from an a ir plane in mid-air, t oshow the cons p ic uous will-p ower and daringr equired for suc h a feat , b ecame t h e cher-ished dream of hundreds of thousands ofboys and girls. In 1935 more than 800,000jumps wer e made from parachute towers.These tower jumps were included in thet est for the first-class sp or t s badg e. In1935 about 11,000 jumps from airplaneswere made by y oung sp or tsm en and thenumber of parachute st at ions attached toaeronautical clubs topped the hundredmark.

As a result of the wide development ofparachute-jumping in our cou nt ry , para-ch utes , in a number of cases, have b een in-st r ument a l in saving life, apart from theirpurpose as a means of escape fr om disast er

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Jumping in agrou p ( Chkal ovAeronaut icalCl ub , Moscow)

in the air. In remote and wild districtswhe re a irp lanes can not land , do ctors havebeen known to descend by parachute andsave the l ives of people requiring sk illedm edical attention .

During army maneuvers in the U .S .S .R .,landing p arties thousands stro ng h ave beendr opped by parachutes into the " enemy ' s"r ear .

Sovie t p arachute-jumpers hold a ll thewor ld r ecords.

The ab solute r ecord for altitude j um ping(w it h r espirator) belongs to Capt a in Kai-tanov. He jumped from an altitude of1l ,03 7 m eters (36 ,201 feet) . The recor d jumpwit h out r espirator was made ' by Kozul ,fr om an altitude of 7,500 m eters (24 ,600feet).

It is very interesting to follow the delayedjump contests between parachut ists in theSov iet Union and enthusiasts in other coun-tries, in wh ich points are gi ven only for theactual drop made while the parachute isclosed. The first Soviet r ecord was set upby N. Evdokimov. H e left the airplane atan altitude of 1,200 m eter s (3 ,93 6 feet) , fell

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for 14 seconds wit hout opening his parachuteand opened it at 700 meters (2,296 feet),having thus sh ot 500 m et ers (1,640 feet)through space . T hat w as in 1932, when theworld record for the fr ee drop was 1,500m et ers (4 ,920 feet) . A few months laterAfanasyev held out for 33 seconds and fell1 ,600 m et ers (5,2 48 feet) , but ex act ly amo nth lat er the Amer ican, Manning, madea brilliant jump , open ing h is parachute150 m eters (492 fee t ) from the ground, afterhe h ad made a fr ee drop of 3,200 meters(10 ,496 feet) .

Six months later , Kaitanov equalledManning 's record (10,398 feet) , but soont he British jump er Greypool made a de-layed j ump of 5,300 meters (17,384 feet).Th en E vdok im ov, the first Soviet record-h older , came on the scene again. H e jumped

. fro m a plane at 6, 700 meters (21,976 feet)and, keeping his parachute closed for108 seco nds , exe cute d a drop of 6,200 me-t ers (20 ,336 feet) . Then Evseyev, anotherSoviet parachute-jumper , made a bid forthe record and made a delayed jump of7,050 met ers (23 ,124 feet) , but on July

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16 , 1934 , Evdokimov we nt 850 mete rs(2, 788 feet) better on this dist ance and leng-thened the delay to 142 sec on ds.

Soviet parachute-jumpers als o hold therecords for altitude and delayed j umps b ynight as well as the low altitude r ecord.Balashov has made two jumps from 80 m e-t ers at the D ynamo St ad ium .

The women 's world records al so belongto Sov ie t parachute-jumper s. The recordaltitude jump wit h out resp irator w as madeby Shishmareva and P yaset skaya with7,975 m eter s (26, 158 feet), while K amnevacapt ured the delayed jumping r ecord w it ha free dr op of 2 ,700 m eters (8 ,856 feet) in58 sec on ds .

The parachute is b eing put to wider andwider uses. It is b eginning to acquire acertain econ om ic value. A whole series offreight parachutes have been produced forthe landing of instruments an d materials .Almost every year wh ile fishing under ice ,fish ermen are carr ie d away into the op ense a b y ice floes detaching themsel ves fromthe coast . Many human lives have b eensave d b y the em p loyment of parachutes ,

In t ern at iona I LongDi stan ce Record sHeld By Sov ietGli de r Pilot s.

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mlles -

233:;' ~iles 26'l.\

enabling these fishermen to b e su pp lie dwith fu el and food until they were r escued.

Specia l parachute fire-brigades have be enform ed to fight forest fir es.

At the present time we are making ex-periments on a wide sc ale to st u dy the be-havior of parachutes at different altitudes.Our ex pe rt s have worked out a number ofsp le n d id new desi gns. N ot long ago twoMoscow eollege st u de nt s, the brothers Do-r onin, invented and cons t r ucted a fin e auto-matic parachute which makes delayed jumpsfrom any altitude perfectly safe . Theirinvent io n has b een t ested and is highlypraised b y Soviet p ar ac h ute-j um pers . Ofthe expe r imenta l jumps we might mentionthe r ecent practise jump made by a groupof parachutists from a substratosphere bal-lo on. Their drop from a height of 5,100m eters (16,728 feet) took about 18 minutes.

The p op u lar ity of this sp ort in theU .S .S .R . is st ill gr owing . W e have everyr eason to ex pect that 1939 will bring theU .S .S.R. anot he r sheaf of parachute records.

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2. GLIDI N G

Gliding as a sp ort in the U .S .S. R . b eganin 1921, when st u de nts of the Ac ade my ofAeronautics in Moscow and a gro up offliers organized a gliding cl ub. It was at-tended by experienced air pilot s , y oungworkingmen inventors and st u de nts .

This club began to popularize the sport.The y oung factory worker s and universityst u de nts r esponded r eadily , org an ized sim-ilar clubs and began to cons t r uc t g l iders.

One of the y oung designers in t hese firstclubs was Ilyushin, now one of our mostnoted aeronautical engineers , the cre at or ofthe fast plane-Moskva-on wh ich K okk i-naki and Bryandinsky, Heroes of the Sovie tUnion, flew from Moscow to the Far East .On another type designed b y him, theT sKB-26 , Kokkinaki broke the wor ld al-titude r ecords with t est loads of 500 kgs. ,I ton and 2 tons.

In 1923 the " Societ y of the Friends ofthe Air Force " was formed , now the " Soc ie t yfor the Promotion of the D evelopment ofthe A ir Force and Chemical D efense " (Oso-

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aviakhim). With the cooperation of thisorganization, in Autumn 1923, the firstall- Union gliding tests were held. Thevenue chosen was Koktebel, a mountainousdistrict in the · southeast of the Crimea,near Theodosia. From that time MountUzun-Syrt (now Mount Clementyeva) hasbeen the traditional meeting place forour gliders, a school which has trainedhundreds of pilots and scores of de-signers.

There were nine gliders at the first meet,among them Ilyushin's first attempt. Thepilot Jungmeister flying the A-5, constructedby Artseulov, another pilot, set up thefirst gliding records: 1,487 meters (542yards) distance; 100 meters (328 feet) al-titude and l.h. 2m. 30s. duration. Theseflights were accomplished on a rudimentaryflying apparatus and required real heroismfrom the pilot.

J ungmeister took 0 ff from the southernslope. After the running start and take-offhe hovered in the air for about 5 secondsbalanced by upward rushes of air and theweight of the glider. Then slight rippling

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impacts b egan t o l ift the g lide r h igher andhigher . Rising b y slo w degrees up t he h ill-s ide h e reach ed a h eight of 100 m eters(328 feet) above the em ine nce and in ore than300 m eters abov e the v a ll ey.

This fir st r eal glide was rece ived wi thcheers and rapturous applause b y the p arti-c ip ants of the fir st trials.

The gliding contests of 1924 rallied no lessthan 48 gl ide rs fr om m any of our mainc it ies : Moscow , Kiev , Leningrad , Odessa,Sar at ov, Krasnodar and others .

J ungmei ster incr eased h is durat ion r ecordt o 5h. 15m. 32s. and his a lt i tude r ecordt o 312 m eter s (1 ,023 feet). The pilot Hudz itm anaged t o cover 4 kilometer s (2 1/2 m ile s) .

In 1926 the records we re improv ed up onfurther. Y akovchuk floated over the slopesof Mount Cle ment ye va for 9h. 35m . I Ss .and reached an altitude of 240 m eters(787 feet) . Jungmei ster capt ured his fir stinternational record by r eaching 336 m eters(1 ,102 feet) on a two-seat er , at that t imean ab solute r ecord for g l iding . T he design-ers had d one a lot to impr ov e the aerody -n amic qualities of the gl ider s.

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In 1927 , n ear Moscow, our fir st glidingstat ion was organized, which was to playsuc h a great role in the development ofg l id ing. Ot her towns began to follow su iteverywhere . In the course of three or fouryears the r anks of the Soviet glider-pilotsswelled to 40, 000 .

F r equent contests between pilots and theincr easing sk ill of the desi gner s, to whosespeci ficat ions glider s are now built at aspecial factory, gav e us a r apid increase inthe number of records h eld by Soviet glider-pilot s .

A college of advanced flying and glidingwas organized at Mount Cle m ent yev a andone of i t s old gr adu at es, the instructorS im on ov, lengthened the duration re cordby glid ing over the slop e for 35h. 11m.T h at was in 1934 . In the next year , 1935,the pilot Sukhomlin exten ded it to 38h .10m.

The Soviet glider-pilots learned a lotfrom the eagle s nesting in the rocks of thesurr ou n d ing h eights. By watching themfloating on wing the pilots learned to lo catet he air curre nts . During his 36-hour flight

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Co m ing t o eart h

Sukhomlin had an exciting battle with aneagle . The eagles were very inquisit ive ,On e of them flew up to close quarter s. Sukh -omlin turned his glider towards the eag leand caug ht him in the tail. The eagle foldedhis wings and fell l ike a st one . After drop-ping about 180 feet h e spre ad his vast w ingsagain and flew to on e side . His wi ck ed h eadwas st ill turned towards the gl ide r -p i lo t,defiance and belligerence in his whole mien.

Sukhomlin gav e ch ase. Just as the ma-ch ine see med to b e ov erwhelming the birdh e turned on his back in a fla sh and thrustout his crue l talons to catch his opponent.The glider whistled past. Sukhom lin ma-neuvered around again and made anotherch arge . This time the bird was caug htsq u are ly and hurtled to the groun d.

By 1935 Soviet glider-pilots had exh aus tedthe po ssibilities of the Kokteb cl moun-tains. In se arc h of n ew district s and newcondit ions our b est g lide r-p i lots made anumber of ex pe d it ion s . They ex p lore d theUr a ls, the Caucasus and the mountain ch a insof Cent r a l As ia . During these ex ped it ionsOvch innikov managed t o reach an a lt it u de

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of 3,400 meters (10,904 feet) and Ovsyan-nikov 4,275 meters (13,941 feet). He was amere 50 meters (164 feet) short of the inter-national record.

During the summer of 1935, InstructorI. Kartashev of the Moscow Gliding Schoolmade a daring flight in the face of a thun-derstorm.

After careful preparation Kartashev wentup on a G-9 glider at about 9 o'clock inthe evening, towed by an airplane, as astorm was rising. He slipped the towing lineat an altitude of 600 meters (1,968 feet) .The glider rocked violently and at timesgot out of control.

After he had been up for two hours theline of storm clouds began to envelop hisglider. He was dazzled by streaks of light-ning flashing in the immediate proximityand endangering his life, but Kartashevcontinued to fly along the skirts of thestorm. Gradually it spent its fury and soonthere was a fall of torrential rain. Kartashevbegan to climb. On reaching 2,200 meters(7,216 feet) he put his machine into a grad-ual glide and sought for a landing place

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near the banks of the Vo lga gle am ing be -low. Ob serving a glow in t he distance hesteer ed in that direction , but saw a fewminutes later , that what he had taken forthe lights of a v illage w as a forest fire.Ther e was nowhere to land. Losing altitudeevery minute , he flew on. When not morethan 100 m eters remained between theground and his glide r he saw a faint wh iteribbon in the darkness , a ro ad. Taking caret o avoid po ssible t el egraph poles and wiresKart ashev saw from a height of 25 m etersthat he was heading st r a ig ht for a v illage .H e made h is last ci r cle r ight over the houser oofs but it was wide enoug h t o bring himcl ear, above a field. H e did not want todamage the cr ops and flew on at a highspeed a few feet from the grou nd . And whena sm all patch of cle ar gro und appeared infr ont h e "gr assed" his machine neatly.

H e landed at 1:30 a. m ., having , inhis four-hour gl ide, flown 171 kilometers(106 miles) with the storm . This a ll -Uniondistance r ecord for mot orless flying wasunbeaten for a whole year.

In 1936 our cr ack gl ide r-p ilo ts made a

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number of outstanding long-distance flight s.Kartash ev himself made a glide of 501.2 kil-om eter s (310 .7 miles) and was only 3 kil-ome ters sh or t of the international rec-ord.

Th is was the year whe n our glider pilotsco m p lete ly ab andoned the practise of tak-in g off fro m hill slopes . The towing ofg liders by airplanes was introduced every-wher e. As many as t en gliders went upbehind one tow plane . Supe rb ly designedgl iders were cons tructed by y ou ng Sovietengineers . A thorough st udy of meteorologyand the art of gliding with the cloudsbrought the long- coveted v ict ory .

1937 was a triumphal y ear for Sovietg lider p il ots. In May of that year PilotHastorguyev made thrcc flights from Mos-cow. H e flew consecut ive ly 539 kilometers(334.1 m il es) , 602 kilometcr s , (373.2miles), t hen 652 k il omet ers ( t04.2 miles) , andas far as distance was concerne d, broughtSovict g lid ing to first place in the world.Rastorguy ev ' s achiev emcnt was emulatedb y Ilich enko in the multi-place glider class.On a large g l ider of the " St akh an ove t z"

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IN;J'ERHELD SOVIET:PARACHUTISTS.

I(AMNEVAtt!i

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type with one passen ger he covered a dis-tance of 40 7 kilometers (252 .3 miles) , then552 kilometers (342.2 miles). In 1938, theoutstanding gl ider- p ilot K artash ev cove re d619 .7 kilometers (384 m iles) ou a gli der ofthe same t ype.

At t he last contests of Soviet gl ide r-p ilot sKlepikova capt ured the international wo-m en 's distance record 152.3 k il ometers (94.5miles) on a m ulti-p lace gl ider .

Three more internation al records we rewon on flights ov er fixed r outes .

Sov iet gl id er pilots have m ade a numberof expe r imental flight s, as daring as spec-tacular. Thus , Ilich enko coup led his glide rto the gondola of an aerostat and ro se toan altitude of 5,000 meters (16,400 feet),wh er eupon he slippe d the tow-line and madea flight indep endently.

During a v isit t o Turkey, the Sovietglider-pilots Anokhin and Gavr ish executeda flight upside-down w it h an airplane tow-ing them. This no vel ride last ed 6 minutes.

Pilot Fyodor ov, towed b y an airplane,reachedan alt it ude of 12 ,105 meters (39,704feet). H e r el ea sed his gl ider in the st r at o-

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sph ere (he u sed a respirator) and~glided downto e ar t h . The d escent took him 2h. 05m.

S ov iet glider-pilots have con t r ih u t ed a lotto the d evelopment of Soviet aeronautics,and now our daring ex per imenters, inven-tors and pilots arc seek ing new ways of u singthe sp or t in research for the evolution of newtypes of flying machines.

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