Category An Illustrated History of the World’s Largest Airline

The compilation of this book would not have been possible without the cordial cooperation of the International Commercial Department of Aeroflot, under the direction of Vladimir Tikhonov, and with the supervision of Vladimir Masenkov, who assembled a team to provide data essential for the work. The team consisted of Vadim Suvarov, veteran pilot of the Great Patriotic War; Boris Urenovsky, Professor of the Civil Aviation Institute in Moscow; and Tatiana Vinogradova, once a senior flight attendant (she flew on the Tupolev Tu-114 to Havana and to Tokyo). Together the team helped to ensure that errors in early drafts were corrected and accuracy ensured.

Much of the Russian documentation was translated by Alex Kampf, an enthusiastic student of Aeroflot history. In Moscow, I received great support from my good friend Yuri Salnikov, television director of aviation documentaries and author of magazine articles on famous Soviet airmen. He introduced me to Vladimir Samoroukov, who examined my credentials and first approved the book project.

Vasily Karpy, editor of Vozduzhny Transport, proof-read the text and gave valuable advice. He also introduced me to Boris Vdovienko, photographer par excellence, from whose magnificent collection I was able to draw. Veteran pioneer pilot, General Georgy Baidukov, Valery Chkalov’s right hand on his epic 1937 polar crossing, gave me a personal insight into the workings of the old Aeroflot, and a first-hand account of the historic meeting with Josef Stalin in 1936.

I received generous help from many others. In Leningrad/St Petersburg, I was hosted by the Academy of Civil Aviation, where Professor-Director Georgy Kryzhanovsky, Deputy Director Anatoly Khvostovsky, Nina Nekrasovich, Irene Volkova, Vitaly Khalikov, and the Academy’s librarian, Natella Safronova, were most helpful. In Novgorod, thanks to the Chief of the Sub-Region, Anatoli Golovanov, and Deputy Chief Vladimir Bolovsky, I was able to sample the crop-spraying ver­satility of the remarkable Antonov An-2. In Khabarovsk, the

Vozduzhny Transport correspondent, Oleg Borisov, has been a catalyst for some thrilling research. Through the courtesy of Vladimir Skripnik, Director of the Far Eastern Region of Aeroflot, I learned much about the airline’s provincial opera­tions, including a demonstration of the acrobatic prowess of the An-2. At Nikolayevsk-na-Amure, Valery Dolmatov, Head of the Nikolayevsk station and also a deputy to the Russian Parliament in Moscow, afforded me the extraordinary privilege of making a helicopter pilgrimage to the dignified monument on Chkalov (formerly Udd) Island; and I met Vadim Romanuk, local helicopter mechanic and historian, who inspired the erection of the monument. Later, Leonid Nagorny, who succeeded Skripnik in 1991 (and whose 50th birthday party I shall long remember), Vladimir Lenuk, Aleksander Glushko, and Vladimir Kuznetzov, also gave me much assistance. In Tyumen, Director Vladimir Illarionov and especially Mikhail Ponomarev opened my eyes to the heli­copter capital of the world. At Krasnoyarsk, Deputy Director Boris Kovchenkov was most hospitable, as was Nikolei Klimenko at Yeneseisk. At Irkutsk, Vladimir Sokolnikov and Peter Osharov were generous hosts, and my guide to the excel­lent museum there was Professor-Doctor Yvgeny Altunin, aviation historian and author from Irkutsk University. Similarly, at Yakutsk, General Director, Vitaly Pinaev, Mikhail Vasilev and others introduced me to the special problems of operations in Yakutia, and to aviation historians Ivan Nygenblya and Vladimir Pesterev.

Back in Moscow, I was able to meet Genrikh Novozhilov, Igor Katyrev, Aleksander Shakhnovich, and Georgy Sheremetev, of the Ilyushin Design Bureau; Yuri Popov, Gleb Mahetkin, and Sergei Agavilyan, of Tupolev; and Aleksander Domdukov and Evegeny Tarassov, of Yakovlev. I interviewed veteran Aeroflot pilots such as Constantin Sepulkin and Aleksander Vitkovsky. Tatiana Vinogradova, Vasily Karpy, Yuri Salnikov, and Viktor Temichev arranged the programs of visits — no easy task during often-congested traveling schedules.

I must not forget the eminent British writers who have contributed so much to the annals of Soviet aviation history during times when information was most difficult to obtain. Veteran author and authority John Stroud, airline chroni­cler Klaus Vomhof, and technical specialist Bill Gunston have all produced pioneering works that have become stan­dard references (see bibliography) for latterday writers such as myself. Bob Ruffle, stalwart of Air-Britain’s Russian Aviation Research Group, generously supplied pre-war fleet data and scrutinized the text. Carl Bobrow and Harry Woodman provided expertise on the Il’ya Muromets and Paul Duffy’s camera work and information bulletins on post-U. S.S. R. developments (not to mention his scoop in ascertaining the Lisunov Li-2 production total) have been invaluable.

The Ukrainian airline took over the Junkers operation (see page 15) which, with the Zakavia franchise, gave it almost the whole of the southern part of the European U. S.S. R. as its traffic catch­ment area. Uzkrvozdukhput carried 3,050 passengers in 1928.

But its very success perhaps fell foul of government policy centered in Moscow. One of the items contained in the first Soviet Five-Year Plan was to create an all-Soviet airline which, in 1930, not only inherited the Russian Dobrolet, but engulfed Ukrvozdukhput as well.

50 SEATS ■ 770km/h (480mph)

Mikulin AM-3M (2 x 8,700kg st, 14,8901b st) ■ MTOW 76,000kg (167,5001b) ■ Normal Range 2,650km (l,650mi)

The Break-Out

Six months after the Ilyushin 11-14 had entered service with Aeroflot on 30 November 1954, a silver lining appeared behind the dampening clouds of modest piston-engined performance. On 17 June 1955, the Tupolev Tu-104 jet airliner made its first flight. A conversion from a bomber design, it was nevertheless commercially acceptable. Unusually for the Soviet manufac­turing industry, normally conservative in its approach to launching new airliners, the Tu-104 took the world by storm (see opposite page) and soon entered service with Aeroflot on 15 September 1956.

Not before time. Ominously, the British had gone back to the drawing boards and were pro­ducing a new line of Comets, which had previously done their own world-storming in 1952, but

had met with tragedy two years later. More ominously, the Boeing Company of Seattle, U. S.A., had, on 15 July 1954, demonstrated the Model 367-80 as a prototype for a future airlin­er, the 707, which was to conquer all before it. Curiously, the famous Boeing ‘Big Jet’ was also developed from a bomber design, the B-47.

Andrei N. Tupolev.

(photo: Boris Vdovienko)

The Tupolev Tu-104 design team (with a model of the Tu-124). Left to right: A. R. Bokin, S. M. Eger, A. N. Tupolev, A. A. Arkhangelski, B. M. Kondozski, and IT. Nezval. (photo: courtesy Vasily Karpy)

Tupolev Sets Tie Pace

Because of the debut of the Tupolev Tu-104, 1956 was a water­shed year. But the years that followed were no less significant in Soviet commercial aviation. The Ilyushin 11-18 Moskva four-engined turboprop airliner, reliable workhorse for Aeroflot (and other airlines) in the years to come, made its first flight on 4 July 1957. At about the same time, Tupolev developed the Tu-104A, which proceeded to break a number of official load­carrying and speed records for turbojets.

Then, to cap everything, the impressive Tupolev Tu-114 made its first flight on 3 November 1957. But this important news of the world’s largest airliner at the time (see pages 52­53) was eclipsed on the following day, when, to the astonish­ment and admiration of the world (and to the chagrin of complacent defense agencies in Washington, D. C.) the U. S.S. R. carved its name indelibly in the annals of world his­tory by launching, with complete success, the world’s first man-made satellite, Sputnik.

Consolidation

During 1958, Aeroflot concentrated on expanding its Tu-104 services (see page 44) and opened its first scheduled helicopter routes in the Crimea and on the Black Sea coast. Then, in 1959, the 100-seat Tupolev Tu-104B went into service on the busy Moscow-Leningrad route on 15 April. Five days later, the Ilyushin П-18В also started service, on the equally busy vacation route from Moscow to Adler (with helicopter con­nection to Sochi). Not yet ready for scheduled service, the Tu – 114 demonstrated its range with a non-stop flight from

Tu-104 No. 29 operated the first service of the type to Vladivostok on 19 January 1958. This was after a ceremonial circling of the city and being ‘talked down’ by photographer Boris Vdovienko.

Moscow to Khabarovsk on 21 May. The 90-seat Antonov An-10 Ukraina turbo-prop, which had first flown on 7 March 1957, went into service on 22 July 1959.

Dm ttie Front Pads

Within three years, with Aeroflot carrying the banner, the Soviet Union had rocketed from being an also-ran right into the front pack of runners in the highly-competitive techno­logical race. In almost every category of airliner, the design bureaux of Tupolev, Ilyushin, and Antonov were producing aircraft comparable in performance, if not in economics, with equivalent airliners in the West.

Tupolev Tu-104B SSSR-42431 at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, (photo: Aeroflot)

(Top) The ice-breaker Lenin at Ice Station 10, with a Kamov Ka-15 in attendance. (All photos : Boris Vdovienko) (Center) Members of the scientific team of Ice Station 10, measuring the ice thickness — typically many meters — with their ski-equipped Lisunov Li-2 flying laboratory.

(Top) Aerial support for Ice Station 10: Kamov Ka-15 on the left, Lisunov Li-2 — the ‘old faithful’ on the right.

(Center) The ski landing gear of a Lisunov Li-2 at Ice Station 10. The station was managed by Comrade Kamarov, and was unoffi­cially called Kamarovka — a satirical reference also to the Russian for mosquito, kamar, where even that insect fears to fly.

The Mostest

Sheer size has always fascinated people in all walks of life. The tallest building, the longest bridge, the biggest ship, the highest mountain, the longest river; all these have excited a natural curiosity, and though the world’s natural wonders are unchanging, mankind has constantly tried to build things bigger, even if they are not better. The Russians have shared this urge and attempted, none too successfully, to build outsize aircraft during the 1930s. After the Second World War, the banner for bigness was taken up by the Ukraine, whose Antonov Design Bureau produced a fine series of large freighter aircraft.

The pictures and the diagrams on this and the following page tell their own story. Except for its six-engined cousin (see below), the Antonov An-124 Ruslan, tipping the scales at more than 400 tons, is, by a comfortable margin — 55 tons — the world’s largest aircraft to be pro­duced in quantity.

Standard payload for the An-124 is 150 tons. On one occasion, it carried 171 tons to an alti­tude of 10,750m (35,250ft), or the normal cruising height of most long-range airliners—about seven miles. To help load such weights, the freight hold is equipped with two overhead travel­ing cranes, each one able to lift ten tons. Heavy duty floors, roller-tracks, and winches match this capability, which, incidentally, makes the giant freighter virtually self-supporting.

The An-124 has an upward-hinging front loading door, and a rear-loading ventral door. Both are equipped with heavy duty ramps, and the aircraft can be tilted to the fore or to the aft to assist the loading procedures.

As Antonov built them bigger, it just added wheels to accommodate the heavy loads and to maintain the low wheel loading for use on soft surfaces, including packed snow. The An – 124 has 24 wheels; five pairs mounted in tandem in fuselage pods on each side, and two twin nose-gear wheels.

The Mriya

Exceeding the American Lockheed C-5A in all departments, the Ruslan was unchallenged in the Guinness Book of Records throughout the 1980s — until the last month of 1988. An even larger aircraft, a stretched-fuselage modification of the An-124 the Antonov An-225 Mriya (Dream), with a larger wing to add two extra engines, was produced specifically to carry the Soviet Space Shuttle Buran. The Ruslan had only been able to carry the huge SS20 missile (or the fuselage sections of almost any airliner). With Antonov’s two giant machines, the store of superlatives is almost exhausted. Fortunately for the world, the Cold War has ended, the Arms Race is over, and the need for quantities of giant air freighters has declined. Only one Mriya has been completed. However, this aircraft is of considerable general interest and is included in this book if only to escape criticism for omitting it by applying too strictly the qualifying definition.

(Top) On one special flight, on 6-7 May 1987, the Antonov An-124 circumnavigated the U. S.S. R., flying a closed circuit distance of 20,151km (12,524mi)—slightly more than halfway round the earth at the equator; the flight took 25hr ЗОтіп.

(Center) Before 1991, all civil aircraft in the Soviet Union—and many non-civil—were required to wear Aeroflot colors or did so under a ‘flag of convenience’. Although many An-124s appeared in Aeroflot colors, none was part of the airline’s fleet. This Ruslan (SSSR-82008) is operated jointly by the manufac­turer and U. K. cargo airline AirFoyle. (Malcolm Nason)

(Bottom) The Antonov An-225 Mriya, world’s biggest aircraft, carrys the space shuttle Buran.

This book started a long time ago. In the late 1950s, when I was researching material for my History of the World’s Airlines, I was fascinated by the Soviet airline that seemed to be performing an enormous task, but of which little was known. An almost impenetrable curtain shrouded all but a trickle of information from Moscow. Travel was severely restricted, and even in the decades that followed, was scanty and sporadic, to selected tourist destinations. In 1988, however, when Mikhail Gorbachev drew aside the curtain, an opportunity seemed at last to be in sight, and I once again approached the Soviet Embassy for per­mission to visit Aeroflot.

In 1990, I made the first reconnaissance to Moscow, and asked to see the workings of the secondary, feeder, and bush services of the vast domestic network. The International Department responded admirably. I visited the Far Eastern Division, flew in the Antonov An-2 and An-24, and, in a Mil Mi-2, made a pilgrimage to the dignified monument to the Chkalov crew on the former Udd Island. I began to feel the pulse of Aeroflot, to meet its pilots, its managers, and its staff, and to realize that this huge airline was as dedicated to its task as any other airline of world stature.

Returning to Moscow, I was privileged to sit at the desks of the late Andrei Tupolev and Sergei Ilyushin, and to visit the museums of the great design bureaux. Welcomed every­where with courtesy and enthusiasm, my appetite was whet­ted for more.

In 1991, I cohtinued the mission. I visited the Leningrad Aviation Academy, did some simulated crop­dusting at Novgorod, and rounded off a round-the-world trip (all on Aeroflot) by visiting old friends in Khabarovsk. On the return to the U. S., I made the decision to begin this book.

In 1992,1 made a whistle-stop tour of Siberia (by this time the Soviet Union had become the CIS) and gained first-hand knowledge of the array of different roles played by Aeroflot, in agriculture, forestry, fishing patrol, ambulance and emer­gency work, and construction, especially in oilfields, pipelines, power lines, and railroads. Everywhere, I enjoyed visits to museums. Every region of Aeroflot has its historians, justly proud of their heritage.

Telling the story, and meeting some of the people who have contributed to it, has been an exciting and stimulating exercise. Finally, I must record the great pleasure of working once again with the ‘Old Firm’ who produced the previous books in the series: Pan Am, Lufthansa, and Delta. To con­sult, to review, to plan, and to organize — and yes, some­times to argue — with my good friends artist Mike Machat and producer/editor John Wegg has been a rewarding, (if at times strenuous), and totally fulfilling experience.

— R. E.G. Davies.

Momentum Maintained

With a variety of airliners coming off the production lines (see opposite) Aeroflot entered the 1960s with prospects of expansion and upgrading of equipment in all directions. On 3 January 1960, it took over Polar Aviation (Aviaarktika) and directed attention to the northern routes, to new settlements on the Arctic Sea, and a new route to the Far East. On 24 April, a Tupolev Tu-114 non-stop Moscow-Khabarovsk schedule inauguration immeasurably extended the range potential. On 15 December 1961, a specially-equipped Ilyushin 11-18 became the first airliner to fly to Antarctica, and this aircraft opened up new routes to several African countries during the next few years. The Tupolev Tu-104, too short in range for use on trans­ocean routes, was nevertheless able to carry Aeroflot’s flag to south-east Asia, with a service, opened on 31 January 1962, to Jakarta, via Tashkent, Delhi, and Rangoon. By this time, Aeroflot was carrying more than 20 million passengers each year (with fares at railroad levels) with a total fleet of about 2,000 aircraft.

Junior Jet

The short-haul routes were not neglected. While the U. S.S. R. was a country of vast distances, much of the western parts embraced an area characterized by dozens of cities only an hour’s flight from Moscow. Many of these were of medium size, not large enough to justify 100-seat aircraft such as the Tu-104 or the 11-18. To meet this need, the Tupolev design bureau produced a scaled-down version of the Tu-104, the 44- seat, later 56-seat Tupolev Tu-124, which entered ser­vice on the Moscow — Tallinn (Estonia) route on 2 October 1962. Trailing the French Caravelle by over three years, and a derivative, rather than an original design, it was, however, ahead of British and American short-haul jets by a similar margin.

FIRST GENERATION SHORT-HAUL JETS

Preparations

By the time the Soviet Union had established its fifth scientif­ic station on the Arctic ice floes in 1955, it was ready to join nations at the other end of the world, in Antarctica, the Last Continent. The first expedition was mounted on 30 November of that year, commanded by the Director of Geographic Sciences, M. M. Somova, 133 years after a Russian sea captain, P. G. von Bellingshausen, had been the first to set eyes on the Antarctic mainland. With Somova was an avia­tion detachment, under the command of E. E. Cherevechnova, who made the initial flights from the base that was to become Mirnyy, and who had the first taste of the harsh conditions of operating from the huge icy land mass.

During the next two years, two more bases were estab­lished, with P. P. Moskalenko and B. C. Ossipov in charge of aviation. In 1958-1959, the airmen encountered temperatures of -70°C but managed to deliver much-needed supplies from Mirnyy to the new scientific station Novolazarevskaya, a distance of 3,600km (2,240mi). In December 1958, an aircrew commanded by V. M. Petrov, from Novolazarevskaya, was able to rescue the crew and passengers of a Belgian aircraft that had made an emergency landing, well out of reach by land from the Belgian Roi Baudouin base about 500km (300mi) away.

Historic Flights

In 1961, an important milestone was reached in Soviet Antarctic exploration. Headed by the veteran of the Polar Aviation Directorate, M. E. Shevelev, two large turboprop air­craft flew from Moscow to Mirnyy. An Ilyushin 11-18 (A. S. Polyakov) and an Antonov An-12 (B. S. Osipov) left Moscow on 15 December and arrived on Christmas Day, returning on 25 January to arrive triumphantly from a 52,800km (32,800mi) round trip on 2 February 1962. The two aircraft were able to deliver supplies and instruments. The An-12 showed its prowess on skis, while the 11-18 made a round trip to McMurdo Sound to help save an Australian mechanic who had become ill.

Encouraged by the success of these flights, two more Ilyushin Il-18s made the long trip to the Antarctic in 1963, carrying members of the 9th Soviet Expedition. Flights were also made inland to the Vostok station, established on the top of Dome Charlie, the gigantic icecap of East Antarctica, where the record low temperature of -89°C was recorded on 21 July 1983. Vostok is 3,488 meters (11,440ft) above sea lev­el, and the ice thickness is 200m (650ft) more than that. It is
1,420km (880mi) from the main Mirnyy base on the coast, and can claim to have a runway that is as thick as it is long. By 1975, the Soviet Union had six permanent scientific sta­tions and some other temporary satellites in Antarctica.

In 1973, the diesel-electric boat Ob, bringing the winter shift to Antartica, was lost. The Nabarin, supported by Mil Mi – 2 and Mi-8 helicopters and Antonov An-2s (they are every­where!) rescued 57 men and 6 tons of precious cargo for the Molodezhnaya and Mirnyy stations.

Communication between the four main ones, Mirnyy, Molodezhnaya, Novolazarevskaya, and Vostok, was main­tained by a small fleet of aircraft that included five heli­copters — Mil Mi-4s in the early years, then half a dozen of

the larger Mil Mi-6s and Mi-8s, with up to ten Ilyushin II – 14Ms, even a couple of Antonov An-2s, based at Molodezhnaya and Mirnyy. These aircraft also provided links to the bases of other nationalities, U. S., British, French, and Australian, in an area where the formalities of international bureaucracy could be dispensed with, politics and their encumbrances having been cast aside by the Antarctic Treaty.

New Route

In 1980, a new route was forged to Antarctica. Previously (see map) the Soviet aircraft had flown the same path as the American and Australian flights, from Christchurch, New Zealand (which boasts the only ticket counter with Antarctica on the destination board); but this had entailed a long flight through Asia. Now, with a special version of the Ilyushin 11-18, the 11-18D, under the command of B. D. Grubly, Moscow was connected by a shorter route, through Africa (see map) made possible by the ability of the I1-18D to cover the longer dis­tance from Maputo to Molodezhnaya — 5,000km (3,100mi) with no en route alternates. This flight, in support of the 25th Antarctic Expedition, made the outbound journey from 10-13 February and returned from 19-23 February. The 45,600km (28,380mi) round trip was made in 78hr 54min flying time.

150 TONS ■ 800km/h (500mph)

Lotarcv P-18T (4 x 113,700kg st, 51,5901b st) ■ MTOW 405,000kg (892,9001b) ■ Normal Range 4,500km (2,700mi)