Dobrolet’s First

An Infant Aircraft Industry

Vladimir Lenin did not live to see the outcome of some of the policies that he had instigated. He died on 21 January 1924, and only a few days later, on 1 February, the British Government recognized Soviet Russia, the first foreign power to do so, excluding Germany, which had done so earlier. Simultaneously with the easing of tension overseas, the Russian industry, which had been laying dormant during the political upheaval and economic disruption caused by the Revolution, began to revive.

The aircraft manufacturing plants stirred into life. At Fili, in Moscow, the German Junkers company started a small pro­duction line of the sturdy metal-built F 13, (known as the Ju 13 in Russia) and deliveries began to Dobrolet in 1924. At least 24 aircraft are believed to have been completed. For sev­eral years, reports of Ju 13s performing various services all across the Soviet Union included, in addition to inaugurating new routes, demonstrations of the benefits of air travel to the amazed citizenry of remote lands, and joyrides for workers who had shown special talents in exceeding their assigned quotas.

Also, the TsAGI (see page 12), under the direction of V. L. Alexandrov and V. V. Kalinin, completed, on 8 March 1924, the first test flight of the first successful transport air­craft to be designed and built entirely in the Soviet Union (also see page ’12). The AK-1 (AK for Alexandrov-Kalinin) could carry three passengers and attained 146km/h (90mph). It was a start, and on 15 June 1924, the AK-1 was assigned to Dobrolet’s Moscow-Nizhne Novgorod – Kazan route.

Reference has already been made (page 16) to the activi­ty of K. A. Kalinin, the designer working in conjunction with Dornier in Kiev. On 20 April 1925, a series of govern­ment-supervised experimental flights was completed with the K-l, Kalinin’s first design. Back at TsAGI, A. N. Tupolev had become head of the organization which had an experimental laboratory, and was building engines and aircraft, including the all-metal ANT-2, able to carry two passengers.

Then on 20 August 1925, an improved version, the ANT-3, was flown. Tupolev was proceeding cautiously. This aircraft weighed only 2,100kg (9601b) but it flew at 201km/h (125mph), and was considered a worthy enough product to carry the Soviet flag overseas (see opposite page). Tupolev was on a roll. On 26 November 1925, the ANT-4 took to the air; and more designs were to come.

In Central Asia

On 1 May 1924 — possibly to coincide with the May Day cel­ebrations, and also as a practical measure to demonstrate the benefits of rule from Moscow, Dobrolet began to operate scheduled services in the area formerly under the Tsarist gov­ernor-generalship of Turkestan. The Soviet Government had replaced this, by setting up several Peoples’ Republics in 1921 to supplant the khanates of Khiva and Bukhara; and by 1925 the new republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tadjikistan, and Kirghizia were formally incorporated into the U. S.S. R.

Most probably with Junkers Ju 13s, Dobrolet opened a route from Khiva to Dushanbe, via Bukhara. While hardly operating with clockwork regularity and punctuality, it was reasonably successful, as the alternative land transport was by horse or camel. There were also boats on the Amu Darya river, but these were often left stranded when the river shifted course.

At the end of their epic flight from the U. S.S. R. to the U. S.A. in 1929 the Soviet crew was welcomed by the Mayor of Oakland. Left to right: the helmeted Sterligov, Shestakov, the Mayor, Bolatov, and Fnfayev. (photo: Eugene Altunin)