June 4, 1965, the city of Novosibirsk. The weather was hot that day in the city; by noon, there was no overcrowding on the city beach on the banks of the Ob.
Suddenly, the peaceful rest of the townspeople exhausted by the heat was interrupted by the roar of an approaching plane. The combat jet fighter MiG-17, which appeared out of nowhere, sharply reduced the altitude. Aligning literally above the surface of the water, he went straight to the Communal Bridge. People on the bridge and on the embankment were numb, waiting for a denouement.
The fighter dived into the opening of the central arch of the bridge, emerged from the other side, sharply went up, dodging the meeting with the trusses of the railway bridge, and disappeared from sight as quickly as it appeared.
Someone breathed a sigh of relief, someone applauded, and the military resting on the beach began hastily to gather, in a hurry to report the incident.
This case is not in the Guinness Book of Records, it has never been recorded as an official record. Nevertheless, what happened has no analogues in the history of world aviation - no one else managed to fly under the bridge on a combat jet fighter!
Sky sick
He was born in the village of Pyatnitsa on the banks of the Istra reservoir, 60 km from Moscow. When the war began, the boy was six years old. Once Valya saw two Soviet I-16 fighters flying over his house literally over the rooftops. As he later said, until that moment he had not seen close not only airplanes, but even a steam locomotive.
That day turned Vali's life upside down - he decided to become a pilot. The path to his dream began in the 10th grade, when Valentin began to study at the flying club.
In 1953 he was sent to Ukraine, to the city of Sumy. Flight personnel were trained there. After finishing his studies, Valentin entered the Armavir School. At the age of 20, Privalov was already a lieutenant of naval aviation in the Baltic. When the so-called "Khrushchev reduction" began in the army, the young officer was left in the aviation, but was sent to serve first in Semipalatinsk, and then in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
From naval aviation, Valentin moved to "land", but did not lose his thrust for flying. Privalov belonged to the category of enthusiastic pilots who have been “sick of the sky” all their lives. This was Peter Nesterov, the founder of aerobatics, such was Valery Chkalov.
Pilots of this kind are always trying to find something new, to do something that no one else has done before.
Beat Chkalov
The legend of Chkalov is unthinkable without his famous flight under the bridge, which is often called "air hooliganism". Of course, there was an element of hooliganism in this. However, virtuoso maneuvers at low altitudes, nicknamed "Chkalovskie", saved the lives of thousands of Soviet pilots who, during the war years, stumped the Nazis with just such non-trivial piloting techniques.
The pilot of the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment, Valentin Privalov, believed that it was quite possible to fly on jet combat fighters the way Chkalov did. The main thing is to master your technique perfectly.
The pilots of the 712th Guards Aviation Regiment served the exercises of the anti-aircraft missile forces, imitating the actions of a "potential enemy". To do this, they flew from Kansk to the Novosibirsk Tolmachevo airfield, from which they flew to the exercises. In between flights, the pilots rested on the banks of the Ob, between the bridges - Kommunalny and Zheleznodorozhny.
It was then that Privalov got the idea to fly under the Kommunalny bridge, proving that jet technology in good hands will not yield to its "predecessors" in maneuverability.
It is clear that the command would never, under any circumstances, give Privalov the go-ahead for the experiment, so he decided to act at his own peril and risk.
View of the Kommunalnaya Bridge over the Ob River in Novosibirsk. Photo: RIA Novosti / Alexander Kryazhev
Flight of a lifetime
Four pilots of the 712th regiment flew at 30-40 minute intervals. Pilot Privalov's MiG route was as follows: Tolmachevo - Barnaul - Kamen-na-Obi - Tolmachevo.
On June 4, 1965, Valentin Privalov, having completed the task in the flight zone, returned to the airfield in cloudy conditions. Having received the command to descend, the pilot emerged from the clouds and saw the Communal Bridge in front of him. And then he decided that this was fate, and sent the fighter in his direction.
In fact, the task that Valentin Privalov set himself was daunting. The speed of the fighter on the way to the bridge was 700 km per hour, and it was necessary to get into the arch of the bridge 30 meters high and 120 meters wide. One wrong movement of the steering wheel - and the error will be fatal. And on the bridge there are people walking, trucks, buses, the embankment is full of people.
Moreover, it is only 950 meters from the Kommunalny Bridge to the Railway Bridge, or 5 seconds of flight. To avoid a collision with it, it is necessary to go up with a "candle", having withstood the most severe overloads.
An additional complication was the fact that the flight took place over the water surface, but it was precisely this circumstance that worried Privalov least of all. After all, he started in naval aviation and knew the subtleties of flight over the water surface perfectly.
Valentin Privalov himself said that he was absolutely confident in himself, in his training and in his combat vehicle. He noticed only an unexpected effect - according to all the laws of physics, the "window" of the bridge, through which the pilot had to fly, should have increased when approaching the target, but it, on the contrary, visually decreased.
Nevertheless, the MiG-17 confidently swept under the bridge, immediately rushed upward, after which it again headed for the airfield.
State of emergency of the union scale
Valentin Privalov recalled that everything went so quickly, easily and smoothly that he even believed that no one noticed his maneuver.
The next day, the pilots arrived at the division headquarters, where, at first glance, everything was quiet and calm. Actually, three of Privalov's colleagues did not even know that there was cause for concern. In fact, an unprecedented scandal was raging in the military authorities. The military, who witnessed the flight of Privalov, reported to the command, which immediately assembled a special commission to investigate the incident. In Novosibirsk, incredible rumors circulated about what had happened - they said that the pilot had flown under the bridge on a bet, others said that he had thus decided to win the heart of his beloved, who was standing on the bridge.
The state of emergency was reported to the very top, personally Minister of Defense of the USSR Marshal Rodion Malinovsky.
All four pilots were arrested, just in case, and Privalov was being prepared to be expelled from the party and brought to court.
Meanwhile, there were also those who defended Privalov, - supported the pilot First Secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Party Committee Goryachev... The fact is that an aircraft plant operated in Novosibirsk, where Su planes were built, and the head of the regional committee, for whom aircraft production was one of the most important matters, appreciated cool pilots and desperate daredevils.
Rating for "chkalovschina" at the Chkalov plant
Privalov was taken "to the carpet" to the one who was in Novosibirsk Air Marshal Evgeny Savitsky, an outstanding ace, twice Hero of the Soviet Union. Savitsky, father cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, piloted the most modern military aircraft until his 70th birthday and also appreciated great pilots. But as a chief, he could not indulge in air hooliganism, so he arranged for Privalov a notable hack for "Chkalovism" using all the wealth of the great and mighty Russian language.
A piquant moment - the scattering took place at the Novosibirsk aircraft plant, which bore the name of ... Valery Chkalov.
When Savitsky finished, the officers accompanying the marshal whispered to Privalov: there will be no reprisals, he will be left in the aviation.
After that, Privalov was ordered, leaving the plane and taking with him a parachute, to leave Novosibirsk by train to his permanent duty station in Kansk.
The "verdict" of the minister
A week after returning to Kansk, a telegram arrived from Moscow, which contained the "verdict" passed by Defense Minister Rodion Malinovsky: "Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to those activities that were carried out with him. If you have not been on vacation - send on vacation, if you have - to give 10 days of rest at the part ".
As a result, Valentin Privalov suffered the most serious punishment on the party line - a severe reprimand with entry into the registration card. And in the service, the regiment commander and the head of the political department were punished, who were reprimanded.
Pilot Valentin Privalov continued his service in aviation, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel and the position of deputy regiment commander. Maybe he would have risen to the rank of general's epaulettes, but at the age of 42 his health failed - due to cardiovascular disease, he was removed from flights. It was possible to remain in the army in a position not related to flights, but the born pilot chose to retire.
For another quarter of a century, Valentin Privalov worked in the civil aviation dispatch service, where he was awarded the honorary badge "Excellence in Air Transport".
In 1965, there were no mobile phones or video cameras, so no one captured the incredible flight of Valentin Privalov. It only exists on the Internet in the form of photo collages.
Over the past half century, no one in the world has managed to repeat what the Soviet pilot did. Maybe it's for the best. To do what Valentin Privalov did, it is not enough to be a good pilot, you need to be born to fly.
In Leningrad, writes A. Soloviev, Valery Pavlovich Chkalov first came to Leningrad in 1924, after graduating from the Serpukhov aviation school. For further service he was sent to the 1st Red Banner Fighter Squadron. In the squadron, the young guy was quickly turned into a drunkard. How this happened is described in sufficient detail in the book by Chkalov's daughter “Valery Chkalov. Aviation Legend ".
There are "Soviet legends" that are still accustomed to take for granted. As, for example, that "Chkalov flew in Leningrad under the bridge." The older generation remembers this episode from the film "Valery Chkalov". Recently, the correspondent of our newspaper, Yuri Maleokin, mentioned this in an article about the famous St. Petersburg pilot Vladimir Lord. In response, we received a letter from Alexander Solovyov, who from 1991 to 1996 worked as the director of the Leningrad State Aviation Museum. According to Solovyov, the "people's hero" never flew under the bridge on the Neva. Moreover, relying on archival documents, he cites sensational facts that paint the pilot in a not too, to put it mildly, favorable light ...
The period before Chkalov's Red Army service and his autobiography are absent in the military personal file. But there are many documents on drunkenness, disciplinary sanctions, court sentences of the Military Tribunal. Here is just one excerpt from his personal file: “his attitude to work is inert, he does not enjoy public authority ... He has no particularly valuable military-technical qualities. Practical experience and work experience is small. He does not have revolutionary merits and feats, is politically poorly developed, does not show activity in public life and cultural and educational work ... terribly rude, does not like and does not recognize any bosses, he is late for service, gets drunk, as a result of which he loses the authority of the red commander ... November 1, 1925 The commander of the detachment n / a det. warlord King "...
How the "hero" served in Leningrad
Drunkenness in our country is a common phenomenon. For drunken brawls, they were imprisoned in a guardhouse or given fifteen days. And Chkalov received six months in prison! One can only guess how outstanding Chkalov's drinking parties were. It’s boiling, you see, at the command ...
Outstanding binge
On January 3, 1929, Chkalov was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison by the verdict of a "court in closed session". Chkalov was finally and irrevocably demobilized from the Red Army. Who needs a blindfold pilot?
The second visit of the drunken aviator to Leningrad, more precisely, to Trotsk (as Gatchina was then called), took place in 1926. Prison. Early release. Several months of unemployment. Pounding the thresholds of the offices of the military commanders of the Air Force ... Finally, Chkalov was reinstated in the Red Army Air Force. And here is a description of May 26, 1927: "... Little sustained in relationships with others ... was on vacation due to neurasthenia, consumes alcohol immoderately ... There is an insignificant schizoid status, expressed in lack of self-control." From the immeasurable use of all sorts of rubbish, the pilot's eyesight weakens.
The guy is 25 years old, he can't do anything except fly and drink vodka. And in her arms is a young wife (already the second) with a baby. Either someone suggested it, or guessed it himself, or people came to him from the organs - no one knows. But the fact remains - after his release Chkalov becomes ... an employee of the OGPU.
An employee of the OGPU?
In Leningrad, the Chekists arrange Chkalov as an instructor pilot of the Aeroclub-AEROMUSEUM. I don’t know whether Chkalov was good at identifying “enemies of the people” in Leningrad or not, but the blind, written off by the medical commission, the pilot is restored to the Red Army and transferred to flight test work at the Air Force Research Institute. There, too, "enemies of the people" should have been identified!
Chkalov was sent to the Leningrad OSOAVIAKHIM to identify "enemies of the people." This was the third period of Chkalov's life in our city.
Personal file in the NKVD closed for historians
But already in 1933, his description reads: “The discipline of the Red Army does not digest, internally loosened up and decayed commander. According to all data, it is subject to withdrawal from the Red Army Air Force. " In the same year, Chkalov was transferred to the reserve and again demobilized from the army.
And in 1938 Chkalov was already a brigade commander! But how could a person who did not serve in the Red Army get such a high rank? Moreover, "alien, inwardly loosened up and decayed"? Why does he continue to wear military uniform? The answer to this question is quickly found when it turns out how Chkalov's title sounded completely: "brigade commander of the NKVD troops."
All subsequent life and work of Chkalov, with the exception of his participation in the famous flight over the North Pole and tests of fighter aircraft designed by N.N. Polikarpov, is not known for certain. According to our legislation, his personal file of an employee of the NKVD is accessible only to his relatives. Researchers and historians are not allowed to see it.
About "flying under the bridge"
This rank corresponded to the combined-arms rank of "Colonel-General". What caused such a high career growth of a heavily drinking employee of the OGPU-NKVD, one can only guess ...
Nevertheless, a number of sources claim that Chkalov nevertheless flew under the bridge in 1928, and in a number of sources that in 1927. On a Fokker D-XI fighter plane. In front of the future wife Olga Erasmovna.
From the story of the members of the film crew of the film “Valery Chkalov”: “Our director Kalatozov did not like the initial script of the film. Once in the smoking-room, during a break in filming, the pilots who were consulting the film told that in the Tsarist era a pilot had flown under the Troitsky Bridge. Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, at his request, the script was redone. Now Chkalov was kicked out of the Air Force for a hooligan flight under the bridge, perfect to win the heart of his beloved. It was a brilliant find of the director Kalatozov ... "
You can fly under the bridge only during the day. In broad daylight, the embankments are always full of people. There must have been many eyewitnesses. But they are not. No one!
However, Chkalov's second wife, in all her interviews, always answered all questions that “I didn’t fly with her.” As follows from the military personal file of Chkalov, in 1928 he served in the Bryansk air brigade and never flew to Leningrad. He could not fly under the bridge in 1928. He could not do this even in 1927 - he was trained in Lipetsk. In 1926, Chkalov did not fly at all - he was serving a criminal sentence.
from the editor
Not a single Leningrad newspaper of the period 1924-1928 wrote about such a flight. In 1940, newspapers enthusiastically wrote about Yevgeny Borisenko's flights under the Kirovsky Bridge during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov". But the real Chkalov himself never flew under any bridge in Leningrad!
Of course, there may be opponents to this article. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Many heroes have already fallen in our eyes and I really would not like to multiply their number. However…
On June 3 (according to some sources - June 4), 1965, the whole of Novosibirsk was agitated by an extraordinary incident. The townspeople shared the news with each other: the city repeated the trick that Valery Chkalov did 30 years ago (either in 1927, or in 1928) in Leningrad, namely: flying under one of the city bridges!
Whether this actually happened (the flight on a fighter under the Troitsky bridge) was carried out by Chkalov or not - history, frankly, is silent. We know about this only from the film "Valery Chkalov", but in Novosibirsk it was a real action. And this was done on the wrong antediluvian fighter I-5(1) , on which Chkalov flew in his years, and on a machine that was quite modern for that time, especially a jet: on a MiG-17 fighter. And the military pilot Valentin Privalov did it.
On that day, many saw how the red-star silvery combat plane at high speed descended to the water surface of the Ob so low that waves spread behind it like a boat, and in this position flew right into the target of the central arch (30 by 120 meters) of the Communal Bridge. Only a few seconds remained until the next bridge, on which the freight train was going, but the fighter managed to soar up with a "candle" and - without a trace disappeared into the clouds. Deaf and numb witnesses of the fantastic spectacle on both sides of the Obi applauded in unison ...
MiG-17 fighters; Valentin Privalov flew on an airplane of this type in 1965:
Communal bridge of Novosibirsk
As it turned out later, it was the MiG of the Air Force captain, sniper pilot Valentin Privalov, sent to Novosibirsk. Then he was 30 years old, and he had a reputation as a recognized ace, although his colleagues ironically called him Jack among themselves.
Valentin was born in the suburbs, his childhood fell in wartime. While still at school, he studied at the flying club. After college he served in naval aviation, in Kaliningrad and the Arctic, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Later he was transferred to the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory. In June 1965, as part of a flight of 4 MiGs, Privalov was seconded to the exercises in the Siberian Military District - at the training ground near Yurga, anti-aircraft battalions conducted training firing. Returning from the mission to Tolmachevo, Valentin flew under the Communal bridge. (For reference: the size of the arch is approximately 30 by 120 meters, the wingspan of the MiG-17 is 9.6 meters).
The MiG-17 flyby under the Kommunalny Bridge, according to one version, the picture was taken by a foreign press photographer who happened to be in a good place at a good time ...
Remembers Anatoly Maksimovich Ryb'yakov, retired aviation major:
“From the third turn, he came down and went under the bridge. The speed is somewhere around 400 km / h. It was a clear, sunny day. People on the beach swam, sunbathed, and suddenly there was a roar, and the plane soared upward with a candle, avoiding a collision with the railway bridge. It was clear that this could not be hidden. Air Marshal Savitsky flew in, and an investigation was launched. They asked Privalov what motives he had. He replied that he had written two reports on the shipment to Vietnam, but they remained unanswered. That is why I decided to fly under the bridge to be noticed. This act was evaluated in different ways. Young pilots are like heroism, the older generation is like air hooliganism. "
Privalov could be severely punished, up to a tribunal, but still pardoned. It is known that the Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal Malinovsky, personally took part in his fate, and sent a telegram with approximately the following content:
“Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the activities that were carried out with him. If you have not been on vacation, send on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit. "
Approximately, because popular rumor persistently adds one more line to the telegram:
"The regiment commander will be reprimanded."
And there were also rumors that the call to Moscow of the first secretary of the Novosibirsk Regional Committee of the CPSU Goryachev, who was on good terms with L.I. Brezhnev.
And although Privalov was never sent to Vietnam, his further career was generally successful. He was transferred to the Gorky region (some sources claim that Privalov's further service was held in Kubinka), grew up to lieutenant colonel, was both squadron commander and deputy regiment commander, but in 1977 due to heart disease he was forced to leave for "Citizen".
(Visited 4 359 times, 1 visits today)
The myth about Chkalov
Recently, one large-circulation weekly published a small note "Just like Chkalov", which again says: "In 1928, the legendary Valery Chkalov flew by the Sh-2 seaplane under the Troitsky (then Kirovsky) bridge." This legend has long been replicated by Soviet propaganda and is still being repeated as an indisputable historical fact. However, in reality, everything was not quite so, or rather, not at all so: Chkalov never flew under the bridge in Leningrad. Such a categorical conclusion is drawn by the St. Petersburg historian, former director of the Leningrad State Aviation Museum Alexander Soloviev. Working in archives, where many documents were declassified recently, he came to the conclusion that much else in the official biographies of the legendary pilot, to put it mildly, is not true.
But first, about the flight under the bridge, which people of the older generation remember from the feature film "Valery Chkalov". This is what the members of the film crew recall: “Our director Mikhail Kalatozov did not like the original script of the film. Once in the smoking room, during a break in filming, the pilots who were consulting the film told that even in tsarist times some pilot had flown under the Troitsky bridge (in 1916, this was done by the midshipman of the Baltic Fleet Aviation Prokofiev-Seversky - ed. ). Kalatozov sat with us and listened attentively to this story. The very next day, at his request, the script was redone. Now Chkalov was kicked out of the Air Force for a hooligan flight under the bridge, perfect to win the heart of his beloved. It was a brilliant find of the director Kalatozov ... ". Since then, this invention of the director has gone “to the people”. It’s like how the shots of the “storming of the Winter Palace” from Eisenstein’s film “October” began to be passed off as a documentary chronicle, and the story told in the film “Chapaev” was confused with the biography of the prototype of the movie hero.
In a number of sources, Alexander Soloviev believes, it is argued that Chkalov nevertheless flew under the bridge in 1928, and in others, that in 1927. On a Fokker D-XI fighter plane. Allegedly in front of the future wife of Olga Erasmovna. However, Chkalov's second wife, in all her interviews, always answered all questions that “I didn’t fly with her.” As follows from the military personal file of Chkalov, in 1928 he served in the Bryansk air brigade and never flew to Leningrad. He could not fly under the bridge in 1928. He could not do this even in 1927 - he was trained in Lipetsk. In 1926, Chkalov did not fly at all - he was serving a criminal sentence.
You can fly under the bridge only during the day. In broad daylight, the embankments of Leningrad are always full of people. There must have been many eyewitnesses. But they are not. No one! Not a single Leningrad newspaper of the period 1924-1928 - I looked through them all, - says Alexander Soloviev, - did not write about such a passage. In 1940, newspapers enthusiastically described Evgeny Borisenko's flight under the Kirovsky Bridge during the filming of the film "Valery Chkalov". But the real Chkalov himself never flew under any bridge in Leningrad! This is a myth that appeared thanks to the feature film by Mikhail Kalatozov, the historian is sure. Even another famous pilot and friend of Chkalov, Georgy Baidukov, who made a significant contribution to the creation of the legend about "flying under the bridge", then admitted: "Chkalov himself told me about this!" That is, Baidukov himself did not see this either ... Chkalov's entire biography is full of such myths, Alexander Solovyov is convinced. Working in the archives, the historian was greatly surprised. It turned out that many important documents concerning the biography of the "legendary pilot" had never been seen before him. There are no notes about this. This means that the entire legend about him was composed mainly on the basis of the publications of Soviet newspapers, as well as the recollections of Chkalov's own relatives, who were interested in maintaining the myth. In particular, his wife, son and daughters. Many books about Chkalov were written by them.
In June 1965, a pilot from the air defense regiment Valentin Privalov flew in a MiG-17 plane under the Communal bridge over the Ob River in Novosibirsk ...
Before that, he himself surveyed the distance between the bridge supports. Moreover, Chkalov made a similar flight on a propeller plane, not a jet ...
He was arrested for hooliganism in the air, but Malinovsky, the then Minister of Defense, ordered the pilot to fly
I heard about this incident as a child, but I never saw a photo, here on Facebook I found some scrubbing in the search, I found more:
The arrest followed immediately - the very next day. Debriefing and, to put it mildly, the separation were not long in coming. However, no one wanted to take upon themselves the final decision on the fate of the pilot. The then Minister of Defense of the USSR, Marshal R. Malinovsky, put an end to this matter. From him a telegram came to the unit: “Pilot Privalov should not be punished. Limit yourself to the activities that were carried out with him. If you have not been on vacation, send on vacation. If there was, give ten days of rest at the unit. " "Captain Valentin Privalov nicknamed" Jack ".
Valentin was born in the suburbs, his childhood fell in wartime. While still at school, he studied at the flying club. After college he served in naval aviation, in Kaliningrad and the Arctic, was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Later he was transferred to the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory.
In June 1965, as part of a flight of 4 MiGs, Privalov was seconded to the exercises held in the Siberian Military District - at the training ground near Yurga, anti-aircraft battalions conducted training firing. Returning from the mission to Tolmachevo, Valentin flew under the Communal bridge. (For reference: the size of the arch is approximately 30 by 120 meters, the wingspan of the MiG-17 is 9.6 meters).
Remembers Anatoly Maksimovich Ryb'yakov, retired aviation major:
“From the third turn, he came down and went under the bridge. The speed is somewhere around 400 km / h. It was a clear, sunny day. People on the beach swam, sunbathed, and suddenly there was a roar, and the plane soared upward with a candle, avoiding a collision with the railway bridge. It was clear that this could not be hidden. Air Marshal Savitsky flew in, and an investigation was launched. They asked Privalov what motives he had. He replied that he had written two reports on the shipment to Vietnam, but they remained unanswered. That is why I decided to fly under the bridge to be noticed. This act was evaluated in different ways. Young pilots are like heroism, the older generation is like air hooliganism. "
Meanwhile, there is a history of flights under bridges: "According to a widely circulated legend, Chkalov flew under the Troitsky Bridge in Leningrad. For the film" Valery Chkalov "this flight was repeated by pilot Yevgeny Borisenko!
Rumors about the flight under the bridge quickly spread throughout the country, and after Valery Pavlovich, during the armed conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) in 1929, pilot E. Lukht, three times awarded the Order of the Red Banner, personal military weapon, gold watch and other insignia of those years, flew under the bridge over the Amur in Khabarovsk, followed by this seemingly useless and dangerous trick, repeated by the pilot of the same squadron A. Svyatogorov, as well as I.P. Mazuruk and M.V. Vodopyanov.
During the war years, a similar trick was performed by the pilot Rozhnov. Escaping pursuit in the sky, he flew under the railway bridge, saving the life of himself and the crew.
Loading...
