A unique person passed away - Honored Test Pilot, Hero of Russia Colonel Sergei Melnikov
A unique person passed away - Honored Test Pilot, Hero of Russia Colonel Sergei Melnikov, one of those amazing pilots who lifted into the sky, taught to board and take off from the deck of the aircraft carrier "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov" the multifunctional ship-based fighter Su-27K, which everyone knows today as the Su-33. And also Sergey Melnikov taught to fly a dozen other combat vehicles of the "Sukhoi" company, where he worked for the last twenty-three years. Among them are Su-17, Su-24, Su-25, Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35.
You can talk endlessly about his talent, as well as about his extraordinary ability to feel the plane, to trust him, about his ability to squeeze out of a winged car that which the designers could not even imagine, seemingly putting all their mind and soul into their offspring. Until now, completely true stories are passed from mouth to mouth among test pilots, how Sergei Melnikov put a plane on the Kuznetsov in the Atlantic during a storm of 6 points, how he managed to keep the "drying" at night on the deck of an aircraft carrier, braking on the last, fourth aircraft finisher, because the first three were torn. And also how he won air battles over the Mediterranean Sea from American and Israeli pilots. And about how he managed to overtake an emergency fighter, which was leaking kerosene from a damaged fuel tank, from a ship standing at the pier (and according to the rules, you can take off from it only at sea, while moving) to the factory airfield. How did he teach pilots of the 279th Separate Shipborne Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Northern Fleet to master the Su-33, which entered service with the fleet twelve years ago and was the first in the history of relations between Russia and NATO to refuel domestic Su-30MKM and Su-30MK2 fighters from American tanker KS-130 "Hercules" …
Sergey Melnikov recently taught to fly not only Russian pilots, but also pilots from Algeria, Malaysia, Indonesia. All those countries where Sukhoi's machines are supplied. He spent 2,900 hours in the air, 2,000 of them in a test flight. He was in his early fifties.
Everyone who knew this amazing person and an amazing pilot will keep the faintest memory of him.
