75 years ago, the 402nd Special Purpose Fighter Aviation Regiment was formed. Now it has a different name - the Lipetsk aviation group as part of the Valery Pavlovich Chkalov State Center for the Training of Aviation Personnel and Military Tests of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Photo by Olga Belyakova
The first commander of the regiment Pyotr Mikhailovich Stefanovsky
Regiment commander Anatoly Ermolaevich Rubakhin in 1945
Colonel Anatoly Rubakhin explains the combat mission to the personnel
The current commander of the Lipetsk air group, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Myshkin
Engineer Major Alexander Pichugin (center)
The flight crew of the Su-30 SM together with a technician checks the equipment before departure
The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev awards Lipetsk pilots - the winners of the international stage "Aviadarts-2015"
Landing of a pair of MiG - 29UB
Flights of the aerobatic team "Falcons of Russia"
Preparation of aviation weapons of destruction of the Su-30SM aircraft for a training flight
Pilots simulate each flight on the ground, carefully thinking over all its details
The sky is calling …
Technician gives permission to fly
The pilot takes the plane for departure
A group of fighter pilots after another flight
In the sky, we often hear a hum - incredibly powerful and exciting, we automatically raise our eyes and see white stripes that "reveal" the blue of heaven. It seems that someone's invisible hand is slowly moving a brush across a blue canvas …
We know that our military planes are flying - they are carrying out training missions. But each time we involuntarily say: if only not a war. And with horror we recall the day when, at dawn on June 22, 1941, a terrible, ominous roar was approaching our borders …
On the day the Great Patriotic War began, test pilots from the Research Institute of the Red Army Air Force, headed by Stepan Pavlovich Suprun, a close friend of Valery Chkalov, came to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief: “Comrade Stalin, we must be at the front, we are ready to organize an aviation regiment from our cadres ". Joseph Vissarionovich replied that one regiment would not be enough. Stepan Suprun was immediately found: "My friend, Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Mikhailovich Stefanovsky, can organize another regiment of fighters." And this is not enough, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief replied, dozens, hundreds of such regiments are needed, try to gather as many volunteers as possible.
There were many volunteers. First of all, the flight and technical personnel of the regiments were recruited from the personnel of the 705th airbase of the Research Institute of the Air Force of the Spacecraft. On June 25, on the personal instructions of Stalin, two special-purpose fighter aviation regiments were formed. 401st - under the command of Stepan Pavlovich Suprun. He is the first in the history of the USSR twice Hero of the Soviet Union (the second time - posthumously). The pilot died a few days after the birth of the 401st regiment - on July 4, 1941.
The first commander of the 402nd was Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Mikhailovich Stefanovsky. On June 30, 1941, the regiment flew to the place of deployment, to Idritsa. And the first combat missions were made by the pilots on July 3. In these battles, they shot down six enemy messengers. A German shell hit one of our aircraft. Senior Lieutenant Shadrin, who controlled it, survived - he managed to land a damaged MiG-3.
The pilots of the 402nd Special Purpose Fighter Regiment fought near Pskov, in the Kuban, liberated Sevastopol and the entire Crimean peninsula from the fascist scum, smashed the Germans in the skies over Orel and Smolensk, flew to Poland and Berlin in 1945.
The 402nd was the most efficient fighter regiment in the Soviet Air Force. On account of his 13,511 sorties and 810 downed enemy aircraft. On the battle banner of the regiment two orders - the Red Banner and Suvorov III degree, as well as the honorary name "Sevastopol". Throughout history, thirty-two pilots of the regiment have become holders of the Order of the Golden Star. Ten were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.
Place of registration - Lipetsk
During the war, the regiment was based at different airfields, and it was stationed near Lipetsk - on reorganization. He arrived here on June 21, 1943. In Lipetsk, the regiment was replenished with flight and technical personnel, new aircraft entered service - Yak-9T and Yak-1, a total of 31 machines. They had to be mastered in a short time and ensure the coherence of actions of combat crews of pairs - the main tactical unit of fighter aircraft.
… And even now, 75 years later, we hear in the Lipetsk sky the roar of the planes of the special 402nd regiment (of course, not those that bombed the Nazis, but modern ones). In 1992, the already renamed 402nd IAP (968th Fighter Aviation Sevastopol Red Banner Order of Suvorov III degree regiment as part of the PPI and PLC (Air Force)) finally settled at the military airfield of the Lipetsk Aviation Center. Today, the regiment's full name is the Lipetsk Aviation Group as part of the Valery Pavlovich Chkalov State Center for Aviation Personnel Training and Military Testing of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
We arrived at the airfield literally ten minutes before the start of the training flights. The first planes were already roaring on the runway. Commander Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Nikolaevich Myshkin was still in his office (giving orders, discussing something with colleagues on the phone), but he was ready to sit at the wheel.
… A minute later, together with the commander, we drove to the planes in a service UAZ.
No, the plane is too simple, ordinary. Fighters - MiG and Su of different generations and modifications - are aviation complexes stuffed with an incredible number of devices and electronics. Your heart skips a beat when you approach the huge air machines that look like birds of incredible size. It is breathtaking when a running engine envelopes with an air-sound wave. This hum is completely different, not the one in the sky. He bewitches and, gaining power, makes you worry more and more.
After confirming the readiness for flight, the technical engineers escort the aviation complex - the car slowly taxies, heading for the runway. And, soaring into the sky, hides in the clouds. It rises higher and higher, flies farther, leaving a white stripe in the sky, giving the earth the roar of its engines.
Flight days
The task of the aviation group, like the entire Lipetsk aviation center, is to train aviation personnel for all parts of the Russian Aerospace Forces and military tests. The pilots develop and practice flight techniques, aircraft navigation techniques on military aircraft, such as the Su-35 and Su-30SM. Everyone is recording and sending the material to Moscow. After approval by the top management, other military units begin to work according to the manuals of the Lipetsk pilots.
Four days a week, the group's personnel are busy flying. They are practicing methods of combat employment of aviation complexes against ground and air targets, and air battles. Flights - single, twin, in a flight (three aircraft) or in a group of four aircraft. On the day of flights, each pilot performs three or four flights, 40-60 minutes each. And in everyone he solves a new problem.
They fly in circles, aerobatic zones or to the training ground - 70 kilometers from the airfield. The actual radius is about 1600 - 1700 kilometers. The plane can fly continuously for three and a half hours (without refueling).22 kilometers from the ground is the maximum height to which the fourth generation airline complex rises. In training flights, pilots take the car to an altitude of four to eight kilometers, depending on the task.
On the first flight on the day of our visit, June 21, the commander had the task of testing the young pilot's skills in the combat use of the airliner in complex forms against ground targets.
- Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Sopin graduated from the Higher Flight School two years ago, has been flying for a long time, but on different aircraft. Now I have completed an additional training program to manage the aircraft complexes of this modification, - says Nikolai Myshkin. - We fly to the training ground, I will see how the guy works on ground targets, and after that I will make a decision - whether or not to allow him to participate in training flights.
After 40 minutes, the Myshkin - Sopin crew returned from the mission.
“Senior Lieutenant Sopin is ready for training flights, I am satisfied with his work,” the lieutenant colonel told us. - It can be seen that both the flight commander and the squadron commander prepared the pilot well for the new type of flight training.
Lessons from the sky
Nikolai Nikolaevich Myshkin is an aviator in the third generation. My grandfather was a military pilot, his father was in civil aviation all his life.
- My childhood was spent in the garrisons, one might say, I grew up at the airfield, - the commander smiles. - I never dreamed of becoming a pilot, I was born to them. Already at the age of six, he flew with his father on An-2 planes. Then - on the Yak-18, Yak-52. When I was fourteen, my father was in charge of DOSAAF in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd region. And I was in the flying club for two years. In 1996, after school, he entered the Kachin military school. But two years later it was disbanded, and we, cadets, were transferred to the Armavir Higher Military Aviation Red Banner School of Air Defense Pilots.
… This year the school celebrated its 75th anniversary. On February 23, 1941, on the 23rd anniversary of the Red Army, all cadets, Red Army men and junior commanders took the oath of allegiance for the first time in a solemn atmosphere. And the history of the school began with the organization in Armavir in 1937 of a parachute school and a flying club (from December 1, 1940 - the School of Fighter Pilots).
And one more date associated with aviation and the history of the famous fighter regiment. 40 years ago, on February 23, 1976, the first commander of the 402nd Aviation Regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union, Pyotr Mikhailovich Stefanovsky, died. During his command during the Great Patriotic War, he made 150 sorties, shot down 4 enemy aircraft.
- Since 2001, I served in a fighter aviation regiment near Volgograd, in 2006 I entered the Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin Academy in the village of Monino, Moscow Region, - Nikolai Myshkin continues. - In 2008, he was assigned to the city of Krymsk as deputy commander of an aviation squadron. There he flew the Su-27. In 2012, I was transferred to Lipetsk … The most stressful moment in the service was the first training flight, when I was still a cadet. You have been entrusted with a plane (before that you flew with an instructor), and you need to show everything that you have been taught. I got up into the air and only then realized that I was flying on my own, there was no one in the cockpit except me. I felt a great sense of responsibility. And great pleasure in reaching the goal. Now I have over two thousand flight hours. But no one flight is like another, every time I discover something new for myself in the capabilities of the aircraft. There is no limit to improvement. And if the pilot believes that he has achieved everything, knows everything and knows how, - you can put an end to him.
Nikolai Myshkin says that when clouds hang and it rains, the sun shines behind the clouds. You rise into the sky, "cut" the clouds - and you find yourself in the world of sunshine, freedom, joy. But it happens that the cloudiness is continuous. You rise higher, it seems that here it is, the sun, its rays are already breaking through, but the clouds are not letting go. Vertically, they can stretch up to 10 kilometers!
- In such cases, the flight takes place outside of visual visibility (often in autumn and winter). These are instrumental flights: we see neither the earth nor the sky, we only fly in the clouds (like on a simulator, as if you are standing still). Only when making a U-turn do you feel that you are flying, - says Nikolai Nikolaevich. - The most difficult task is to fly to the same airfield from which you flew. True, we did not have such cases for the pilot to get lost, such an experienced and professional flight crew.
- The command of a regiment that went through the Great Patriotic War is a special honor, - the lieutenant colonel shares. - And participation in the Victory Parade in Moscow is an indescribable emotion. There is, of course, excitement. A sense of belonging to the heroic deed of our people, concentration, special pride and understanding that even now, in peacetime, we are making our contribution to the Great Victory.
The vocation is to fly
Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Anatolyevich Kurakin is a first class pilot. Serves in Lipetsk since 2002. Flies on Su-27, Su-30, 30 CM. I personally brought the first Su-35s to Lipetsk from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Now Aleksey Kurakin dreams of the T-50, the fifth generation aviation complex.
- While the T-50 is a secret object. I saw him in Akhtubinsk, however, from a distance of five hundred meters, - says Alexey Kurakin. - I wanted to come up, but they stopped me: you can't! I say: yes, I will fly on it! They answer me: when you are, then you will come. They promise to put the T-50 into service next year.
Lieutenant Colonel Kurakin - Deputy Commander of the Lipetsk air group. Like Nikolai Myshkin, he graduated from the Armavir School.
- Honestly, I never dreamed of aviation as a child. A year before leaving school, I met two twin brothers (I lived in the village of Otradnaya, Krasnodar Territory) - in good shape, fit. They studied at the Yeisk special school for primary flight training. And I fired up: I also want to be a pilot! And he entered the same school. During two years of study, I realized that flying is my vocation. In 1997 he graduated from the Armavir College. During the years of service, he flew one thousand three hundred hours.
When you first rise into the sky, you feel boundless freedom, - the pilot shares. - The sky becomes dear and close, it seems that you know every cloud.
- Today the clouds are kind, sparkling, - Alexey Anatolyevich says, looking into the heavenly distance. - And there are dangerous: dark, they seethe and resent. It is better not to enter such. Sometimes you look, like a light cloud, you rise higher - it darkens, darkens. It is dangerous to stay in such a position, you need to leave quickly. A pilot should have a sense of self-preservation - you can't fly without it for a long time.
Every year on May 9, the aircraft of the Lipetsk air group fly over Red Square. Alexey Anatolyevich is also a participant in the Victory parades in Moscow. Only the best of the best fighter pilots receive this honor.
- We fly back to Lipetsk - we make a circle over the city, over Victory Square, - says the lieutenant colonel.
Alexey Kurakin is a participant of Aviamix demonstration flights at the Aviadarts all-Russian and international competitions. This year the all-Russian stage took place in the Crimea, in Sevastopol.
- Our predecessors - pilots of the 402nd Special Purpose Fighter Regiment - liberated this city from the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. And in the year of the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the war and the founding of the regiment, we flew in the Sevastopol sky, says Alexey Anatolyevich. - On the Su-35 we passed at an altitude of one hundred fifty - two hundred meters from the Black Sea, flew over the Kerch Strait. True, the weather was bad, but we were faced with a task, and we fulfilled it in the most difficult conditions.
… The last flight of the pilots of the Lipetsk air group ends at 22:30. They get home by midnight.
- I come - the youngest son is waiting, the eldest is sleeping. In the morning, the youngest sleeps, the elder prepares for training, - Alexey Kurakin smiles. - He has parachute jumping this summer, he studies in the Mud in the Aviators' Club. And the youngest dreams of becoming a tanker.
The error is excluded
In the cockpit of each plane there is an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. Father Ilya, the assistant to the head of the aviation center, blessed all the cars. And before their departure to the parade in Moscow, he conducts a service …
On the ground, the machines are guarded by engineers - they strictly monitor the serviceability of aircrafts. It is they who escort the planes into the sky and meet them on the landing strip.
Major Alexander Vasilyevich Pichugin - Deputy Commander of the 1st Aviation Squadron (where all the fighter equipment is concentrated) for the Aviation Engineering Service. Organizes the work of engineers and technicians to maintain aircraft in good working order and combat readiness, is responsible for flight safety. Serves in Lipetsk since 1999. In general, in the Armed Forces - since 1987.
- Errors in our work are excluded, - says Alexander Vasilyevich. - One engineer does the work, the other controls it to eliminate defects. The most difficult moments are waiting for the plane. While he is in the air, nervous tension is at its maximum. Because you understand your responsibility for the lives of pilots. And when the car touched the concrete, drove into the parking lot, you can breathe a sigh of relief. And so - every flight.
… 20 years ago, on June 24, 1996, at the city cemetery of Lipetsk, the funeral ceremony of burial of the remains of Mikhail Yegorovich Chunosov, a native of Lipetsk land, took place. He did not return from battle on August 16, 1941. On this day, the MiGs of the 402nd Fighter Aviation Regiment fought air battles with superior enemy forces. The car of Senior Lieutenant Chunosov was attacked by fascist Ju-88s and Messer. The hero pilot distracted four Bf-110 fighters, but his plane was shot down near the village of Bazhenko (Novgorod region).
… Now I increasingly look into the sky - looking for white stripes and looking at the clouds, what they are today - good and sparkling or dangerous. I have never flown on an airplane - there was no chance, and I am afraid … But I still want to discover this endless blue, go through the clouds and sail above them - under the sun!
Today, on Monday (the day of the next issue of "Results of the Week"), the personnel of the air group "Lipetsk" - again flights. Huge steel birds will take off into the sky and, hiding in the clouds, will rise higher and higher, fly farther, leaving a white stripe in the sky and giving the roar of their engines to the ground.
