80 years ago, on June 1, 1936, flights between Moscow and Vladivostok began
The flights were carried out from the MV Frunze Central Aerodrome, better known as Khodynka. However, in the same 1936 it was closed for major reconstruction, during which a concrete runway was to be built. While construction was in progress, civil flights were sent and received by the Bykovo airport.
The airfield and navigation arrangement of the Moscow - Vladivostok airline was completed by 1932, but for a long time it was used mainly in the postal and cargo mode. After all, air passengers had to get to Vladik for several days, with many transfers, which, with the exception of a small gain in time, did not give any advantages over traveling by rail. And how pleasant such a flight was, anyone who had to fly on the An-2 can imagine.
Exploration work on the Moscow-Vladivostok route began in the late 1920s, when Dobrolet, the predecessor of Aeroflot, mastered more than 12 thousand kilometers of regular air lines. The experience of long-distance passenger transportation was gained on the Moscow-Irkutsk route with a length of 4500 kilometers, where since May 1931 the K-4 liner designed by K. A. It was replaced by a large-scale K-5 for eight passengers instead of four in its predecessor. K-5, in particular, was used on the Irkutsk - Vladivostok route. The three- or two-engine Tupolev ANT-9 for nine passengers seemed more preferable for long-haul flights, but even it, which successfully worked for the Soviet-German airline Derulyuft, did not meet the requirements for vehicles for transcontinental flights. They needed a bigger and more comfortable board. But interestingly, the image of ANT-9 adorned all Soviet air tickets of those years.
The team of A. N. Tupolev took over the passenger plane specially for the Moscow-Vladivostok line. This is how the five-engine giant (at that time) ANT-14 "Pravda" was born, in the creation of which the developments embodied in the heavy bomber TB-3 (ANT-6) were used: the wing, landing gear and many other components of the Soviet "flying fortress" of the 30s years. ANT-14 was designed for 36 passengers and had an impressive flight weight for those times - 17.5 tons. But at a cruising speed of less than 200 kilometers per hour, the Pravda's flight range was only about 1200 kilometers. To get to Vladivostok, several intermediate landings were required with the crew resting.
ANT-14 was tested in the air by M. M. Gromov in 1931, but, alas, it was not put into production, so he did not have to master the Moscow-Vladivostok route. The car was transferred to the Maxim Gorky propaganda squadron and used for recreational air walks over Moscow by not the poorest Soviet citizens (flights were paid). He had to make only four long-distance flights: two to Kharkov, one to Leningrad and Bucharest. However, the plane turned out to be very reliable. For 10 years of operation, it transported about 40 thousand people without accidents and serious breakdowns.
To service the Moscow-Vladivostok air route, it was probably necessary in no way less than a dozen of these machines. The leadership of the civilian air fleet expected to receive even more of them - fifty pieces already in 1933, but this remained in the plans. Apparently, the introduction of the machine into the series was also hindered by discrepancies with the necessary additional equipment for the ANT-14 in order to turn it into a military aircraft, and not only a transport aircraft, but also a bomber. The possibility of such a "conversion" was a requirement of the military leadership.
However, the ANT-14 did not promise any decisive advantages in comparison with the railway Transsib. This flight would have cost a passenger about 200 rubles, which corresponded to the average monthly salary in the USSR in 1936, and G-1 and G-2 were quite suitable for cargo transportation on long-distance routes, that is, heavy bombers TB-1 and TB sent for demobilization -3.
Subsequently, the flights Moscow - Vladivostok were carried out by the famous Li-2 - DC-3 transport and passenger "Douglases", produced from 1938 under an American license. Regular passenger air traffic on the route actually opened only in 1948, when new 27-seat Il-12s began to be operated on it, more comfortable for air travelers, but quite unpretentious, requiring the same quality of airfields for takeoff and landing as "All-terrain" Li-2. This was a milestone in the development of air communication - the Il-12 spent a little more than a day on the road from Moscow to Khabarovsk, while the Trans-Siberian express covered the route in six days. An advertisement for flights on the Il-12 read: “The plane will take you five to six times faster than a train. The cost of tickets is cheaper than sleeping cars of the 1st category of courier trains. In the cockpit, there are comfortable soft chairs, a wardrobe, a washbasin, and for babies there are cradles with bedding. There is a buffet on board."
By 1955, the more advanced, but still piston-powered IL-14 for 32 passengers had become the main main horse of Aeroflot. And in the second half of the 50s, the "air Transsib" submitted to the first Soviet jet liners Tu-104. In 1958, a handsome Tu-114 turboprop, a civilian modification of the Tu-95 heavy strategic bomber, performed a non-stop test flight from Moscow to Vladivostok.
In 1958-1964, the capital of Primorye began to receive Tu-104 on a regular basis, as well as turboprop Il-18 and An-10 (then Tu-154 and Il-62 came), and piston veterans, including the workaholic Li-2, went to nearby highways. The chroniclers of the Knevichi airport have been counting its new history from that time. I would like to see more Russian-made cars here in the future. And the first in our country transcontinental airline Moscow - Vladivostok is still one of the longest in the world.
