Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow

Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow

Georgi Konstantinowitsch Mossolow ( Russian Георгий Константинович Мосолов , scientific transliteration Georgij Konstantinovič Mosolov ; born May 3, 1926 in Ufa ; † March 18, 2018 in Moscow ) was a Soviet test pilot and hero of the Soviet Union .

Life

Mossolow came into contact with airplanes during the Second World War and learned to fly in a club from 1943 to 1946 . He then joined the air force of the Soviet Union and completed his training as a military pilot in 1948. First he was employed as a fighter pilot, then as a flight instructor .

His special flying skills enabled him to successfully complete training as a test pilot between 1951 and 1953. Mossolow became famous in 1959 when he succeeded on October 31, with a record version of the MiG-21 known as the Je-66, the absolute world speed record (2388 km / h) for aircraft for the first time in the USSR. In 1960 he received the title Hero of the Soviet Union . In 1961 he succeeded in breaking the absolute world record in altitude (34,174 m). On July 7, 1962, he was able to increase the absolute world speed record to 2681 km / h with a Mikoyan-Gurevich Je-166 .

On September 11, 1962 Mossolow survived seriously injured (fractures of both arms, one leg, head injuries) an accident with a Je-8 , whose engine disintegrated at Mach 1.7. At a speed of approx. 800 km / h he saved himself with the already outdated SK ejection seat, which was only installed in the first prototype . The consequences of these injuries prevented him from resuming his successful work as a test pilot. However, he passed on his experience as an instructor for test pilots.

Georgi Mossolow was a close friend of the first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin , whom he first met in March 1961 at his home airfield at Zhukovsky .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Мосолов Георгий Константинович. In: warheroes.ru. Retrieved March 19, 2018 (Russian). 
2. ^ Karl-Heinz Eyermann , Wolfgang Sellenthin: The military aviation of the USSR . Central Board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship, 1967. p. 35.
3. ↑ airspacemag.com: Interview with G. Mossolow. (No longer available online.) January 22, 2009, archived from the original on July 20, 2012 ; accessed on December 26, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.