Ivan Timofejewitsch Iwaschtschenko

Ivan Ivashchenko's tomb in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow

Ivan Timofejewitsch Iwaschtschenko ( Russian Иван Тимофеевич Иващенко ; born October 16, 1905 in Ust-Labinsk ; † March 17, 1950 ) was a Soviet test pilot . At the time of his death he held the military rank of lieutenant colonel . He died in the crash of a prototype of the MiG-17 .

Life

Ivashchenko initially worked in agriculture. In 1927 he joined the army and served in the cavalry . From 1932 to 1934 he attended a military pilot school. He took part in the Winter War as commander of a fighter squadron. In 1940 he became a test pilot at the aircraft factory 24 in Moscow. In 1941 he went to the Mikhail Gromov College for Flight Research as a test pilot . However, he was then drafted into the Air Force to defend Moscow and thus participated in World War II from July 1941 to September 1941 .

From 1941 to 1943 he prepared the series production of the Ilyushin Il-2 as a test pilot for aircraft factory 1 . In 1943 he went to the aircraft factory 301 and flew in there, among other things, the Jakowlew Jak-9 .

From August 1945 he was a test pilot for the OKB MiG and flew all important new jet aircraft types from MiG, such as the MiG-9 , the MiG-15 and the MiG-17. During a test flight with the prototype of the MiG-17, the machine suffered a structural failure and the machine fell to the ground without braking from a height of 5000 m. Ivashchenko was buried in Moscow.

Iwaschtschenko received numerous awards for his achievements, so he was honored on March 5, 1948 as Hero of the Soviet Union .

literature

• G. Swishchev et al. a .: Avijazija: enziklopedija . In: Bolschaja rossijskaja enziklopedija . Moscow 1994, p. 243/244 (Russian).