Mikhail Sergeyevich Babushkin
Mikhail Sergeyevich Babushkin ( Russian Михаил Сергеевич Бабушкин * September 24 jul. / 6. October 1893 greg. In Bordino in Moscow ; † 18th May 1938 in Arkhangelsk ) was a Soviet pilot who primarily by its flights to explore the Arctic gained notoriety in the 1930s.
Life
Mikhail Babushkin was born in Bordino, a suburb of Moscow, which was incorporated in 1960, the son of a locksmith. In his childhood he had to contribute to the livelihood of the family and among other things helped out in a grocery store. He later took on jobs as an assistant fitter, which he had learned from his father, or as an electrician. After the outbreak of World War I , he was drafted into the army in 1914 and sent to the newly founded Gatchina Aviation School for pilot training , which he graduated in autumn 1915. He then found work there as an instructor. After the October Revolution of 1917, which Babushkin witnessed in Saint Petersburg , he fought against the White Army in the civil war that followed, in which he was also wounded .
In 1925 he was first introduced to the Arctic flying into contact when he during the hunting season was in February the order, along with the pilot Tomaschewski colonies of harp seals in the White Sea track. The first use of an airplane for this purpose and the cooperation with the seal hunters proved so successful that Babushkin carried out the reconnaissance flights for eight years and became one of the most experienced polar pilots in the Soviet Union.
He became known to the international public in May 1928 during the rescue operation for the airship Italia , which had crashed in the Arctic and whose crew, including the expedition leader Umberto Nobile, was stranded on an ice floe. With an F 13 with the registration RR-DAS transported on board the ship Malygin , Babushkin carried out 15 search flights and landed several times on a drifting ice floe, which nobody before him should have attempted during the Arctic summer and which he was entitled to as “The first Eisflieger ”in the media as well as the award of the Order of the Red Banner on October 8, 1928. The crew of the Italia were ultimately saved by the icebreaker Krassin .
In 1934 Babushkin was a member of the Chelyuskin expedition and undertook reconnaissance flights over the Chukchi Sea with his Sch-2 flying boat, which he carried on board . When the ship, trapped in the pack ice , went down on February 13, the aircraft could be disembarked, but was severely damaged. With the makeshift repaired machine and his mechanic Walawin on board, Babushkin managed to fly to Wankarem on April 2nd , where Georgi Ushakov organized the rescue of the castaways. The rest of the crew were rescued from the ice by plane by April 13th. In 1935 he joined the Communist Party .
Babushkin was also involved in the construction of the first Soviet polar station North Pole 1 . In the squadron consisting of four ANT-6 aircraft that transported the station's equipment, he acted as the 2nd pilot in Mikhail Vodopyanov's command machine with the identification N-170 . Their crew were the first to land at the North Pole by plane .
From August 1937 on, he took part in the ongoing search for Sigismund Lewanewski's aircraft as the commander of an ANT-6 squadron of four , which disappeared during a long-distance record attempt over the Arctic and has not yet been found. The aircraft had previously been equipped with searchlights on the stern and wings as well as flares for operations in the polar night . In November, the group reached the base on Rudolf Island , but could not start the search flights until the following February due to the extremely bad weather. On his return from the polar station Buchta Tichaja on Hooker Island , to which Babushkin had flown together with Boris Tschuchnowski to replenish supplies, Babushkin was injured in a hard landing on Rudolf Island. In May 1938 the search for Levanewski was stopped and Babushkin's crew received orders to return to Moscow. On the return flight his ANT-6 with the registration number N-212 had an accident after a stopover in Arkhangelsk on May 18, 1938 shortly after taking off for the onward flight and crashed in the area of the Northern Dvina , killing all members of the four-man crew. Babushkin was transferred to Moscow and buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Babushkin Island in Antarctica has been named in his honor since 1958 .
literature
- Iwan T. Spirin: The Conquest of the North Pole . F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1955, p. 56–61 (Russian: Покорение Северного Полюса . Translated by Alexander Böltz).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Ulrich Unger: Adventure of Soviet Aviators . Military Publishing House of the GDR, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-327-00306-8 , p. 36 .
- ↑ G. Uschakow: My pobjedili w boju pod Vankarenom (Russian)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Babushkin, Mikhail Sergeyevich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Бабушкин, Михаил Сергеевич (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 6, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bordino near Moscow |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 18, 1938 |
| Place of death | at Arkhangelsk |