Gateway to the Sky Text Oksana Maklakova
Continuation of a series of stories devoted to 65 anniversary of “Koltsovo Airport”. “Koltsovo Airport” was built by military forces. According to the accounts of witnesses the size of the field assigned for the airportto-be was much too humble. However, aircrafts at that time were so tiny that 300 or 400 meters were quite enough for them to land. A land-surveyor’s reminiscences which survived till nowadays contain references to the site surrounded by the swamp and shrubland turning gradually into the airfield. By 1932 construction of the runways had finished and first shoulder-strapped inhabitants arrived: Р-5 and Р-6 military aircrafts of the independent squadron named after the Order of the Red Banner. Later on they were followed by heavy bombers and advanced testing models — air wonders of that time. Strange as it may seem, but it
was the dark age of the War that gave impetus to Koltsovo’s gaining height. Actually, that’s hardly to be wondered at, as the airport was the “military baby” from its birth. While in the deathly 1940-ies majority of the airports in the western part of the country were destroyed, an impressive 1000 m long runway with concrete surface had been constructed at Sverdlovsk aerodrome as early as 1941. Experimental and Proving Establishment of the Red Army was evacuated to the Urals too. And then it began! Aircrafts of all belligerent powers approbated incredible loops and nosedives in the Urals skies: Soviet test pilots were looking for “joints in the armour” of the “Luftwaffe”. And on May 15th 1942 the Urals witnessed an event of a “cosmic importance”: for the first time in the history of our country a jet plane took off. BI-1 aircraft held up in the air for only 3 minutes and 9 seconds but those were the moments which showed the country the way to Space.
25