Osoaviakhim-1
Encyclopedia
Osoaviakhim-1 was a record-setting, hydrogen
-filled Soviet
high-altitude balloon
designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's stratosphere
. On January 30, 1934, on its maiden flight
which lasted over 7 hours, the balloon reached an altitude
of 22000 metres (72,178.5 ft). During the descent the balloon lost its buoyancy
and plunged into an uncontrolled fall, disintegrating in the lower atmosphere. The three crew members, probably incapacitated by high g-force
s in a rapidly rotating gondola
, failed to bail out
and were killed by a high-speed ground impact.
According to public investigation reports, the crash was ultimately caused by a prolonged stay at record altitudes exceeding maximum design limits. The balloon, overheated by sunlight
, lost too much lifting gas
in upper atmosphere. As it descended past the 12000 metres (39,370.1 ft) mark, cooling down to ambient air temperature, quick loss of buoyancy
caused downward acceleration that triggered structural failure of the suspension cables. The aircraft design was marked by numerous engineering flaws, notably insufficient ballast weight
and faulty gondola suspension design, which all contributed to the loss of life.
Later Soviet manned high-altitude balloons improved on safety devices and did not venture above 16000 metres (52,493.4 ft); the program was nevertheless marked with accidents and failures and was terminated after the Osoaviakhim-2 launch failure in June 1940.
Auguste Piccard
's high-altitude flights of 1930–1932 aroused interest of Soviet Air Forces and Osoaviakhim, the Soviet paramilitary training organization, as well as individual pilots, designers and flight enthusiasts. Andrey Vasenko, an engineer from the Institute of Aerial Photography in Leningrad
, and a future crewmember of Osoaviakhim-1, designed his version of Piccard's balloon in 1930, however, Osoaviakhim delayed funding until the end of 1932.
The second competing proposal, that of the national Meteorology Committee
, emerged in January 1932 and was soon abandoned, also for the lack of finance. This allowed the third competitor, the Air Forces, a solid lead in time. USSR-1
, the Air Forces stratospheric balloon, was designed by Georgy Prokofiev
with assistance of Vladimir Chizhevsky, Konstantin Godunov and the Air Force Academy staff. Their balloon, built in Moscow by professional aircraft technicians, proved to be far safer than Vasenko's. It had two airtight hatches with fast-opening locks; ballast
was carried externally and could be instantly released on demand. The gondola was reinforced with an internal and an external frame that prevented direct contact between the airtight compartment's skin and suspension cables. Osoaviakhim-1 lacked all these safety features.
Both the Osoaviakhim and the Air Forces program were primarily scientific, with expected practical applications in meteorology and future high-altitude airplanes. The Osoaviakhim program, in particular, was sponsored and consulted by Abram Ioffe
of the Physical-Technical Institute; one of his postgraduate students, Ilya Usyskin, joined the crew of Osoaviakhim-1 and perished on its fatal flight.
at 19,500. Maximum altitude was initially set at 20,000 metres but the upgrades made during construction, according to Vasenko, enabled it to reach even higher.
In August the balloon was commissioned to fly despite known technical flaws. The commissioners emphasized that the crew, although equipped with personal parachutes, had few chances of bailing out in case of emergency: the sole airtight hatch was held in place with twelve wing nuts
. Opening it, even on solid ground, required minutes. The crew did not wear pressure suit
s (they simply did not exist at that time) or individual breathing sets, relying on stored supplies of compressed oxygen
and carbon dioxide absorber cartridges. Crew survival depended on the gondola's integrity; bailing out without breathing sets was feasible only at altitudes below 8,000 metres.
The gondola itself was welded from 0.8 millimetre sheet metal without any structural frame. In addition to the crew, instruments and life support systems, it carried a metric ton of lead
ballast inside the airtight sphere. The ballast release chute was sufficiently airtight but provided a very slow discharge rate: releasing a ton of ballast normally took a whole hour. In real flight this flaw alone would prevent the crew from slowing down the falling balloon despite having ballast on board.
Finally, the designers did not take care to unlink the delicate gondola structure from the tension of the suspending cables. Unlike Piccard's design with 32 cables, Osoaviakhim-1 had only nine (eight peripheral and one central cable). These cables were woven into a kind of basket holding the gondola. It could easily rotate inside the basket; any tension from the cables was immediately passed onto its thin shell.
Aircraft commander Pavel Fedoseenko (born 1898), a graduate of the Airforce School in Leningrad and Zhukovsky Air Force Academy in Moscow, was a career military aviator who logged over a hundred flights (377 hours) on tethered observation balloons in World War I
and the Russian Civil War
and later tested numerous free-flying balloons and airships. In 1925 Fedoseenko and Alexander Friedmann set national altitude record of 7,400 metres.
In 1927 Fedoseenko set a national solo endurance record (23 h 57 m). His influence in the Leningrad
branch of Osoaviakhim helped establish a balloon-making workshop at Leningrad's Stalin Plant, although they failed to beat their Airforce competitors.
Flight engineer Andrey Vasenko (born 1899), a native of Tsarskoye Selo
, also fought on the Bolshevik side in the Civil War; in 1927 he graduated from the fledgling department of aircraft of the Leningrad Institute of Railroad Engineers, while working full time as a school teacher in his hometown. In 1929 Vasenko joined the staff of an observatory
in Pavlovsk (later Aerological Institute) headed by Pavel Molchanov
; two years later, after a string of successful meteoroligal studies, he was promoted to deputy director of the Institute. Apart from Osoaviakhim-1, Vasenko designed a series of captive balloons for photographic surveys of large construction sites.
Instrument operator Ilya Usyskin (born 1910), son of a Jewish
blacksmith from Vitebsk
, studied at Moscow Technical University and Abram Ioffe
's Physical-Technical Institute in Leningrad. At the age of 20 he published his first peer-reviewed
articles on biophysical
experiments suggested by Ioffe, although he himself leaned to nuclear physics
. In 1932–1933 Usyskin designed portable, lightweight scientific instruments for stratospheric balloons, and was a natural choice for the Osoaviakhim-1 crew. At first Fedoseenko disliked Usyskin's personality but later changed his mind, assuring Ioffe in his full trust to Usyskin. According to the Mezheninov commission report, Usyskin considered his role in the January flight unnecessary, because it turned out that his portable cloud chamber
s were unsuitable for high-altitude experiments in winter and had to be replaced with less sophisticated instruments.
Maiden flight of Osoaviakhim-1 and USSR-1 was planned on September 30, 1933 from the same Air Forces airfield in Kuntsevo (earlier, USSR-1 failed to lift off due to "heavy load of moisture"). The military, as the hosts of the site, were the first to fly. USSR-1 with Prokofiev, Godunov and Ernst Birnbaum on board lifted off at 8:40 Moscow Time
, reached an altitude of 18800 metres (61,679.8 ft) at 14:45 and landed safely around 17:00. Their altitide record, although not recognized by FAI
, was publicized worldwide. Flight of Osoaviakhim-1, scheduled to take off later than USSR-1, was cancelled due to unexpected strong winds.
Launches in later autumn and winter was deemed impractical and dangerous, and the balloons were disassembled for winter storage. Fedoseenko, expecting that delicate fabrics and gondola will not survive it; proposed a winter launch, and received a go-ahead for it. They missed the first launch window
in the end of December; the next streak of good weather was expected in the end of January, coincident with the 17th Congress of the Communist Party
, and thus attracting the focus of communist propaganda
.
January 9, 1934 Defence Commissar Kliment Voroshilov
requested Stalin
's approval of the winter launch, specifically noting that it will be kept secret until the altitude record is set. On January 11 Politburo
approved the launch; secrecy concerns were discarded and the flight was publicized in advance.
On January 23 the envelope was partially inflated and properly tested for leaks at a rubber factory in Khamovniki. Gondola and ballast release hardware were also rigorously tested and declared to be in order. On January 28 Osoaviakhim-1 and its crew arrived at the Air Forces field in Kuntsevo. The next day was filled with publicity interviews, meetings and committees extending beyond midnight.
Weighing on the morning of the launch day, January 30, demonstrated that the aircraft still possessed a reserve in buoyancy, and the crew decided to increase ballast weight by 180 kilograms, which would enable them to reach 20,500 metres altitude, higher than initial estimates. Prior to the launch of Osoaviakhim-1 meteorologists released radiosonde
s that reported satisfactory weather on the ascent path.
At 9:07 Moscow Time
Osoaviakhim-1 lifted off and soon made radio contact with the airfield. By 9:56 the aircraft reached 15,000 metres according to on-board altimeter
; at around 17,700 metres its envelope expanded into a nearly perfect sphere
and eventually reached static equilibrium
at 19,500 metres, exactly as intended by design. The crew experienced problems with carbon dioxide
absorbers, but it appeared to be manageable. Fedoseenko dumped 310 kilograms of ballast and by 10:50 the balloon passed its design altitude of 20,500 metres. This moment was later marked as the point of no return
: at 20,500 metres Osoaviakhim-1 carried just enough ballast to stabilize descent speed. Further ascent and inevitable loss of hydrogen made this ballast insufficient; the only escape route was through bailing out on personal parachutes, provided that the crew could open the awkward hatch. After nearly an hour at 20,600 metres Osoaviakhim-1 climbed again, reaching 22,000 metres at 12:33 and hovered at this record altitude for 12 minutes.
At 12:45 the crew opened gas release valve for three minutes to initiate descent; the hot balloon did not respond as planned and travel to 18,000 metres took more than two hours. At this altitude vertical speed levelled at a safe and steady one metre per second. At around 14,000 metres vertical speed increased, reaching two meters per second at 13,400 meters. Lifting force
of the remaining hydrogen reduced to 1300–1400 kilograms, while the balloon weighed an estimated 2,120 kilograms.
Between 16:05 and 16:10, when Osoaviakhim-1 descended to 12,000 metres, vertical acceleration went out of control; the balloon began disintegrating before it reached 8,000 metres. At about 2,000 meters gondola separated from the balloon and impacted ground between 16:21 and 16:23, near Potizh-Ostrov village in rural Insar
district of Mordovia
, 470 kilometres east from the launch site.
According to Yagoda
's report to Stalin
, OGPU
officers confirmed the crash and reported its exact location at 23:40. The bodies in the gondola were badly maimed; Fedoseenko's skull had disintegrated, probably after impacting a tempered glass porthole
. The balloon envelope fell 4 kilometres from the gondola and its fabric was quickly looted by local villagers.
announced the accident from the rostrum of the Communist Party congress; immediately after his brief statement Pavel Postyshev
proposed burying the crew in Kremlin Wall Necropolis
. Soviet morning papers reported the news on February 1. Western press followed suit; Time magazine, although incorrectly reporting that "there was not enough left of the crushed gondola or the three broken bodies to supply the story of the tragedy", correctly guessed the roots of the catastrophe: "winter weather had contracted the balloon's gas to such a point that it fell like a dead weight".
The funeral of the crew (February 2) turned a disaster into a propaganda campaign; the three victims were posthumoulsy awarded the Order of Lenin
and buried with state honours in the Kremlin wall. Stalin, Voroshilov and Molotov
personally carried the urns of Fedoseenko, Usyskin and Vasenko. This was the last group funeral on Red Square
until the 1971 Soyuz 11
disaster that also claimed three lives.
Potizh-Ostrov, the village near the crash site, was renamed to Usyskino; across the country, streets and squares were named after individual crewmembers or collectively, like Proezd Stratonavtov in Tushino
(now a district of Moscow). Postage stamps in memoria of Fedoseenko, Vasenko and Usyskin were issued in 1934 (Scott
C50, C51, C52), 1944 (Scott C77, C78, C79) and 1964 (Scott 2888).
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Investigators headed by Prokofiev arrived on site on horseback 24 hours after the crash and issued their first statement on February 1. They acknowledged that the crew died of high speed impact at 16:21 Moscow time; the flight logs, found intact, revealed that the crewmembers were unaware of imminent catastrophe until 16:10, when the balloon descended to 12,000 meters. This moment was marked as the beginning of an irrecoverable dive. Airspeed beyond design limits snapped the suspension cables and tore open the envelope; eventually the gondola completely separated from the falling balloon. There was no evidence of icing
despite early reports in Pravda
. Autopsy
ruled out suffocation
or poisoning of the crew; barograph
tape indicated normal internal air pressure throughout the flight.
On February 5 state commission chaired by General Staff
deputy chief Mezheninov issued a detailed report that, regardless of later findings and clarifications, provided a stable version of the accident and its causes; time of impact was changed to 16:23. Later, in 1935, these proceedings were explained at length in a book by one of the commissioners, metorologist Pavel Molchanov
. According to Mezheninov's report and Molchanov's book, during the four-hour-long stratospheric flight the hydrogen inside the balloon was overheated by solar radiation (54 °C above ambient) and expanded beyond the balloon's geometric capacity; excess gas leaked out through safety valves. More gas was lost when Fedoseenko initiated the descent. As the balloon cooled down on its descent, the remaining gas contracted with a catastrophic loss of buoyancy. To stabilize airspeed at safe level the crew had to dump 800 kilograms of ballast, but it simply was not there. Suspension cables failures started at altitudes above 8,000 meters, where the crew was unable to open the hatch. The commission summarized causes of the crash as:
In March the investigators' reports were released to general public, including the final verdict blaming the catastophe on the crew's "recklessness in rise for record".
, was tested and discarded. VR60 Komsomol (1939) had another safety feature: in case of abnormally rapid descent its balloon was designed to flatten into a gigantic parachute canopy.
The crash also provided motivation to develop pressure suit
s for high-altitude flight; first operational suits were designed by Evgeniy Chertovsky, co-designer of Osoaviakhim-1.
summarized his understanding of the investigators' reports in a February 19 note to Stalin: "... despite lack of proper management during construction and pre-flight preparation, the flight itself was technically feasible up to 20,500 meter altitude. The accident was caused by the crew's, specifically Fedoseenko's, drive to beat the 'world superrecord' regardless of technical limits and flight conditions".
Mezheninov's report blamed the failure on inadequate, erratic, amateur project management
by Osoaviakhim chiefs and recommended consolidation of all stratospheric projects within the Air Forces. Voroshilov concurred and requested the same from Stalin. Specifically, all independent design work was to be transferred to the Air Forces Institute
, crew training to the Air Forces Academy. By the end of 1934 the takeover was complete, and Voroshilov assumed responsibility for any future ballloon failures.
Contrary to Western authors stating that Osoaviakhim-1 crash led to grounding of manned Soviet stratospheric flight and a launch of an unmanned probe program that continued for several decades, a manned program led by Georgy Prokofiev
continued but was plagued by failures and accidents:
Hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
-filled Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
high-altitude balloon
Balloon (aircraft)
A balloon is a type of aircraft that remains aloft due to its buoyancy. A balloon travels by moving with the wind. It is distinct from an airship, which is a buoyant aircraft that can be propelled through the air in a controlled manner....
designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's stratosphere
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...
. On January 30, 1934, on its maiden flight
Maiden flight
The maiden flight of an aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord. This is similar to a ship's maiden voyage....
which lasted over 7 hours, the balloon reached an altitude
Altitude
Altitude or height is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The reference datum also often varies according to the context...
of 22000 metres (72,178.5 ft). During the descent the balloon lost its buoyancy
Buoyancy
In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...
and plunged into an uncontrolled fall, disintegrating in the lower atmosphere. The three crew members, probably incapacitated by high g-force
G-force
The g-force associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and...
s in a rapidly rotating gondola
Gondola (disambiguation)
A gondola is a traditional Venetian rowing boat, best known today for transporting tourists.Gondola may also refer to:-Fixed structures:...
, failed to bail out
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
and were killed by a high-speed ground impact.
According to public investigation reports, the crash was ultimately caused by a prolonged stay at record altitudes exceeding maximum design limits. The balloon, overheated by sunlight
Sunlight
Sunlight, in the broad sense, is the total frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation given off by the Sun. On Earth, sunlight is filtered through the Earth's atmosphere, and solar radiation is obvious as daylight when the Sun is above the horizon.When the direct solar radiation is not blocked...
, lost too much lifting gas
Lifting gas
Because of the Archimedes' principle, a lifting gas is required for aerostats to create buoyancy. Its density is lower than that of air . Only certain lighter than air gases are suitable as lifting gases.- Hot Air :...
in upper atmosphere. As it descended past the 12000 metres (39,370.1 ft) mark, cooling down to ambient air temperature, quick loss of buoyancy
Buoyancy
In physics, buoyancy is a force exerted by a fluid that opposes an object's weight. In a column of fluid, pressure increases with depth as a result of the weight of the overlying fluid. Thus a column of fluid, or an object submerged in the fluid, experiences greater pressure at the bottom of the...
caused downward acceleration that triggered structural failure of the suspension cables. The aircraft design was marked by numerous engineering flaws, notably insufficient ballast weight
Ballast weight
Ballast weight is something that is added to a race car to alter its performance.In most racing series, cars have a minimum weight. Often, the actual weight of the car is lower, so ballast is used to bring it up to the minimum. The advantage is that the ballast can be positioned to affect the car's...
and faulty gondola suspension design, which all contributed to the loss of life.
Later Soviet manned high-altitude balloons improved on safety devices and did not venture above 16000 metres (52,493.4 ft); the program was nevertheless marked with accidents and failures and was terminated after the Osoaviakhim-2 launch failure in June 1940.
Background
Auguste Piccard
Auguste Antoine Piccard was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer.-Biography:Piccard and his twin brother Jean Felix were born in Basel, Switzerland...
's high-altitude flights of 1930–1932 aroused interest of Soviet Air Forces and Osoaviakhim, the Soviet paramilitary training organization, as well as individual pilots, designers and flight enthusiasts. Andrey Vasenko, an engineer from the Institute of Aerial Photography in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, and a future crewmember of Osoaviakhim-1, designed his version of Piccard's balloon in 1930, however, Osoaviakhim delayed funding until the end of 1932.
The second competing proposal, that of the national Meteorology Committee
Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia
The Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia is the national meteorological service in Russia, part of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring....
, emerged in January 1932 and was soon abandoned, also for the lack of finance. This allowed the third competitor, the Air Forces, a solid lead in time. USSR-1
USSR-1
USSR-1 was a record-setting, hydrogen-filled Soviet Air Forces high-altitude balloon designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's stratosphere...
, the Air Forces stratospheric balloon, was designed by Georgy Prokofiev
Georgy Prokofiev
Georgy Alekseyevich Prokofiev was a Soviet Air Forces balloonist who coordinated military stratospheric balloon program in 1931–1939...
with assistance of Vladimir Chizhevsky, Konstantin Godunov and the Air Force Academy staff. Their balloon, built in Moscow by professional aircraft technicians, proved to be far safer than Vasenko's. It had two airtight hatches with fast-opening locks; ballast
Buoyancy compensator (aviation)
The static buoyancy of airships during a trip is not constant. It is therefore necessary to take measures to control the buoyancy and thus the altitude, the so-called buoyancy compensation.-Changes which have an effect on buoyancy:...
was carried externally and could be instantly released on demand. The gondola was reinforced with an internal and an external frame that prevented direct contact between the airtight compartment's skin and suspension cables. Osoaviakhim-1 lacked all these safety features.
Both the Osoaviakhim and the Air Forces program were primarily scientific, with expected practical applications in meteorology and future high-altitude airplanes. The Osoaviakhim program, in particular, was sponsored and consulted by Abram Ioffe
Abram Ioffe
Abram Fedorovich Ioffe was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist. He received the Stalin Prize , the Lenin Prize , and the Hero of Socialist Labor . Ioffe was an expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity...
of the Physical-Technical Institute; one of his postgraduate students, Ilya Usyskin, joined the crew of Osoaviakhim-1 and perished on its fatal flight.
Design flaws
The 24,940 cubic metre Osoaviakhim-1 was completed by Vasenko and Evgeniy Chertovsky in Leningrad in June 1933. With 2,460 kilograms gross weight at launch and 2,600 kilograms initial lifting force, it was expected to fully expand at 17,700 metres and reach static equilibriumHydrostatic equilibrium
Hydrostatic equilibrium or hydrostatic balance is the condition in fluid mechanics where a volume of a fluid is at rest or at constant velocity. This occurs when compression due to gravity is balanced by a pressure gradient force...
at 19,500. Maximum altitude was initially set at 20,000 metres but the upgrades made during construction, according to Vasenko, enabled it to reach even higher.
In August the balloon was commissioned to fly despite known technical flaws. The commissioners emphasized that the crew, although equipped with personal parachutes, had few chances of bailing out in case of emergency: the sole airtight hatch was held in place with twelve wing nuts
Nut (hardware)
A nut is a type of hardware fastener with a threaded hole. Nuts are almost always used opposite a mating bolt to fasten a stack of parts together. The two partners are kept together by a combination of their threads' friction, a slight stretch of the bolt, and compression of the parts...
. Opening it, even on solid ground, required minutes. The crew did not wear pressure suit
Pressure suit
A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pressure or partial-pressure...
s (they simply did not exist at that time) or individual breathing sets, relying on stored supplies of compressed oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
and carbon dioxide absorber cartridges. Crew survival depended on the gondola's integrity; bailing out without breathing sets was feasible only at altitudes below 8,000 metres.
The gondola itself was welded from 0.8 millimetre sheet metal without any structural frame. In addition to the crew, instruments and life support systems, it carried a metric ton of lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
ballast inside the airtight sphere. The ballast release chute was sufficiently airtight but provided a very slow discharge rate: releasing a ton of ballast normally took a whole hour. In real flight this flaw alone would prevent the crew from slowing down the falling balloon despite having ballast on board.
Finally, the designers did not take care to unlink the delicate gondola structure from the tension of the suspending cables. Unlike Piccard's design with 32 cables, Osoaviakhim-1 had only nine (eight peripheral and one central cable). These cables were woven into a kind of basket holding the gondola. It could easily rotate inside the basket; any tension from the cables was immediately passed onto its thin shell.
Crew
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
and later tested numerous free-flying balloons and airships. In 1925 Fedoseenko and Alexander Friedmann set national altitude record of 7,400 metres.
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
branch of Osoaviakhim helped establish a balloon-making workshop at Leningrad's Stalin Plant, although they failed to beat their Airforce competitors.
Flight engineer Andrey Vasenko (born 1899), a native of Tsarskoye Selo
Pushkin (town)
Pushkin is a municipal town in Pushkinsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Russia, located south from the center of St. Petersburg proper, and its train station, Detskoye Selo, is directly connected by railway to the Vitebsky Rail Terminal of the city...
, also fought on the Bolshevik side in the Civil War; in 1927 he graduated from the fledgling department of aircraft of the Leningrad Institute of Railroad Engineers, while working full time as a school teacher in his hometown. In 1929 Vasenko joined the staff of an observatory
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geology, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed...
in Pavlovsk (later Aerological Institute) headed by Pavel Molchanov
Pavel Molchanov
Pavel Alexandrovich Molchanov was a Soviet Russian meteorologist, who invented and launched for the first time radiosonde.He graduated from Petersburg University in 1914, worked in the Main Physical Observatory in Pavlovsk between 1917 and 1939 and then at the institute of civil air fleet in...
; two years later, after a string of successful meteoroligal studies, he was promoted to deputy director of the Institute. Apart from Osoaviakhim-1, Vasenko designed a series of captive balloons for photographic surveys of large construction sites.
Instrument operator Ilya Usyskin (born 1910), son of a Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
blacksmith from Vitebsk
Vitebsk
Vitebsk, also known as Viciebsk or Vitsyebsk , is a city in Belarus, near the border with Russia. The capital of the Vitebsk Oblast, in 2004 it had 342,381 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth largest city...
, studied at Moscow Technical University and Abram Ioffe
Abram Ioffe
Abram Fedorovich Ioffe was a prominent Russian/Soviet physicist. He received the Stalin Prize , the Lenin Prize , and the Hero of Socialist Labor . Ioffe was an expert in electromagnetism, radiology, crystals, high-impact physics, thermoelectricity and photoelectricity...
's Physical-Technical Institute in Leningrad. At the age of 20 he published his first peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
articles on biophysical
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
experiments suggested by Ioffe, although he himself leaned to nuclear physics
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
. In 1932–1933 Usyskin designed portable, lightweight scientific instruments for stratospheric balloons, and was a natural choice for the Osoaviakhim-1 crew. At first Fedoseenko disliked Usyskin's personality but later changed his mind, assuring Ioffe in his full trust to Usyskin. According to the Mezheninov commission report, Usyskin considered his role in the January flight unnecessary, because it turned out that his portable cloud chamber
Cloud chamber
The cloud chamber, also known as the Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for detecting ionizing radiation. In its most basic form, a cloud chamber is a sealed environment containing a supersaturated vapor of water or alcohol. When a charged particle interacts with the mixture, it ionizes it...
s were unsuitable for high-altitude experiments in winter and had to be replaced with less sophisticated instruments.
Cancelled flight
Moscow Time
Moscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second westernmost of the nine time zones of Russia. Moscow Time has been UTC+4 year-round since 27 March 2011....
, reached an altitude of 18800 metres (61,679.8 ft) at 14:45 and landed safely around 17:00. Their altitide record, although not recognized by FAI
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
, was publicized worldwide. Flight of Osoaviakhim-1, scheduled to take off later than USSR-1, was cancelled due to unexpected strong winds.
Launches in later autumn and winter was deemed impractical and dangerous, and the balloons were disassembled for winter storage. Fedoseenko, expecting that delicate fabrics and gondola will not survive it; proposed a winter launch, and received a go-ahead for it. They missed the first launch window
Launch window
Launch window is a term used in spaceflight to describe a time period in which a particular launch vehicle must be launched. If the rocket does not launch within the "window", it has to wait for the next window....
in the end of December; the next streak of good weather was expected in the end of January, coincident with the 17th Congress of the Communist Party
17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (b)
The 17th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during 26 January - 10 February 1934. The congress was attended by 1,225 delegates with a casting vote and 736 delegates with a consultative vote, representing 1,872,488 party members and 935,298 candidate members.Nicknamed "The...
, and thus attracting the focus of communist propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
.
January 9, 1934 Defence Commissar Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
requested Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's approval of the winter launch, specifically noting that it will be kept secret until the altitude record is set. On January 11 Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
approved the launch; secrecy concerns were discarded and the flight was publicized in advance.
On January 23 the envelope was partially inflated and properly tested for leaks at a rubber factory in Khamovniki. Gondola and ballast release hardware were also rigorously tested and declared to be in order. On January 28 Osoaviakhim-1 and its crew arrived at the Air Forces field in Kuntsevo. The next day was filled with publicity interviews, meetings and committees extending beyond midnight.
Fatal flight
Radiosonde
A radiosonde is a unit for use in weather balloons that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them to a fixed receiver. Radiosondes may operate at a radio frequency of 403 MHz or 1680 MHz and both types may be adjusted slightly higher or lower as required...
s that reported satisfactory weather on the ascent path.
At 9:07 Moscow Time
Moscow Time
Moscow Time is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second westernmost of the nine time zones of Russia. Moscow Time has been UTC+4 year-round since 27 March 2011....
Osoaviakhim-1 lifted off and soon made radio contact with the airfield. By 9:56 the aircraft reached 15,000 metres according to on-board altimeter
Altimeter
An altimeter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth underwater.-Pressure altimeter:...
; at around 17,700 metres its envelope expanded into a nearly perfect sphere
Sphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
and eventually reached static equilibrium
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Hydrostatic equilibrium or hydrostatic balance is the condition in fluid mechanics where a volume of a fluid is at rest or at constant velocity. This occurs when compression due to gravity is balanced by a pressure gradient force...
at 19,500 metres, exactly as intended by design. The crew experienced problems with carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
absorbers, but it appeared to be manageable. Fedoseenko dumped 310 kilograms of ballast and by 10:50 the balloon passed its design altitude of 20,500 metres. This moment was later marked as the point of no return
Point of no return
The point of no return is the point beyond which one must continue on his or her current course of action because turning back is physically impossible, prohibitively expensive or dangerous. It is also used when the distance or effort required to get back would be greater than the remainder of the...
: at 20,500 metres Osoaviakhim-1 carried just enough ballast to stabilize descent speed. Further ascent and inevitable loss of hydrogen made this ballast insufficient; the only escape route was through bailing out on personal parachutes, provided that the crew could open the awkward hatch. After nearly an hour at 20,600 metres Osoaviakhim-1 climbed again, reaching 22,000 metres at 12:33 and hovered at this record altitude for 12 minutes.
At 12:45 the crew opened gas release valve for three minutes to initiate descent; the hot balloon did not respond as planned and travel to 18,000 metres took more than two hours. At this altitude vertical speed levelled at a safe and steady one metre per second. At around 14,000 metres vertical speed increased, reaching two meters per second at 13,400 meters. Lifting force
Force
In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a change in speed, a change in direction, or a change in shape. In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity , i.e., to accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform...
of the remaining hydrogen reduced to 1300–1400 kilograms, while the balloon weighed an estimated 2,120 kilograms.
Between 16:05 and 16:10, when Osoaviakhim-1 descended to 12,000 metres, vertical acceleration went out of control; the balloon began disintegrating before it reached 8,000 metres. At about 2,000 meters gondola separated from the balloon and impacted ground between 16:21 and 16:23, near Potizh-Ostrov village in rural Insar
Insar
Insar is a town and the administrative center of Insarsky District of the Republic of Mordovia, Russia, located southwest of Saransk at the confluence of the Issa and Insarka Rivers. Population:...
district of Mordovia
Mordovia
The Republic of Mordovia , also known as Mordvinia, is a federal subject of Russia . Its capital is the city of Saransk. Population: -Geography:The republic is located in the eastern part of the East European Plain of Russia...
, 470 kilometres east from the launch site.
According to Yagoda
Genrikh Yagoda
Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda , born Enokh Gershevich Ieguda , was a Soviet state security official who served as director of the NKVD, the Soviet Union's Stalin-era security and intelligence agency, from 1934 to 1936...
's report to Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
, OGPU
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
officers confirmed the crash and reported its exact location at 23:40. The bodies in the gondola were badly maimed; Fedoseenko's skull had disintegrated, probably after impacting a tempered glass porthole
Porthole
A porthole is a generally circular, window used on the hull of ships to admit light and air. Porthole is actually an abbreviated term for "port hole window"...
. The balloon envelope fell 4 kilometres from the gondola and its fabric was quickly looted by local villagers.
Publicity and propaganda
23 hours after the impact Avel EnukidzeAvel Enukidze
Avel Safronovich Enukidze - А́вель Сафронович Енуки́дзе - , a prominent "Old Bolshevik" and, at one point, a member of the Soviet Central Committee in Moscow...
announced the accident from the rostrum of the Communist Party congress; immediately after his brief statement Pavel Postyshev
Pavel Postyshev
Pavel Petrovich Postyshev was a Soviet politician. He is considered to be one of the principal architects of the so-called man-made famine of 1932–33, or Holodomor.Postyshev was born in Ivanovo-Voznesensk....
proposed burying the crew in Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves on Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenin's Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930...
. Soviet morning papers reported the news on February 1. Western press followed suit; Time magazine, although incorrectly reporting that "there was not enough left of the crushed gondola or the three broken bodies to supply the story of the tragedy", correctly guessed the roots of the catastrophe: "winter weather had contracted the balloon's gas to such a point that it fell like a dead weight".
The funeral of the crew (February 2) turned a disaster into a propaganda campaign; the three victims were posthumoulsy awarded the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
and buried with state honours in the Kremlin wall. Stalin, Voroshilov and Molotov
Vyacheslav Molotov
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a Soviet politician and diplomat, an Old Bolshevik and a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to 1957, when he was dismissed from the Presidium of the Central Committee by Nikita Khrushchev...
personally carried the urns of Fedoseenko, Usyskin and Vasenko. This was the last group funeral on Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
until the 1971 Soyuz 11
Soyuz 11
Soyuz 11 was the first manned mission to arrive at the world's first space station, Salyut 1. The mission arrived at the space station on June 7, 1971 and departed on June 30, 1971. The mission ended in disaster when the crew capsule depressurized during preparations for re-entry, killing the...
disaster that also claimed three lives.
Potizh-Ostrov, the village near the crash site, was renamed to Usyskino; across the country, streets and squares were named after individual crewmembers or collectively, like Proezd Stratonavtov in Tushino
Tushino
Tushino is a former village and town to the north of Moscow, which has been part of the city's area since 1960. Between 1939 and 1960, Tushino was classed as a separate town. The Skhodnya River flows across the southern part of Tushino....
(now a district of Moscow). Postage stamps in memoria of Fedoseenko, Vasenko and Usyskin were issued in 1934 (Scott
Scott catalogue
The Scott catalogue of postage stamps, published by Scott Publishing Co, a subsidiary of Amos Press, is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the entire world which its editors recognize as issued for postal purposes. It is published in six large volumes and is also produced in...
C50, C51, C52), 1944 (Scott C77, C78, C79) and 1964 (Scott 2888).
Investigation
Atmospheric icing
Atmospheric icing occurs when water droplets in the atmosphere freeze on objects they contact. This can be extremely dangerous to aircraft, as the built-up ice changes the aerodynamics of the flight surfaces, which can increase the risk of a subsequent stalling of the airfoil...
despite early reports in Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
. Autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
ruled out suffocation
Suffocation
Suffocation is the process of Asphyxia.Suffocation may also refer to:* Suffocation , an American death metal band* "Suffocation", a song on Morbid Angel's debut album, Altars of Madness...
or poisoning of the crew; barograph
Barograph
A barograph is a recording aneroid barometer. It produces a paper or foil chart called a barogram that records the barometric pressure over time....
tape indicated normal internal air pressure throughout the flight.
On February 5 state commission chaired by General Staff
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the military staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is the central organ of the Armed Forces Administration and oversees operational management of the armed forces under the Russian Ministry of Defence.The staff is...
deputy chief Mezheninov issued a detailed report that, regardless of later findings and clarifications, provided a stable version of the accident and its causes; time of impact was changed to 16:23. Later, in 1935, these proceedings were explained at length in a book by one of the commissioners, metorologist Pavel Molchanov
Pavel Molchanov
Pavel Alexandrovich Molchanov was a Soviet Russian meteorologist, who invented and launched for the first time radiosonde.He graduated from Petersburg University in 1914, worked in the Main Physical Observatory in Pavlovsk between 1917 and 1939 and then at the institute of civil air fleet in...
. According to Mezheninov's report and Molchanov's book, during the four-hour-long stratospheric flight the hydrogen inside the balloon was overheated by solar radiation (54 °C above ambient) and expanded beyond the balloon's geometric capacity; excess gas leaked out through safety valves. More gas was lost when Fedoseenko initiated the descent. As the balloon cooled down on its descent, the remaining gas contracted with a catastrophic loss of buoyancy. To stabilize airspeed at safe level the crew had to dump 800 kilograms of ballast, but it simply was not there. Suspension cables failures started at altitudes above 8,000 meters, where the crew was unable to open the hatch. The commission summarized causes of the crash as:
1. The accident was caused by an increase in vertical descent speed that resulted from changes in lifting gas volume during the extended stay at maximum altitude and subsequent descent into warmer atmospheric medium which further reduced lift.
2. The system failed to withstand shock stress caused by rapid descent and transition into parachuting mode, and began disintegrating.
3. The crew failed to release ballast and dump instruments due to the design flaw that prevented rapid release of ballast.
4. The crew's failure to stabilize vertical speed led to their failure to bail out on parachutes due to erratic tumbling of the gondola.
5. Airtightness and life support systems were in order until the moment of catastrophic fall, as indicated by barometric recorder and Vasenko's log entries ending at 16:13.
6. During the last 9.5 minutes of the fall the crew tumbled inside the rotating gondola, but all crewmembers remained vertical until the end; their deaths were caused by the final impact.
Conclusion: The flight was substantially safe up to 19,500 meters; 20,500 meters was on the edge but presented no imminent danger; ascent to 22,000 meters led to an inevitable accident.
In March the investigators' reports were released to general public, including the final verdict blaming the catastophe on the crew's "recklessness in rise for record".
Safety improvements
The commissioners strongly recommended safety improvements, starting with easy access to emergency hatches. Balloons of late 1930s were equipped with large parachutes capable of safely carrying the detached gondolas; another proposal, integrating airtight gondolas into detachable glidersGlider aircraft
Glider aircraft are heavier-than-air craft that are supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against their lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Mostly these types of aircraft are intended for routine operation without engines, though engine failure can...
, was tested and discarded. VR60 Komsomol (1939) had another safety feature: in case of abnormally rapid descent its balloon was designed to flatten into a gigantic parachute canopy.
The crash also provided motivation to develop pressure suit
Pressure suit
A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pressure or partial-pressure...
s for high-altitude flight; first operational suits were designed by Evgeniy Chertovsky, co-designer of Osoaviakhim-1.
Takeover by the military
VoroshilovKliment Voroshilov
Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov , popularly known as Klim Voroshilov was a Soviet military officer, politician, and statesman...
summarized his understanding of the investigators' reports in a February 19 note to Stalin: "... despite lack of proper management during construction and pre-flight preparation, the flight itself was technically feasible up to 20,500 meter altitude. The accident was caused by the crew's, specifically Fedoseenko's, drive to beat the 'world superrecord' regardless of technical limits and flight conditions".
Mezheninov's report blamed the failure on inadequate, erratic, amateur project management
Project management
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end , undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value...
by Osoaviakhim chiefs and recommended consolidation of all stratospheric projects within the Air Forces. Voroshilov concurred and requested the same from Stalin. Specifically, all independent design work was to be transferred to the Air Forces Institute
Gromov Flight Research Institute
M. M. Gromov Flight Research Institute or LII for short is an important Russian aircraft test base, scientific research center located in Zhukovsky, 40 km south-east of Moscow.It has one of the longest runways in Europe at 5,403 m...
, crew training to the Air Forces Academy. By the end of 1934 the takeover was complete, and Voroshilov assumed responsibility for any future ballloon failures.
Contrary to Western authors stating that Osoaviakhim-1 crash led to grounding of manned Soviet stratospheric flight and a launch of an unmanned probe program that continued for several decades, a manned program led by Georgy Prokofiev
Georgy Prokofiev
Georgy Alekseyevich Prokofiev was a Soviet Air Forces balloonist who coordinated military stratospheric balloon program in 1931–1939...
continued but was plagued by failures and accidents:
- September 5, 1934 gigantic (300,000 cubic meters) USSR-2 burnt down on the launch site when a static sparkStatic electricityStatic electricity refers to the build-up of electric charge on the surface of objects. The static charges remain on an object until they either bleed off to ground or are quickly neutralized by a discharge. Static electricity can be contrasted with current electricity, which can be delivered...
ignited hydrogen. After this incident Voroshilov indeed banned all further stratospheric flights until the engineers sorted out safety procedures. Voroshilov made it clear that research results were more important than record stunts; numerous successful flights of 1935–1940 were limited to 16,000 meters and never made history. - June 26, 1935 USSR-1 Bis reached 16000 metres (52,493.4 ft) and nearly ended in a disaster when its envelope ripped open, releasing the gas. Two of the crewmembers bailed out at 3,500 and 2,500 meters, the third managed to land the crippled balloon safely. USSR-1 Bis (essentially a reused USSR-1) was equipped with a large (34 meter diameter) rescue parachute, sufficient to carry the gondola at safe speeds. The pilot did not use it deliberately, fearing that releasing parachute will damage externally-mounted scientific instruments.
- Supersized (157,000 cubic meters, 130 meter tall) USSR-3 was launched on September 18, 1937; at 700–800 meters altitude it began losing hydrogenHydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. With an average atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest and most abundant chemical element, constituting roughly 75% of the Universe's chemical elemental mass. Stars in the main sequence are mainly...
and fell back near the launch site. Crewmembers, included Prokofiev, survived with injuries. After many setbacks that followed, USSR-3 flew again March 16, 1939; it lifted off, again under Prokofiev's command, and again fell, this time from 1,200 meters. Prokofiev blamed the crash on an accidental release of hydrogen valve and committed suicide one month later. - July 18, 1938, failure of breathing equipment killed the four-man crew of VVA-1. The balloon floated from ZvenigorodZvenigorodZvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: -History:The community has existed since the 12th century, although its first written mention is dated 1338. The town's name is based either on a personal name or on a hydronym Zvenigorod is an old town in Moscow Oblast, Russia....
to DonetskDonetskDonetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
where it crashed into high-voltage power lineElectric power transmissionElectric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
, exploding on impact. - October 12, 1939 a static discharge at 9,000 meters ignited hydrogen in SP-2 Komsomol (VR60). The crew unlatched the gondola into a free fall, deployed the gondola parachute and then bailed out on personal parachutes; all survived. This failure led to a switch from hydrogen to heliumHeliumHelium is the chemical element with atomic number 2 and an atomic weight of 4.002602, which is represented by the symbol He. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table...
. - Osoaviakhim-2, the last Soviet manned stratostat, was launched June 22, 1940. Immediately after launch the gondola separated from the balloon and fell about 11 meters onto the airfield; the crew survived with minor injuries. After this failure Commissar of Defence Semyon TimoshenkoSemyon TimoshenkoSemyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.-Early life:...
shut down the military stratospheric program.