Air Club

Categories / Sports/Sports Organizations
AIR CLUB was founded in St. Petersburg in 1908 to contribute to the development of aeronautics. As of 1909, it became the Imperial All-Russian Air Club (IARAC), a member of the International Aviation Federation. In 1910 IARAC opened a pilot school in Gatchina. The first club instructor was V.A. Lebedev; G.S. Segno received the diploma № 1, L.V. Zvereva became the first woman-pilot (diploma No 31). In the fall of 1910 by the initiative of IARAC, the 1st Russian national aeronautics festival was held at Komendantsky Aerodrome, in which 11 Russian pilots participated. By the beginning of World War II, ARAC had trained 70 pilots. In 1909-17 IARAC published the Vozdukhoplavatel journal, from 1912 - Vozdukhoplavatelny Spravochnik annual digest. After October 1917, IARAC was closed. In April 1918, the pilot school name changed to the Socialist Pilot School of Workers' and Peasants' Air Fleet. In 1924 the Leningrad Air Club was created. In 1920-30s glider pilots' courses of the Society of Defence, Aviation and Chemical Engineering Assistance Union functioned (in 1929-30 one of the instructors was V.P. Chkalov). At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 the air club moved to Kazan, where it trained Air Force pilots, after the lifting of the Siege (1944) it returned to Leningrad, and functioned as part of the Voluntary Society of Assistance to the Army, the Airforce and the Navy, from 1991 - of Russian Defence Sport Technical Organisation (RDSTO), and contributed to the development of aeroplane, gliding, and sky-jumping sports. Among the club graduates are twice Heroes of the Soviet Union V.M. Golubev and A.F. Klubov, 27 Heroes of the Soviet Union, the Hero of the Soviet Union and Russia, cosmonaut S.K. Krikalev, world champion V.V. Smolin, S.S. Rakhimanin, L.G. Yachmenev, champion of Europe and the world, twice champion of World Aviation Games M.V. Mamistov. The air club training centre is situated on 4 Karavannaya Street; the flying field is located near Lisy Nos railway station.

Reference: Захаров В. П. Первый военный аэродром. М., 1988; Российская оборонная: Энцикл. сб. М., 2002.

I. A. Bogdanov. Golubev Viktor Maximovich
Klubov Alexander Fedorovich
Krikalev Sergey Konstantinovich
Lebedev V.A.
Mamistov M.V.
Rakhmanin S.S.
Segno G.S.
Smolin Ioann Vakulovich
Yachmenev Leonid Grigorievich
Zvereva Lidia Vissarionovna
Karavannaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 4
Захаров В. П. Первый военный аэродром. М., 1988
Российская оборонная: Энцикл. сб. М., 2002