Vladimir Kokkinaki - Records

Records

On 21 November 1935, Kokkinaki managed to obtain the unofficial world record for ceiling in a Polikarpov I-15 fighter, reaching the altitude of 14,575 meters. On 20 April 1936, he performed the Nesterov Loop for the first time with a twin-engine aircraft, a TsKB-26 (the prototype of the Ilyushin Il-4), in the presence of Joseph Stalin. In 1936-1937, Kokkinaki set seven successive altitude with varying payload records with the TsKB-26. His first official record, on 17 July 1936, was also the first official Soviet aviation record.

On 28 June 1937 Kokkinaki flew the circular Moscow - Sevastopol - Sverdlovsk - Moscow route, a distance of 5018 km, with a DB-3, setting a record in both speed at 5000 km range (with a median speed of 325 km/h) and range on a circular route. This flight was followed three months later by the 4000 km Moscow - Baku - Moscow route. On 27–28 June 1938, on board a modified TsKB-30 named "Moskva", with A.M. Bryandinskiy as his navigator, Kokkinaki flew from Moscow to Spassk-Dalny in the Soviet Far East, covering a distance of 7,580 km in 24 h 36 min, mostly at an altitude of 7000 meters, with an average speed of 307 km/h. For this feat, he was awarded the title "Hero of the Soviet Union" on 17 July. On 28 April 1939, with Mikhail Kh. Gordienko as co-pilot, he tried to surpass this feat by performing a non-stop east-west transatlantic flight from Moscow to New York City, to coincide with the opening of the "Land of Tomorrow" World Fair. However, due to encountering bad weather, the airplane was forced to come down on Miscou Island in New Brunswick, Canada (TIME magazine account). Coming not long after the death of Valery Chkalov, and with the approaching war, this well-publicized debacle spelled the end of the Soviet Arctic aviation exploits of the 1930s. Despite failing to reach his original destination, he still covered a distance of 8,000 km in 22 h 56 min, at an average speed of 348 km/h, and since 1959, the route he used (Moscow- Novgorod - Helsinki - Trondheim - Iceland - Cape Farewell - Miscou Island) is used for the regular flights between New York and Moscow. In 1965, he was honored by the International Air Transport Association with the diamond "wind rose" necklace for his finding the "shortest flight route between Europe and America".

From 1958 to 1960, he set another series of thirteen altitude with load and speed records flying the Ilyushin Il-18. His last world record was in 1960, when he flew an Il-18 at a distance of 5,018 kilometers with a payload of 10,000 kg and a median speed of 693 km/h.