Nikolai Kamanin

Nikolai Kamanin

Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin (Russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Кама́нин) (18 October 1908 - 11 March 1982) was a Soviet aviator, awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1934 for the rescue of SS Chelyuskin crew from an improvised airfield on the frozen surface of the Chukchi Sea near Kolyuchin Island.

In World War II he successfully commanded air brigade, air division and an air corps, reaching the rank of Airforce Colonel General and Air Army commander role after the war. It was at this time that his son, Arkady Kamanin, became a fighter pilot at the age of 14, making him the youngest military pilot in world history.

In 1960-1971, General Kamanin was head of cosmonaut training in Soviet space program. He recruited and trained the first generation of cosmonauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov and Alexei Leonov. Kamanin was the Airforce representative in space program, a proponent of manned orbital flight and Airforce influence over the space race. His diaries (1960–1971), published in 1995-2001, are among the most important sources documenting the progress of Soviet space program.