A short historic note on the flight of V. P. Chkalov and his crew to the isle of Udd

After an unsuccessful effort of a non-stop flight over the North Pole to the United States by Hero of the Soviet Union, S.A.Levanevskiy in 1935, one of the crew members, second pilot G.F.Baydukov, invited V.P.Chkalov to consider the flight. In May of 1935, a 31-year old Chkalov was distinguished by Stalin and was awarded an order of Lenin. Baydukov knew that only Chkalov with his determined character, supported by Stalin, could reanimate the idea of this flight. Chkalov get carried away by the idea. And already on July 14, 1936 following the order of the Council of Labour and Defense, the itinerary of the flight was approved.

The take-off of the plane took place on July 20, 1936 at 5.45 a.m. The crew was represented by: commander — V.P. Chkalov, 2-nd pilot — G.F.Baydukov, air navigator — A.V.Belyakov. The itinerary was traced across Kharlovka (Kola peninsula),isle of Victoria ( Barents Sea), habour Tikhaya (Franz Josef Land), Severnaya Zamlya, Tiksi habour, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy. Closer to Sakhalin, the weather conditions worsened, a necessity to land arised. The crew realized: in such weather conditions the plane would hit the inshore bald mountains, rather than follow the estuary of the Amur river. In the conditions of a dense fog and evening dusk, Chkalov succeeded in performing something extraordinary — he masterfully landed a heavy ANT-25В on the inshore line of the Udd isle, in the Bay of Happiness, close to the city Komsomolsk-on-Amur. It was the evening of July 22,1936. 56 hours 20 minutes of flight and 9374 km covered were left behind.

On July 24, 1936 by the resolution of VCIK of the USSR the three crew members were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and the order of Lenin. Soon after the flight the isle of Udd was renamed the isle of Chkalov.