Tag Archives: Alexander Vasilievich Fedotov

6 October 1977

The first prototype Mikoyan MiG 29A, 9-01, ("01 Blue") on display at the Central Air Force Museum, Monino. (Detail from image by AVIA BavARia/Wikipedia)
The first prototype Mikoyan MiG 29A, 9-01, (“01 Blue”) on display at the Central Air Force Museum, Monino. (Detail from image by AVIA BavARia/Wikipedia)
Alexander Vasilyevich Fedotov (1932–1982)
Alexander Vasilievich Fedotov

6 October 1977: The first of eleven prototypes of the Mikoyan MiG 29A fighter, 9-01, made its first flight at Ramenskoye Airfield with Chief Test Pilot Alexander Vasilievich Fedotov, Hero of the Soviet Union, in the cockpit.

Fedotov had been a test pilot at A.I. Mikoyan EDB since 1958 and set eighteen speed and altitude world records flying high performance aircraft. He was killed while testing the MiG 31 in 1984.

The MiG 29A is a fourth generation, single-seat, twin-engine, Mach 2+ air superiority fighter built by the Mikoyan Design Bureau. It entered service with the Soviet Union in 1983 and has been widely exported to many other nations. The MiG 29A is 13.37 meters (57 feet) long and has a wing span of 11.4 meters (37 feet, 3 inches). Its empty weight is 11,000 kilograms (24,250 pounds) and the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 20,000 kilograms (44,100 pounds). The fighter is powered by two Klimov RD-33 turbofan engines which produce 11,240 pounds of thrust, or 18,277 pounds of thrust with afterburner. It has a maximum speed of Mach 2.25 (1,490 miles per hour/2,400 kilometers per hour) and a service ceiling of 59,100 feet (18,013 meters). Maximum range with internal fuel is 1,430 kilometers (888 miles).

Armament consists of one Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-301 30mm autocannon with 150 rounds of ammunition and a combination of air-to-air missiles, rockets or bombs carried on underwing pylons or fuselage hard points.

More than 1,600 MiG 29s have been built.

Mikoyan MiG 29SMT RF-92934 ("22 Red"),Russian Air Force. (Alex Beltyukov/Wikipedia)
Mikoyan MiG 29SMT RF-92934 (“22 Red”), Russian Air Force. (Alex Beltyukov/Wikipedia)

Alexander Vasilievich Fedotov born 23 June 1932 at Stalingrad, Russia (renamed Volgograd in 1961). He graduated from the Air Force Special School at Stalingrad,  and in 1950, entered the Soviet Army. Fedotov attended the Armavir Military Aviation School of Pilots at Amravir, Krasnodar Krai, Russia, graduating in 1952, and then became a flight instructor. In 1958 he attended the Ministry of Indutrial Aviation Test Pilot School at Zhukovsky. He was a test pilot for the Mikoyan Experimental Design Bureau from 1958 to 1984. In 1983, Alexander Fedotov was promoted to the rank of Major General in the Soviet Air Force.

On 22 July 1966, Fedotov was honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union. He was named an Honored Test Pilot of the Soviet Union, 21 February 1969. He was qualified as a Military Pilot 1st Class. Fedotov was twice awarded the order of Lenin, and also held the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.

During his career as a test pilot, Major General Fedotov had been forced to eject from an airplane three times. He had also set 15 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world records for speed, altitude and time to altitude. One of these, FAI Record File Number 2825, in which he flew a Mikoyan E-266M to 37,650 meters (123,534 feet), 31 August 1977, remains the current record. The FAI has also honored him three times (1961, 1973 and 1977) with The De la Vaulx Medal, and in 1976 awarded him the FAI’s Gold Air Medal.

Major General Alexander Vasilyevich Fedotov and his navigator, Valerie Sergeyvich Zaytevym, were killed when the second MiG 31 prototype, number 83/2, crashed during a test flight. Neither airman was able to eject.

Major General Federov
Major General Alexander Vasilyevich Federov, Hero of the Soviet Union

© 2016, Bryan R. Swopes

7 July 1962

Colonel Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov
Colonel Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov

7 July 1962: Colonel Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov, Hero of the Soviet Union, flew the Mikoyan-Gurevich E-152\1 to a two-way average speed of 2,681 kilometers per hour (1,666 miles per hour), setting a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Record for Speed Over a 15/25 Kilometer Straight Course.¹

The Mikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152-1 shown with air-to-air missiles and a centerline fuel tank.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich E-152\1 shown with air-to-air missiles and a centerline fuel tank.

The E-152\1 (also known as Ye-152-1) was a prototype interceptor, similar to the production MiG-21. In documents submitted to FAI, the E-152\1 was identified as E-166. Colonel Mosolov made the first flight of the E-152\1 on 21 April 1961. The aircraft displayed at The Central Museum of the Air Forces at Monino, Russia, as E-166 is actually the E-152\2, sister ship of Colonel Mosolov’s record-setting prototype.

This airplane set two other FAI world records. Test Pilot Alexander Vasilievich Fedotov flew it to 2,401 kilometers per hour (1,492 miles per hour) over a 100 kilometer course, 10 October 1961; ² and on 11 September 1962, Pyotr Maksimovich Ostapenko set a world record for altitude in horizontal flight of 22,670 meters (74,377 feet feet).³

The Mikoyan Gurevich E-152\1 is a single-place, single-engine delta-winged prototype all-weather interceptor. It is 19.656 meters (64.448 feet) long  with a wingspan of 8.793 meters (28.848 feet). The leading edge of the wings are swept back to 53° 47′. The empty weight is 10,900 kilograms (24,030 pounds) and takeoff weight is 14,350 kilograms (31,636 pounds).

It was powered by a Tumansky R-15B-300 turbojet engine producing 22,500 pounds of thrust (100.085 kilonewtons) with afterburner. This was the original engine for the MiG-25.

Maximum speed Mach 2.82 (3,030 kilometers per hour, 1,883 miles per hour) at 15,400 meters (50,525 feet). The service ceiling is 22,680 meters (74,405 feet). Internal fuel capacity is 4,960 liters (1,310 gallons), and the E-152\1 could carry a 1,500 liter (396 gallon) external fuel tank. Its range is 1,470 kilometers (913 miles).

After a two-year test program, E-152\1 and its sistership, E-152\2 were converted to E-152M\1 and E-152M\2.

Mikoyan Gurevich Ye-152-1
Mikoyan Gurevich E-152\1
Colonel Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov, Hero of the Soviet Union

Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov was born 3 May 1926 at Ufa, Bashkortostan, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He was educated at the Central Aviation Club, where he graduated in 1943, and then went to the Special Air Forces School. In 1945 he completed the Primary Pilot School and was assigned as an instructor at the Chuguev Military Aviation School at Kharkiv, Ukraine.

In 1953 Mosolov was sent to the Ministry of Industrial Aviation Test Pilot School at Ramenskoye Airport, southeast of Moscow, and 6 years later, to the Moscow Aviation Institute. He was a test pilot at the Mikoyan Experimental Design Bureau from 1953 to 1959, when he became the chief test pilot.

Georgy Mosolov set six world speed and altitude records. He was named a Hero of the Soviet Union, 5 October 1960, and Honored Test Pilot of the Soviet Union, 20 September 1967. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him its Henry De La Vaulx Medal three times: 1960, 1961 and 1962. The medal is presented to the holder of a recognized absolute world aviation record, set the previous year.

On 11 September 1962, an experimental Mikoyan Ye-8 that Colonel Mosolov was flying suffered a catastrophic compressor failure at Mach 2.15. Engine fragments heavily damaged to prototype and it began to break apart. Severely injured, Mosolov ejected from the doomed airplane at Mach 1.78. He had suffered a severe head injury, two broken arms and a broken leg during the ejection and became entangled in the parachute’s shroud lines. His other leg was broken when he landed in a forest. The following day he suffered cardiac arrest. During a surgical procedure, he went in to cardiac arrest a second time.

Mosolov survived but his test flying career was over. His recovery took more than a year, and though he was able to fly again, he could not resume his duties as a test pilot.

Georgy Mosolov served as an international representative for Aeroflot until 1992. He was also a department head at the Higher Komsomol School (Moscow University for the Humanities).

Mosolov was Chairman of the USSR Hockey Federation from 1969 to 1973. He was an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR.

Colonel Georgy Konstantinovich Mosolov, Soviet Air Forces, Hero of the Soviet Union, died 17 March 2018, at Moscow, Russia, at the age of 91 years. He was buried at the Vagankovsoye cemetery in Moscow.

¹ FAI Record File Number 8514

² FAI Record File Number 8511

³ (FAI Record File Number 8652

© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes