Valery Pavlovich Chkalov was born on January 20 (February 2), 1904, in the village of Vasilyovo (now the city of Chkalovsk, Nizhny Novgorod region). He trained as a turner at the Cherepovets trade school. From 1918 to 1919, he worked as a hammerman in the Vasilyovo backwater, a stoker on the dredge “Volzhskaya 21,” and on the steamer “Bayan.”
Chkalov joined the army in 1919. Until 1921, he served as an aircraft repair and assembly mechanic at the 4th Aviation Park (Nizhny Novgorod). In 1923, he graduated from the Egoryevsk Military-Theoretical Air Force School, and also from the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation Pilot School. In 1924, he completed the Moscow School of Higher Piloting and the Serpukhov Higher School of Air Combat, Shooting, and Bombing.
He served in active Air Force units in Leningrad and Bryansk. In 1928, he was discharged from the army for an aircraft accident and sentenced to one year of imprisonment, but was pardoned in January 1929. From 1929 to 1930, he worked as a pilot-instructor at the Leningrad Aviation Club of the ODVF.
Test Pilot and Record-Breaking Flights
In 1930, Chkalov rejoined the army and served as a test pilot at the Air Force Research Institute until 1933. Between 1930 and 1931, he participated in the state trials of the I-5 fighter. From 1931 to 1932, he was involved in testing V.S. Vakhmistrov’s “Zveno” project, which involved a TB-1 bomber carrying two I-4 fighters on its wings.
From 1933, he was in the reserve and became a test pilot for Aviation Plant 39 and the N.N. Polikarpov Design Bureau. He performed the maiden flights and conducted trials for the I-14, I-15, and I-16 fighters, which formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force’s fighter aviation in the late 1930s.
Between July 20-22, 1936, aboard an ANT-25 aircraft (with G.F. Baidukov as co-pilot and A.V. Belyakov as navigator), Chkalov completed a non-stop flight of 9374 km from Moscow, across the Arctic Ocean and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, to Udd Island (now Chkalov Island, at the mouth of the Amur). The flight time was 56 hours and 20 minutes. For this courageous feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on July 24, 1936.
From June 18-20, 1937, on the same ANT-25 with the same crew, Chkalov made another non-stop flight of 8504 km directly from Moscow – North Pole – Vancouver (USA). This epic journey took 63 hours and 16 minutes.
Enduring Legacy
After returning from this historic flight, Chkalov continued his test flight work at the N.N. Polikarpov Design Bureau, conducting trials for the VIT-1 and VIT-2 aircraft. He lived in Moscow and tragically died on December 15, 1938, during the first flight of the I-180 aircraft.
He was buried in Moscow, in Red Square, within the Kremlin Wall. Chkalov held the rank of Kombrig (1938) and was awarded two Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, and a medal. Numerous settlements, streets in many cities, ships, and schools are named after him, and monuments have been erected in Nizhny Novgorod and other cities.