The Presidential Library’s webinar to tell about the history of aviation development in Russia

On February 8, 2023 at 10:00 the online webinar "Wings of the Motherland: History of Aviation Development in Russia" will be broadcast on the Presidential Library’s portal. The event is timed to coincide with the Civil Aviation Worker's Day, which is celebrated annually on February 9.

During the webinar, materials from the Presidential Library's collections, telling about how humanity has gone from the dream of flying in the sky to the creation of modern aircraft, will be shown. The event participants will learn about the books, archives and periodicals, which spotlight the achievements of our compatriots in the field of aviation at different historical stages.

The history of successes and failures of inventors is revealed on the pages of the books “Aeronautics, its history, successes and future”, “To the stars. History of aeronautics”, “Conquest of air”, etc.

The book “Details of Three Air Travels Undertaken by Mr. Garnerin in Russia” illustrates our first compatriot who traveled by air in 1803, the sixty-year-old combat general Sergei Lavrentievich Lvov.

Another book that will be available at the webinar is “Theoretical Foundations of Aeronautics”. Its author, the founder of aerodynamics, “the father of Russian aviation”, as Vladimir Lenin called him, Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovsky (1847–1921), 11 years before the first plane took off, explained how birds can soar with motionless wings spread, and theoretically proved that gliders can be built. Later, Zhukovsky was the first in the world to calculate the best shape of an aircraft wing and developed methods for calculating propellers. All the most important issues of aircraft construction are reflected in his work: flight dynamics, aerodynamic calculation of an aircraft, and the basics of calculating structural elements. Zhukovsky stood at the origins of the creation and was the first head of TsAGI, the aviation state scientific center of Russia, which now bears his name.

The magazine “Air Fleet is the Power of Russia” was published to popularize aeronautics at the beginning of the 20th century.  Its pages included examples of diplomas and badges issued to donors, photographs of pilot officers, articles about the Russian aviation plant "Dux" and other interesting information. By the way, they began to produce aircraft at Dux only after the Russo-Japanese War - before that, the plant was engaged in the production of bicycles.

The webinar will also feature the navigation logbook ANT-25, which in 1937 set the national record of the USSR in terms of flight range. The plane took off from the Shchelkovo airfield on June 18 and made the first ever non-stop flight on the route Moscow - the North Pole - the United States of America. On June 20, he landed at the airport in Vancouver. The crew commander was the famous test pilot Valery Chkalov.

These and many other materials related to aviation are available in more than 1,400 remote access centers opened in the Russian Federation and 33 foreign countries. The electronic collections of the Presidential Library are publicly available.

Webinars on various topics are regularly held at the Presidential Library. With their help, one has an opportunity to discover the unique collections of the national electronic repository, learn about rare historical documents, publications and other materials little known to a wide audience.

The webinar "Wings of the Motherland: History of the Development of Aviation in Russia" will be broadcast in the Live Broadcasts section of the Presidential Library's portal in accordance with the event broadcast program. Please note that just before watching the webinar in the Live Broadcasts section one need to refresh the portal page.

The Presidential Library’s portal features information about all past and upcoming webinars in the Webinars section, and information about remote access centers - in the Remote Access Centers section.