About Soviet Airships

They had both ups and downs in airship engineering and these are some historic facts for you to check out.

In fall 1920, in Salizi Village in the Leningrad Region, they began to assemble a Frech-produced airship they renamed into Krasnaya Zvezda.

Another flight of the airship ended with a crash because of the wind and defects in the air ship construction. Its gondola tore off the airship hull.

VI Oktyabr airship, 1923.

VI Oktyabr was the first Soviet airship. It was build of makeshift materials in Petrograd.

Volume: 1,700 m3, length: 39 m, diameter: 8 m. VI Oktyabr has made just a few flights.

Moskovsky Khimik-rezinschik airship, 1924.

It was built due to the voluntary contributions made by the workers of chemical and rubber-processing industries (and was named after them). Volume: 2,500 m3, length: 45 m, diameter: 10 m, speed: 62 km/h, load-carrying ability: 900 kg. Flying from Leningrad to Moscow, it was mistakingly shot down by guards of a military factory in Tver.

Moskovsky Khimik-rezinschik airship, Gatchina, the Leningrad Region, 1928.

After its reconstruction, it had another crash and was disassembled.

Komsomolskaya Pravda airship, 1930.

Its first test flight occurred on August 29th, 1930. In 1934, it burnt after being struck with a lightning in the boathouse where it was kept together with its modernized versions.

Komsomolskaya Pravda’s first test flight.

USSR-V2 Smolny airship, 1932.

Senior flight mechanic in Smolny before another flight.

On September 6th, 1935 in Donbass, a sudden squall tore the airship away from its stand with 4 crew members and 11 children excursionists aborad. The commander of the airship managed to get to the airship by a rope when it was 120 m high to start up the engines. Almost 6 hours later, when the wind fell, they returned to the base safe and sound. Commander Gudovantsev was awarded with a Red Star Order.