G. Kotelnikov is the story of one invention, the Russian parachute. Kotelnikov Gleb Evgenievich - inventor of the parachute: biography, history of the invention Backpack parachute

inventor, creator of the aviation backpack parachute

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov was born on January 30, 1872, in St. Petersburg. His father studied mechanics and mathematics, his mother was a creative person, so from childhood Gleb sang, played the violin, and he also liked to make various toys and models.

When the future inventor was thirteen years old, he made a camera. I bought a used lens from a junk dealer and made the rest (the camera body, bellows) with my own hands. He also made photographic plates using the “wet” method that was then used. Gleb Evgenievich graduated from Kiev military school

, served as an excise official in the province, helped organize drama clubs, sometimes played in plays, and continued to design. When he returned to St. Petersburg, he became an actor in the People's House troupe.

The idea of ​​​​creating a parachute came to the inventor when he saw the death of a pilot at the Commandant airfield. “The death of the young pilot,” Kotelnikov recalled, “shocked me so much that I decided, at all costs, to build a device that would protect the pilot’s life from mortal danger... I turned my small room into a workshop and worked for more than a year on the invention of a new parachute.” .

Kotelnikov was convinced that the parachute should be on the pilot during the flight and always be ready for trouble-free operation. The RK-1 parachute (Russian, Kotelnikova, model one) was developed within 10 months, in 1911 he registered his invention - a free-action backpack parachute, and in 1912 he successfully carried out a demonstration test.

It was a lightweight round parachute that fit into a metal backpack, opened using a pull ring and operated flawlessly. Kotelnikov's merit is that he was the first to divide the lines into two shoulders, which allowed the parachutist to maneuver. The parachute design he proposed is still in use today.

In 1923, he released the semi-rigid backpack parachute “RK-2”, and later the “RK-3” model with a soft backpack appeared. Kotelnikov was the first to develop a parachute that could lower cargo to the ground, a collective parachute to rescue passengers in the event of civil aircraft accidents.

The outstanding inventor Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov died on November 22, 1944 in Moscow and was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Nikita Khrushchev at the UN (was there a shoe?)

As you know, history develops in a spiral. This fully applies to the history of the United Nations. Over more than half a century of its existence, the UN has undergone many changes. Created in the wake of the euphoria of victory over Nazi Germany, the Organization set itself bold and largely utopian goals.

But time puts a lot of things into place. And hopes for creating a world without wars, poverty, hunger, lawlessness and inequality were replaced by a persistent confrontation between the two systems.

Natalia Terekhova talks about one of the most striking episodes of that time, the famous “Khrushchev’s boot”.

REPORTAGE:

On October 12, 1960, the most stormy meeting in the history of the United Nations took place. General Assembly. On this day the delegation Soviet Union, which was headed by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, introduced a draft resolution on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples.

Nikita Sergeevich delivered, as usual, an emotional speech that abounded exclamation marks. In his speech, Khrushchev, without sparing expressions, denounced and denounced colonialism and the colonialists.

After Khrushchev, the representative of the Philippines rose to the podium of the General Assembly. He spoke from the position of a country that experienced all the hardships of colonialism and, after many years of liberation struggle, achieved independence: “In our opinion, the declaration proposed by the Soviet Union should cover and provide for the inalienable right to independence not only of the peoples and territories still remaining ruled by Western colonial powers, but also by peoples of Eastern Europe and other areas deprived of the opportunity to freely exercise their civil and political rights and, so to speak, swallowed by the Soviet Union."

Listening to the simultaneous translation, Khrushchev exploded. After consulting with Gromyko, he decided to ask the Chairman for a point of order. Nikita Sergeevich raised his hand, but no one paid attention to him.

The most famous Foreign Ministry translator, Viktor Sukhodrev, who often accompanied Nikita Sergeevich on trips, spoke about what happened next in his memoirs: “Khrushchev loved to take his watch off his hand and twirl it. At the UN, he began banging his fists on the table in protest against the Filipino's speech. Clutched in his hand was a watch that had simply stopped.

And then Khrushchev, in his anger, took off his shoe, or rather, an open wicker sandal, and began to hit the table with his heel.”

This was the moment that entered into world history like the famous “Khrushchev boot”. The UN General Assembly Hall has never seen anything like it. A sensation was born right before our eyes.

And finally, the head of the Soviet delegation was given the floor:
“I protest against the unequal treatment of representatives of the states sitting here. Why is this lackey of American imperialism speaking out? He touches on an issue, he doesn’t touch on a procedural issue! And the Chairman, who sympathizes with this colonial rule, does not stop it! Is this fair? Gentlemen! Mr. Chairman! We live on earth not by the grace of God and not by your grace, but by the strength and intelligence of our great people of the Soviet Union and all peoples who are fighting for their independence.

It must be said that in the middle of Khrushchev’s speech, the simultaneous translation was interrupted, as the translators were frantically looking for an analogue to the Russian word “lack.” Finally, after a long pause, it was found English word"jerk", which has a wide range of meanings - from "fool" to "scum". Western reporters covering events at the UN in those years had to work hard until they found Dictionary Russian language and did not understand the meaning of Khrushchev’s metaphor.

This day in history:

Few people know that Gleb Evgenievich KOTELNIKOV

invented the backpack parachute, also because he really loved... theater

The parachute was invented in the lobby of the Bolshoi...

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov was born (18) January 30, 1872 in St. Petersburg in the family of a professor of mechanics and higher mathematics. The parents were fond of theater, and this hobby was instilled in their son. Since childhood, he sang and played the violin. He also liked to make different toys and models. He graduated from the Kiev Military School (1894), and, after serving three years of compulsory service, went into the reserve. Served as an excise official in the province.

He helped organize drama clubs, sometimes acted in plays, and continued to design. In 1910, Gleb returned to St. Petersburg and became an actor in the troupe of the People's House on the St. Petersburg Side (pseudonym Glebov-Kotelnikov). By the way, over time, his son Anatoly became a fairly famous Soviet playwright under the name Glebov (Kotelnikov).

In 1910, Kotelnikov, impressed by the death of pilot Lev Matsievich, began developing a parachute.

Before Kotelnikov, pilots escaped with the help of long folded “umbrellas” attached to the plane. Their design was very unreliable, and they greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. Therefore, they were used extremely rarely. In December 1911, Kotelnikov tried to register his invention, a free-action backpack parachute, in Russia, but for unknown reasons he did not receive a patent.

He was prompted to create such a scheme by a picture he saw in the lobby of the Bolshoi Theater, when a woman took out a huge silk scarf from a small handbag...

The parachute had a round shape and was placed in a metal backpack located on the pilot using a suspension system. At the bottom of the backpack under the dome there were springs that threw the dome into the stream after the jumper pulled out the exhaust ring. Subsequently, the hard backpack was replaced by a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at its bottom for laying slings in them. This rescue parachute design is still used today.

He made a second attempt to register his invention in France, receiving a patent on March 20, 1912.

The RK-1 parachute (Russian, Kotelnikova, model one) was developed within 10 months, and its first demonstration test was carried out by Gleb Evgenievich in June 1912. First, tests were carried out using a car. The car was accelerated, and Kotelnikov pulled the trigger strap. The parachute, tied to the tow hooks, instantly opened, and its braking force was transmitted to the car, causing the engine to stall.

A few days later, parachute tests took place at the Gatchina Aeronautical School camp.

At different altitudes, a mannequin weighing about 80 kg with a parachute was dropped from the balloon. All the throws were successful, but the Main Engineering Directorate of the Russian Army did not accept it for production because of the fears of the head of the Russian air force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, that at the slightest malfunction the aviators would abandon the airplane.

In the winter of 1912-1913, the RK-1 parachute was presented by the commercial firm Lomach and Co. to a competition in Paris and Rouen. And on January 5, 1913, a student of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (!) Ossovsky first jumped with the RK-1 parachute in Rouen from the 60-meter mark of the bridge spanning the Seine. The parachute worked brilliantly.

Russian invention received recognition abroad. But the tsarist government remembered him only during the First World War. At the beginning of the war, reserve lieutenant Kotelnikov was drafted into the army and sent to automobile units. However, soon the pilot Alekhnovich convinced the command: it is necessary to supply the crews of multi-engine aircraft with RK-1 parachutes. It was then that Kotelnikov was soon called to the Main Military Engineering Directorate and offered to take part in the manufacture of backpack parachutes for aviators.

Gleb Evgenievich with test dummy Ivano Ivanovich

In 1923, Gleb Evgenievich created new model RK-2. Later, the RK-3 model with a soft backpack appeared, for which a patent was received on July 4, 1924. In the same year, Kotelnikov produced a cargo parachute RK-4 with a dome with a diameter of 12 m. This parachute could lower a load weighing up to 300 kg.

In 1926, Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government.

On July 26, 1930, near Voronezh, Soviet parachutist pilots led by B. Mukhortov made the first series of jumps from airplanes using parachutes designed by Gleb Kotelnikov. Since then, skydiving enthusiasts have celebrated the unofficial Skydiver's Day.

Not everyone knows how the parachute was born and that its inventor was a resident of St. Petersburg. Let's fill this knowledge gap.

GLEB EVGENIEVICH KOTELNIKOV was born in St. Petersburg on January 30, 1872. The Kotelnikov family has a penchant for creative work- science, invention, art - was clearly manifested in several generations. His father Evgeniy Grigorievich Kotelnikov was a professor of higher mathematics and mechanics at the Agricultural Institute. The mother, the daughter of a serf artist, was a gifted woman. She drew and sang well. Gleb Evgenievich was undoubtedly also a gifted person. He sang, played the violin, acted as a conductor, and was fond of fencing. From the spring of 1910 he was an actor (pseudonym Glebov-Kotelnikov) in St. Petersburg (from the end of 1910 in the troupe of the People's House on the St. Petersburg side). In addition, he had the “golden hands” of a mechanic, a tailor and a turner. Kotelnikov’s work history has been quite checkered. And yet, in a series of years and changes in occupation, he found the key task of his life - a parachute.

His mother, kind and selfless, played a big role in his upbringing. Gleb’s older brother Boris Evgenievich Kotelnikov recalled: “Mom didn’t like to visit, she only occasionally went to the theater, and devoted most of her time to us children, playing various plays and sometimes singing whole evenings. Back in Vilno, Ekaterina Ivanovna organized a home children's theater with stage and curtain. They staged vaudeville and small plays and recited. Later, in St. Petersburg, a home puppet theater was set up.”

When the future inventor turned thirteen, his father, Evgeniy Grigorievich, became interested in photography. Gleb also dreamed of learning to take photographs, but his father did not give him an expensive camera. Then Gleb decided to make a camera himself. I bought a used lens from a junk dealer, and made the rest - the camera body and bellows - with my own hands. He also made photographic plates using the “wet” method that was then used. I showed the finished negative to my father. He praised his son, promised to buy a real camera, and the next day he fulfilled his promise.

In the summer of 1889, Gleb Kotelnikov witnessed an extraordinary spectacle. At the beginning of June, advertisements appeared in many St. Petersburg newspapers announcing that a hot air balloon flight and parachute jump by the American balloonist Charles Leroux would take place in the Arcadia garden. He saw the preparations for the flight, the flight itself, and then the man’s jump from a great height. The parachute smoothly lowered Leroy into the Bolshaya Nevka.

In 1889, his father died suddenly. During his father’s life, Gleb dreamed of entering the Technological Institute or Conservatory. Now these dreams had to be abandoned. Only a military career was realistic. Gleb went to Kyiv and entered a military school.

In 1894, after graduating from college, Kotelnikov was promoted to artillery officer. Military service began in the sortie battery of the Ivangorod fortress.

In the fortress, Kotelnikov saw an observation balloon for the first time and was able to become well acquainted with its structure.

Having risen to the rank of lieutenant, G.E. Kotelnikov made a firm decision to leave military service. In 1897 he resigned.

What to do next, what to devote yourself to? It was difficult question For young man. He decided to follow in the footsteps of his relatives - his father, uncles, older brother - into the excise department. At the same time, Gleb Evgenievich was well aware that it was unlikely that he would “find himself” there, that the excise service would not satisfy his creative nature. But he didn’t see any other way out yet. This is how his life began new stage, without exaggeration, the emptiest and heaviest.

In February 1899, Gleb Evgenievich married Yulia Vasilievna Volkova, the daughter of the Poltava artist V.A. Volkov. They knew each other since childhood. The choice turned out to be a happy one. They lived together in rare harmony for forty-five years.

It was difficult to find a service more alien to him than the excise tax. The only joy for G.E. Kotelnikov was the local amateur theater, in which Gleb Evgenievich was not only an actor, but in fact also the artistic director.

He continued to design. Having seen how hard the work of workers at distilleries was, Gleb Evgenievich developed the design of a bottling machine. I equipped my bicycle with a sail and successfully used it for long trips.

But the day came when G.E. Kotelnikov came to the conclusion: we need to radically change our lives, leave the excise tax, and so we have lived almost in vain for 10 years. We must go to St. Petersburg. Only there can you experience real theater. Yulia Vasilievna understood her husband. A talented artist, she had great hopes for moving to the capital: to master the skill of artistic miniatures, which especially attracted her” (by this time they had three children).

In September, on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, on the Commandant's Field, the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival, the first aviation competition of Russian pilots, took place. Thousands of spectators gathered to watch the flights.

The holiday was already coming to an end when a terrible tragedy occurred. Captain Matsievich's airplane collapsed in the air at an altitude of four hundred meters. The pilot fell out of the car and crashed.

On the day of the death of Captain Matsievich, G.E. Kotelnikov was among the public at one of the stands of the Commandant’s airfield. He saw the rapid fall and terrible death aviator “The death of the young pilot on that memorable day,” Gleb Evgenievich later recalled, “shocked me so much that I decided, at all costs, to build a device that would protect the pilot’s life from mortal danger.” For him, a man seemingly far from aviation, the tragic incident aroused a strong desire to find a means that would prevent such tragedies, the senseless death of the pilot. “I turned my small room into a workshop,” wrote G.E. Kotelnikov, “and worked for more than a year on the invention of a new parachute.”

At home, on the street, in the theater, Kotelnikov never stopped thinking about how to arrange an aviation parachute. One day, seeing how one lady pulled out a tight silk ball from her purse, which unfurled into a large scarf, Kotelnikov guessed what his parachute should be like. The merit of the Russian inventor is also that he was the first to divide the slings into two shoulders. Now the parachutist could, holding the lines, maneuver, taking the most convenient position for landing. The canopy was placed in a backpack, and the jumper, using a simple device, could extend it in the air at a distance from the falling or burning aircraft. Before Kotelnikov, pilots escaped with the help of long folded “umbrellas” attached to the plane. Their design was very unreliable, and they greatly increased the weight of the aircraft. Therefore, they were used extremely rarely. He came to the firm conviction that the parachute should always be on the pilot during flight. Then, in a moment of danger, the aviator will be able to leave the car from any side, falling or burning. The parachute must always be ready for trouble-free operation. And this is what he came up with.

“The parachute must be placed inside a metal backpack, on a shelf with springs,” Kotelnikov reasoned. “The backpack must be closed with a lid with a latch. If you then pull the cord connected to the latch, the lid will open, and the springs will push the canopy and lines out. Under the pressure of air The parachute will open."

Everything worked out well in the reasoning. But how will a parachute actually work? Kotelnikov made a small model. I threw her off the kite several times and was pleased. Not a single misfire! The parachute had a round shape and was placed in a metal backpack located on the pilot using a suspension system. At the bottom of the backpack under the dome there were springs that threw the dome into the stream after the jumper pulled out the exhaust ring. Subsequently, the hard backpack was replaced by a soft one, and honeycombs appeared at its bottom for laying slings in them. This rescue parachute design is still used today.

He had no doubt that a real parachute would also function reliably, and that it would be greeted with great interest in aviation. And how could it be otherwise? After all, it was about saving the lives of aviators. But...

Kotelnikov remembered the meeting at which the parachute was discussed for the rest of his life. The chair was Major General Kovanko, head of the Officers' Aeronautical School. Gleb Evgenievich spoke about his invention and explained its structure.

“All this is wonderful,” the general suddenly interrupted him, “but here’s the thing. Don't you think that the impact of the parachute opening will cause the rescuer's legs to be torn off?

Kotelnikov began to explain the fallacy of this view, but he failed to convince the commission. The speaker was thanked for his message, but the parachute project was rejected.

The Main Engineering Directorate of the Russian Army did not accept it into production due to the fears of the head of the Russian air force, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, who unequivocally stated: “The parachute in aviation is a harmful thing, since pilots at the slightest danger will escape by parachute, leaving planes to die.” "

“At first I tried not to even think about the parachute,” said Gleb Evgenievich. To make a real parachute backpack, considerable funds were required. Kotelnikov did not have them.

The archive preserved a memorandum from reserve lieutenant Gleb Kotelnikov to Minister of War V.A. Sukhomlinov, in which the inventor asked for a subsidy for the construction of a prototype backpack parachute and reported that “August 4 this year. In Novgorod, the doll was dropped from a height of 200 meters, out of 20 times not a single misfire. The formula of my invention is as follows: a rescue device for aviators with an automatically ejected parachute... I’m ready to test the invention in Krasnoe Selo...”

In December 1911, the “Bulletin of Finance, Industry and Trade” informed its readers about the applications received, including Kotelnikov’s application for his invention - a free-action backpack parachute, but for unknown reasons the inventor did not receive a patent.

And suddenly a way out was found. At the beginning of January 1912, the inventor received a letter in which a St. Petersburg company that sold aviation equipment invited him “to come for negotiations.” Kotelnikov hopefully went to Millionnaya Street, where the company’s office was located.

He couldn't believe his ears. Kotelnikov's sponsor was the owner of the capital's Angleterre hotel, merchant Lomach. The company undertook to make a parachute backpack. Indeed, the very next day all the necessary materials were purchased, and work on making the parachute began to boil. At the same time, the head of the company, Wilhelm Lomach, sought permission to test. By the summer of 1912, such permission was received.

The first parachute tests were carried out on June 2, 1912 using a car. The car was accelerated, and Kotelnikov pulled the trigger strap. The parachute, tied to the towing hooks, instantly opened. The braking force was transferred to the car and the engine stalled.

On the evening of June 6, 1912, a kite balloon rose from the Aeronautical Park camp in the village of Salyuzi, near Gatchina. Attached to the side of his basket was a four-pound mannequin in an aviator's uniform.

At an altitude of 200 meters, the mannequin flew down. After a couple of seconds, a white dome opened above him.

Everyone congratulated Kotelnikov. But, as it turned out, it was too early to rejoice. Even after the mannequin successfully dropped from the airplane several times, nothing changed. The aviators still flew without parachutes, fell, were injured, and died. In 1911, 82 people died in aviation in all countries. For 1912 - 128 people.

In the winter of 1912-1913, the RK-1 parachute designed by G. E. Kotelnikov was presented by the commercial firm Lomach and Co. to a competition in Paris and Rouen. It was at that time that the French Colonel A. Lalance established a prize of 10 thousand francs for the best parachute for aviators. Lomach invited Kotelnikov to go to Paris. But Gleb Evgenievich was busy at the theater and could not go. Lomach went alone.

The parachute demonstration took place in the vicinity of Paris. The mannequin was thrown from hot air balloon. And a week later - from a high bridge over the Seine River. And on January 5, 1913, residents of the French city of Rouen witnessed an unexpected spectacle. A man jumped from a huge fifty-meter bridge across the Seine. At first he flew down like a stone, then a huge silk dome opened above him, carefully lowering him onto the water. The parachute worked brilliantly. The brave tester, a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Ossovsky, was found by Lomach. Although both tests were successful, the Russian inventor did not receive a prize. It was given to a Frenchman for a less advanced parachute. But the Russian invention still received recognition abroad. Kotelnikov's parachute was patented in France, considered the birthplace of aeronautics.

Soon the First flared up World War, and then Kotelnikov’s invention was finally remembered. It was decided to equip the crews of the giant aircraft “Ilya Muromets” with backpack parachutes. The parachutes were made, but they remained in the warehouse. Later they were transferred to aeronautical units, and there they saved more than one aeronaut during the battles.

At the beginning of the war, reserve lieutenant G. E. Kotelnikov was drafted into the army and sent to automobile units. However, soon the pilot G.V. Alekhnovich convinced the command to supply the crews of multi-engine aircraft with RK-1 parachutes. Soon Kotelnikov was summoned to the Main Military Engineering Directorate and offered to take part in the manufacture of backpack parachutes for aviators.

Then - the revolution Civil War. News from abroad arrived with difficulty. Only in the 1920s did Kotelnikov learn that an aviation parachute, also a backpack one, was created in the USA in 1918. True, his backpack was not metal, but made of fabric. Busy Americans organized its mass production.

Since 1924, all American military pilots began to fly with parachutes without fail. Our country still lagged behind. In order to provide parachutes to at least the fighter pilots who risked their lives more than others, it was necessary to buy about two thousand American parachutes for gold.

Used for the first time in the USSR rescue parachute test pilot M.M. Gromov. This happened on June 23, 1927 at the Khodynka airfield. He deliberately put the car into a spin, was unable to get out of the spin, and left the plane at an altitude of 600m. It is known that an American company parachute made of pure silk was used. Then all pilots who escaped with the help of parachutes from this company were awarded a distinctive sign - a small golden caterpillar silkworm.

At first, the designer called his invention a “rescue device”; later, when 70 parachutes were made, on the cover of the instructions included in each backpack, it was written: “Instructions for handling the automatic backpack parachute of the Kotelnikov system,” and much later G.E. Kotelnikov named his parachute RK-1 ( Russian, Kotelnikova, model one). Subsequently, Kotelnikov significantly improved the design of the parachute and created new models.

In 1923, Gleb Evgenievich created a new model of the RK-2 backpack parachute, and then a model of the RK-3 parachute with a soft backpack, for which patent No. 1607 was received on July 4, 1924. In the same 1924, Kotelnikov made the RK-4 cargo parachute with a dome with a diameter of 12 m. This parachute could lower a load weighing up to 300 kg. In 1926, G.E. Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government.

During the Great Patriotic War Kotelnikov lived in Leningrad, where he survived the siege. He then moved to Moscow, where he died on November 22, 1944.

In 1973, an alley on the territory of the former Commandant's airfield was named after Kotelnikov. Since 1949, the village of Saluzi near Gatchina, where the inventor tested the parachute he created in the camp of the Officer Aeronautical School in 1912, has been named Kotelnikovo (in 1972, a memorial sign was unveiled at the entrance to it).

The first parachute designed by Kotelnikov RK-1 appeared in 1012. The development of parachute technology has continued for more than 100 years. Amazing story creating a parachute

This is how planes and pilots appeared

From time immemorial, people looked into the sky, at the stars... This tempting depth of height attracted with its inexplicable spaciousness. Creation of the first aircraft who ascended into Heaven was a miracle! Contrary to all the laws of gravity, this structure took off from the ground and flew across the Sky like a huge roaring bird, charming some and frightening others. This is how planes and pilots appeared... :)) And to save the pilots in case extreme situation They began to use long folded umbrellas that were attached to the plane. Their design was heavy and unreliable, and in order not to increase the weight of the aircraft, many pilots preferred to fly without this saving element - not to use an umbrella in flight.

When a plane crashed, in a rare case, the pilot was able to unfasten the umbrella, open it and jump from the plane to soften the impact on the ground.

On January 18 (30), 1872, in St. Petersburg, a son was born into the family of Kotelnikov, a professor of mechanics and higher mathematics, who sang and played the violin from childhood, and often went to the theater with his parents. This boy also liked to make different toys and models. Gleb, that was the boy’s name, remained interested in theater and construction as he grew older.

Invention of the backpack parachute

If not for this story, it is not known when it would have taken place. invention of the backpack parachute.

In 1910, the All-Russian Aeronautics Festival took place in St. Petersburg. A magnificent holiday with several demonstration flights by the best pilot of those times, Lev Makarovich Matsievich. The day before, Stolypin flew into the Sky with him, he enthusiastically admired St. Petersburg and its surroundings.

And on the day of aeronautics, the highest ranks of officers with Matsievich rose into the Sky. And also... influential people... Imagine how happy they were...! Flying on an airplane...! And there was probably even more pride... :))

The holiday was in full swing, and the day was approaching evening, and before the final flight, Matsievich was conveyed a wish from Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich to show something like that... some kind of aviation achievement. And Matsievich set a record.

He decided to fly as high as possible... as high as his beloved Farmon-IV, this light, amazingly beautiful, as if translucent, plane could. Maximum speed flight that Farmon could develop was 74 km/h.

This was a very bold and decisive step, because in those days it was believed that the closer to the ground, the safer the flight. Lev Makarovich Matsievich in the set took his Farmon 1000 meters from the ground - that's about half a mile... and suddenly... suddenly... the plane began to fall, crumbling in the air... the pilot fell out of the randomly falling plane... and following the wreckage of his car, he fell to the ground... in front of the spectators...

An archival photo of that tragic moment has been preserved. Seconds... and the last meeting with the ground...

This tragedy lay deep in the soul of Gleb Kotelnikov, and he began to develop a system that could save the pilot. A little over a year later, Kotelnikov already tried to register his first invention - backpack parachute free action. But for unknown reasons, he was denied registration of a patent.

On March 20, 1912, after the second attempt, already in France, Kotelnikov received patent No. 438,612.

Parachute RK-1

Parachute RK-1(Russian, Kotelnikova, model one) had a round shape and fit into a metal backpack. TO suspension system, which was worn on a person, the backpack was attached at two points. Kotelnikov divided the parachute lines into two parts and brought them out to two free ends. A unique reconstruction of the attachment of the canopy to the harness system took place, which eliminated the involuntary rotation of the parachutist under the canopy, where all the lines were attached to one halyard. In the air, after pulling out the ring, a satchel opened, at the bottom of which there were springs under the dome... they threw the dome out of the satchel... and without fail... there was not a single failure...

Can you imagine what a strong shock the person experienced after tragic death the pilot, and how strong was the desire to save, to exclude the possibility of the pilot’s death when the airplane failed in airspace. Kotelnikov invented all the keys necessary for the normal operation of the parachute system.

The first tests took place on the ground. The car to which the parachute was attached accelerated, and Kotelnikov activated the parachute, which, coming out of the backpack, instantly opened, and the car stalled from an unexpected jerk back... history tells...

Further tests of the RK-1 parachute system continued from the balloon. A mannequin weighing 80 kg jumped - the most best friend testers. They threw from different heights, and all the dummy's jumps were successful.

But into production parachute system were not accepted due to the fact that the Head of the Russian Air Force Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich expressed concern that pilots would abandon the aircraft at the slightest failure expensive car in the air. Airplanes are expensive and are imported from abroad. You need to take care of airplanes, but people will be found. Parachutes are harmful; with them, at the slightest danger, aviators will save themselves and expose the airplane to destruction.

No, no... and soon the RK-1 parachute designed by G.E. Kotelnikov was submitted to the competition in Paris and Rouen, and the parachute was represented by the commercial company Lomach and Co.

First parachute jump RK-1. The road to life.

On January 5, 1913, in Rouen, the first parachute jump RK-1 from the bridge over the Seine. Height 60 meters...!!! A student of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, Vladimir Ossovsky, made a magnificent fearless jump...!!! The parachute worked perfectly and showed the ability to deploy when jumping from a low altitude. Now you and I understand how risky this jump was, but in those days we believed that this was the safest option for the jump, especially since the Seine River below would save you in an emergency. But you can imagine how spectacular the jump turned out to be! The competition was brilliant! The Russian invention has received recognition abroad.

In Russia, the tsarist government remembered Kotelnikov’s parachute only during the First World War...

But I remembered... :))

Thanks to the pilot G.V. Alekhnovich... he managed to convince the command of the need to supply the crews of multi-engine aircraft with RK-1 parachutes. The first production of backpack parachute systems for aviators under the direction of Kotelnikov began.

Was created new system, parachute RK-2.

Kotelnikov was not satisfied with the metal backpack with springs. Create, create like that! And a parachute appeared RK-3 with soft backpack, in which springs were replaced by honeycombs for laying lines - this technique of laying lines is still used today.

Cargo parachute RK-4 was created in 1924, the Dome with a diameter of 12 meters was designed for a load of up to 300 kg.

Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov paved the way to Heaven, created something that immediately took off and went into rapid development.

All tests were successful, which meant that the path was correct.

In 1926, Kotelnikov transferred all his inventions to the Soviet government. Not far from the test site where Kotelnikov's parachute was first tested, near the village of Salizi (since 1949 Kotelnikovo), a.

monument with a picture of a parachute The inscription on the monument: “In the area of ​​this village in 1912, the world’s first aviation backpack parachute, created by G.E. Kotelnikov, was tested.” But 100 years have already passed...

Thank you for the joy, smart Kotelnikov!

In St. Petersburg there is Kotelnikov Alley

At the Novodevichy cemetery, the grave of Gleb Evgenievich Kotelnikov is the place where parachutists constantly tie ribbons and parachute strings to trees.