During various air shows, Russian pilots have repeatedly convinced the world of their superiority. "Air" championships of different caliber almost always ended with victories of our athletes. Nikolai Vladimirovich Galkin, the leading pilot of Russian aeronautics, has 16 world and 12 Russian records.
Dream of the sky
Nikolay was born on May 21, 1971 in Zhukovsky. Since the beginning of the 90s, the International Aviation and Space Salon has been held in this city near Moscow. MAKS is a spectacular air show demonstrating high technologies and achievements of the Russian aircraft industry.
Nikolai was educated at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University. During his studies, he was carried away by hot air balloons, and in 1996 he first took to the sky. Today, the master of sports Nikolai Vladimirovich Galkin can fly all types of aeronautical equipment. His sports biography contains dozens of achievements of national and world level. The aeronaut himself has repeatedly participated in the organization of many record flights at various levels.
First record
Nikolai Galkin remembered February 20, 2004 for the rest of his life. On this day, the athlete established his first great achievement on a global scale. On the AV-1 "Filin" thermal airship, he made a flight that became a record-breaking flight for this class of aeronautical vehicles. "Filin" was built in the Czech Republic, but Russian designers made their own changes to the model, which helped in setting the record. The aircraft was in the air without landing or refueling for 6 hours 4 minutes. The time of the previous achievement, set in 1992 by the athletes from Luxembourg, was overlapped by more than an hour. The victory of the Russians took place after a significant break, because the last aeronautics record was set by the USSR in 1936, when the grandiose development of the North was taking place.
Flight to the North Pole
An expedition to conquer the North Pole became a bright page in Nikolai's career. The Russian aerostat "Holy Rus" was launched on February 12, 2005 from the Sredniy Island of the Northern Archipelago. The expedition had been prepared for more than a year and a half, with special attention to safety. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Transport rendered great assistance. Especially for the implementation of the project, the Association of Polar Explorers has provided several fuel bases in the Arctic Ocean. The unique operation carried out a large scientific program for the study of the Arctic natural zone, gained knowledge in issues of ecology and the formation of the Earth's climate, and also contributed to the study of human life in extreme cold conditions. The crew made several landings to take samples of snow and monitored the movement of air masses in the Arctic. For his work in the North, Nikolai was awarded the "Guarding the Polar Region" medal.
Chief designer
Since 2000, Galkin has been working at the Augur aeronautical center, and not only as a pilot, but also as a deputy chief designer. Nikolay, who has 340 hours of flight in aerostatic technique, led the work on the creation of the Merciless aircraft and the Zyablik thermal airship. The speed of the latter exceeded 27, 45 km / h, which made it possible to talk about a new world record. The volume of the Chaffinch shell was 860 cubic meters, and the payload, taking into account the pilot, was 150 kilograms. By the way, 2005 was rich in records for Russians, because half of the achievements approved by the FAI belonged to domestic balloonists.
Thermal airships are the youngest generation of aeronautical technology, they appeared at the very end of the twentieth century. The unusual capabilities of the new aircraft immediately aroused the interest of businessmen as possible advertising carriers. They move at a low speed, about 30 km / h and attract attention. This is their difference from gas devices, which increase their speed up to 100 km / h.
Galkin did not confine himself to the practical application of his own engineering creativity in the Augur center and for several years he participated in the projects of the Moscow Region and Roscosmos, carried out the commissioning of a gas airship in Thailand.
Flight over the Alps
In January 2012, together with the pilot Lyudmila Samborskaya, Nikolay flew the Alps for the first time in the world. The expedition was carried out within the framework of the Vostok program dedicated to the beginning of space exploration. The flight lasted almost 4 hours 50 minutes, the balloon reached an altitude of 5479 meters, covering a distance of 238 kilometers.
The flight over the Alps was not the only altitude record set by Russian balloonists. In 2016, Galkin took part in the preparation of the expedition of Belgorod athletes, who climbed to a height of 5555 meters. In addition to overcoming the altitude, which they dedicated to the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, one of the crew members made a parachute jump from 4380 meters - this is also a record.
How does he live today
Nikolai Galkin is one of the five Russians represented by FAI in the world record register. But he is not going to stop at the achieved results. Today our compatriots have proved that Russian aeronautics are the best in the world, and Russian airships are not worse than Western ones. Nikolay is a member of the Russian aeronautics team and has been awarded numerous distinctions.
Today the famous aeronaut is busy conquering a completely new type of airship RFR-1. It combines the principle of 2 shells and uses both gas and heated air. By combining both methods, the designers have high hopes for the new invention. Probably, in the near future, such a device will set records for the range and speed of flight, as well as its duration - up to 24 hours. Today, scientists see a great future for balloons, because this type of transport is indispensable in hard-to-reach regions of the country.
It is known about the personal life of Nikolai Galkin that he has a family - a wife and two children. And yet, most of his time is occupied by his favorite business, because his dream of the sky has come true.
