He mastered the plane at the age of 14 and became the youngest pilot in the history of the country. The short life of Arkady Kamanin was associated with the sky. He had every chance of becoming one of the first conquerors of outer space. But the fate of the young pilot turned out differently. Arkady's life was cut short on takeoff.
The beginning of life
Arkady Kamanin (1928 - 1947) was the son of the famous pilot Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin. Was born in the Far East. After moving to the capital, the Kamanins lived for some time in the famous House on the Embankment. During the summer holidays, Arkady worked at the airfield, and in 1941 he managed to work as a mechanic at one of the aircraft factories in Moscow.
Before the war, his father was transferred to serve in Tashkent, where Arkady lived until 1942. In 1943, Arkady was sent to the assault aviation corps, which was successfully commanded by his father. So Arkady ended up on the Kalinin front. At first, Kamanin Jr. was a mechanic and served special aviation equipment in the squadron of the communications headquarters.
After a while, he began flying the U-2 as a navigator-observer and flight mechanic. The aircraft was designed as a training aircraft, it had dual controls. The pilots yielded to the persistent requests of Arkady and allowed him to pilot the air machine. So he began to accumulate flying practice. In the summer of 1943, the young pilot made his first fully official flight. Soon Arkady was appointed to the post of pilot of the aviation communications squadron.
Kamanin had a chance to fight on several fronts: on Kalinin, 1st and 2nd Ukrainian. More than once he performed combat missions. Arkady made risky flights to the headquarters of the units, established communication between the units and the air corps. One of the tasks was to cross the front line by plane: it was necessary to deliver batteries for the radio station to the partisans.
Arkady Kamanin: order bearer and participant in the Victory Parade
In a short period of time, the young pilot made more than four hundred flights, some of which took place in very difficult weather conditions. The command has repeatedly noted his personal discipline and devotion to the Motherland. In 1943, Arkady Kamanin became a member of the Komsomol. At the age of 15, Arkady Nikolayevich Kamanin was awarded the Order of the Red Star. Subsequently, he earned another such award, and later the pilot was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. By May 1945, Kamanin had flown almost three hundred hours.
On June 24, 1945, Arkady Kamanin marched along Red Square as part of the combined regiment of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. Participation in the Victory Parade was a reward for his military service. After the end of the war, Sergeant Major Kamanin immediately made up for the backlog in the school curriculum. And in the fall of 1946, Arkady Nikolaevich joined the ranks of the students of the preparatory department of the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy. Among other listeners, Kamanin was distinguished by his special diligence.
Arkady Kamanin opened up broad prospects in the service. But at the age of 18, the youngest pilot in the bloodiest war died of meningitis. The grave of A. Kamanin is located at the Novodevichy cemetery.
Arkady Kamanin: the difficult path to heaven
The wife of Arkady Kamanin's younger brother, Lev Nikolaevich, cherishes the memory of the young pilot who tragically passed away. Arkady from a young age was distinguished by independence. My father often had to move from one duty station to another. In 1934, the Kamanins' family watched with excitement the operation to rescue the Chelyuskinites. Arkady's father, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin, took part in this battle with the ice. The result of the operation was the release of people from ice captivity. Seven pilots who took part in the rescue of the Chelyuskinites became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Nikolay Kamanin received the Gold Star number two. For several sorties, he took out more than thirty people from the ice. Arkasha had someone to take an example from.
After the outbreak of the war, just before leaving for the front, Kamanin Sr. had a serious conversation with his son. As a result, my father gave the go-ahead for Arkady to work in aviation workshops in the summer, but no more than 3-4 hours so that work does not interfere with his studies. As the father later found out, Arkady did not fulfill his father's will: he disappeared in the workshops for 10, or even 12 hours. A few months later, Arkady stopped going to school altogether. He wrote to his father that he would finish his studies after the victory. Undoubtedly, the bloody war forced the children to grow up ahead of time.
The family knew about such a case from the life of Arkady: during one of the sorties to the U-2, a bullet broke the glass of the cockpit. Sharp fragments wounded the pilot's face, he could not see anything and could not control the combat vehicle. Realizing that at any moment he could lose consciousness, the experienced pilot handed over control to Arkady and switched the connection with the ground to him. The boy confidently directed the plane towards his airfield, established contact with the center, and clearly reported the situation. The squadron commander quickly rose from the airfield. He began to give the young man instructions on radio communication. Arkady was able to land the plane without any problems.
The family of the hero still keeps the book "The Mysterious Island", with which Arkady went through the entire war. A fascinating novel about the adventures of strong people who had to go through severe trials was presented to Arkady by a girl, a junior lieutenant of the medical service. It was a reward for his first solo flight. In moments of severe trials, the young pilot imagined how the heroes of the book would behave in such a situation. And he tried to behave so that his father could be proud of him.
