Valery Chkalov

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A bust of Chkalov at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington commemorating his trans-polar flight

Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (Russian: Вале́рий Па́влович Чка́лов) (February 2, 1904 – December 15, 1938) was a Soviet aircraft test pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union (1938).

He developed several new figures of aerobatics. In 1936 and 1937 he participated in several ultralong flights, including a 63-hour flight from Moscow, USSR to Vancouver, Washington, USA via the North Pole on an Tupolev ANT-25 plane (June 18–20, 1937), a non-stop distance of 8,811 km (5,507 miles).

He was killed in a Polikarpov I-180 plane crash during a test flight, due to engine fault (the authorities urged to fly the plane to meet the plan, until it would be finished).

The city of Orenburg bore the name Chkalov from 1938 to 1957, and a street in Vancouver has borne the name Chkalov Drive since the 1970s ([Google map]).

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