Ivan Orlov ( aviator ) Podporuchik Ivan Aleksandrovich Orlov ( 19 January 1895 - 4 July 1917 ) was a Russian flying ace during World War I . He was a prewar flier , having built both gliders and an airplane , and having earned pilot ' s license no . 229 just prior to start of the war . He volunteered his experience and his personal airplane to his country ' s military service . His experience and his valor made him both a mentor and leader of less experienced pilots , as Orlov rose to command the 7th " Aviatsionniy Ostryad Istrebitelei " ( 7th Fighter Aviation Detachment ) of the Imperial Russian Air Service . After an exchange duty assignment to the " Escadrille 3 " , , he wrote the first Russian text on aerial combat , " Ways to Conduct an Air Combat " . He was killed in action after scoring five confirmed aerial victories . Early life . Ivan Aleksandrovich Orlov was born into Russian nobility in Saint Petersburg on 19 January 1895 . He attended the Imperial Alexandovsky Middle School . He developed an early interest in aviation after attending an air show . His generous allowance allowed him to indulge his obsession for flying . At first , he built glider s . Later , in 1913 , he built a monoplane powered by a 35 horsepower Anzani engine , which he dubbed the " Orlov No . 1 " . He joined the All - Russian Aero Club and earned pilot ' s license No . 229 on 13 June 1914 . At the time , he was studying law at Petrograd University . World War I . When World I began , Orlov joined Russian military aviation as a Private . He submitted his enlistment application on 2 August 1914 and was accepted on the following day . He was posted to the 5th Corps Air Detachment , and brought his personal Farman S . 7 to the new unit , which consisted of six Farman F . 22 biplanes . The detachment was shipped off to serve in the Battle of Tannenberg under General Alexander Samsonov on 9 August . On 20 August 1914 , Orlov flew a reconnaissance mission over Stalupepen , the first of 18 military sortie s he would fly that month . His dash and courage flying these hazardous scouting missions in Voisin s soon earned him both promotion and honors . After being decorated on 2 September , Orlov was promoted to Efreitor on 14 September . On 3 October , he was promoted again , to Feldwebel . Orlov moved to staff duty with the 5th Air Corps Detachment ; on 21 November 1914 , he was decorated for organizing communications with 2nd Army . He had not ceased flying however ; on 18 November 1914 , he was decorated for bombing a railroad . On 19 December , he was sent for advanced training on Voisins . On 4 February 1915 , he was commissioned as an officer ; Northwestern Front Headquarters Order of the Day No . 474 appointed him a Praporschik for military merit . Having left a training stint at Petrograd Flying School , he was assigned to the First Army Aviation Detachment in February . He actually left Warsaw on 13 April in a Voisin to join the unit near Snyadovo . To his prior assignments of scouting and bombing , he now added aerial combat . He staked his first aerial victory claim on 26 May 1915 , but it was unconfirmed . On both 11 and 28 August 1915 , Orlov flew hazardous reconnaissance under intense ground fire ; he won medals for valor for both sorties . In September 1915 , he was entrusted with picking up new aircraft from the factories in Petrograd and Moscow . He would not return to front line duty until October . On 30 November , he suffered an inflight concussion from an antiaircraft shell . Four days later , he was forwarded to the 7th Fighter Detachment in Galicia . On 4 December 1915 , he was promoted to " Podporuchik " ; on 10 December 1915 , he moved to Odessa Flying School to undergo fighter conversion training there on Nieuport s . Orlov graduated from Nieuport training on 10 January 1916 . His extreme courage impressed Grand Duke Alexander and General Vogel and spurred Orlov ' s appointment to command . Orlov was detailed to the Third Air Company to found and command the 7th " Aviatsionniy Ostryad Istrebitelei " ( 7th Fighter Aviation Detachment ) . On 18 March 1916 , dedicated fighter units such as the 7th AOI were established by Order No . 300 of the Imperial Russian Army ' s Supreme Commander in Chief . On 12 April , the new unit received three two - seater Sikorsky S - 16 fighters , with their trio of Lewis guns arriving two days later . Some Nieuport 9 and Nieuport 10 two - seater fighters arrived during April , as did Moska - Bystritsky MBbis serial number 2 . Orlov made the new unit ' s first operational flight on 28 April . Orlov scored his first two confirmed aerial victories in June 1916 . On the 8th , he closed to 35 meters before shooting the enemy observer in the chest and downing the Austro - Hungarian craft . On the 25th , on his tenth sortie for the day , Orlov and Vasili Yanchenko wounded the aircrew with close - range fire and drove them and their aircraft down into captivity . The rest of the summer passed without results for Orlov . On 16 September 1916 , he led his unit to a new base near Vychulki Farm . From there , he scored another in October ( sometimes reported as a victory on the Julian calendar date of 24 September ) . On 13 November , he was then posted on exchange duty to the Western Front to study French aerial tactics . He sailed on a weeks - long voyage from Murmansk to Brest to join the famous Stork Squadron , " Escadrille 3 " . Here he trained with such luminaries as Georges Guynemer and Alfred Heurtaux . On 24 January 1917 , while flying a Spad VII with " Escadrille 3 " , Orlov drove down an enemy aircraft north of Fresnoy for his fourth victory . He exited the dogfight by purposely spinning his aircraft to escape two enemy Halberstadt fighters . At the end of January , Orlov was one of a party of six Russian pilots who returned home . He reached Petrograd on 20 March 1917 . He checked in with his Air Fleet headquarters , submitted a report , and had a nine page brochure on air tactics published by the Aviation and Aeronautics Field Department Bureau . " Ways of Conducting an Air Combat " principally encapsulated from tactical advice received from Guynemer and Heurteaux , and enumerated 16 main points . A key recommendation was the use of an induced spin to escape a losing situation , as he had done at Fresnoy . Orlov returned to take up his duties with the 7th AOI in the wake of the February Revolution . The political turmoil in Russia was undermining the Russian military ' s combat capabilities ; however , Orlov kept his unit in the fight . Their situation was summarized in a lamenting letter by Orlov : " We are stealing many parts from old aircraft to keep a few airworthy . Clearly we are tempting fate day after day . " In April , he flew 13 combat missions from his unit ' s airfield near Markovtse . He used a Nieuport 11 to shoot down an Albatros two - seater on 21 May . By June , the 7th AOI had moved to Kozova , then on to Vikturovka ; by now , it was reduced to six pilots and eight Nieuports . As his detachment flew intensive operations , Orlov personally flew 13 sorties in June . On the 20th , Orlov and Yanchenko tangled with two of a flight of five enemy planes ; Orlov reported one of them as gliding down near Leśniki . On the 26th , he saved Yanchenko from a rear attack , driving off the attacker but being foiled of a victory by a blownout cartridge case jamming his gun . Then , on 4 July 1917 , he unsuccessfully engaged attacking enemy fighters , using his new Nieuport 23 , serial no . N2788 . After combat maneuvering , the lower right wing of his Nieuport ripped loose , and Ivan Aleksandrovich Orlov fell 3 , 000 meters to his death in the Russian front line trenches near Kozova . An aerial observer who had often flown with him , Alexvy Orlov , escorted his remains to burial in Tsarskoye Selo outside Petrograd . List of aerial victories . See also Aerial victory standards of World War I , List of World War I flying aces from the Russian Empire Confirmed victories are numbered and listed chronologically .