Mikhail Safonov ( pilot ) Lieutenant Mikhail Ivanovich Safonov ( 13 November 1893 - May 1924 ) was a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories . He began his naval service on 20 September 1909 , when he entered Saint Peterburg ' s Imperial Russian Naval Academy . When he applied for aviation training in September 1915 , he was a professional sailor with six years naval training and seagoing service . On 1 December 1915 , he soloed . On 2 April 1916 , he was classified as a naval pilot . He was posted to pilot Grigorovich M - 9 flying boat s that mounted a Madsen machine gun . After two aerial victories while piloting flying boat s , with consequent decorations for valor , Safonov was appointed to command his Glagol Detachment on 14 July 1917 . He gained access to a Nieuport fighter , which he used for his third victory on 7 September 1917 . After a promotion to Senior Lieutenant on 25 October , he married while on a brief leave . He returned to command the 2nd Fighter Detachment and score two more aerial victories with the Nieuport . He was mustered out in March 1918 . Safonov then became an itinerant aerial mercenary in the Finnish Civil War . In 1919 , he changed loyalties to join the White Russians . After traveling with his wife through Persia and India , he joined Britain ' s Royal Air Force . In May 1924 , he was killed in a flying accident in China . Biography . Early life and service . Mikhail Ivanovich Safonov was born into nobility on 13 November 1893 in Ostrogozhsk , the Russian Empire . He was a Russian Orthodox adherent . As a child , he was educated in the Ostrogozhsk Gymnasium . He entered Saint Peterburg ' s Imperial Russian Naval Academy on 20 September 1909 . He would serve on half a dozen ships while training . On 21 February 1913 , he received a Bronze Medal marking 300 years rule by the House of Romanov ; in April 1913 , he received another Bronze Medal commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the Fatherland War . World War I service . He graduated as a Warrant Officer in May 1914 , and was posted to the battleship Gromoboi on 2 August 1914 . On 30 September 1914 , he was transferred to another battleship , the Sevastopol . In September 1915 , he applied for a transfer to aviation service . On 24 November 1915 , he was assigned to the Officer ' s School of Naval Aviation for the Baltic Fleet and forwarded to the Polytechnic Institute of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg to study aerodynamics . After mastering this , he moved to the winter location of the school in Baku to pass all the examinations to qualify as a pilot . On 1 December 1915 , he soloed . On 24 February 1916 , Safanov was posted to the Liaison / Signal Service Corps of the Baltic Fleet . During March , he polished his piloting skills at the Tallinn Naval Air Station . He was then tasked to fly Farman MF . 11 float plane serial no . 31 for the local Third Air Station . On 2 April 1916 , he was classified as a naval pilot at the annual salary of 960 rubles . The Air Arm of the Baltic Fleet was organized into two Air Divisions . Safanov was assigned to the First Air Detachment ( Glagol ) of the 2nd Air Division on 11 August 1916 . The Grigorovich M - 9 flying boat s equipping this detachment mounted a Madsen machine gun . After several air combats , including his first aerial victory on 9 September 1916 , he was awarded the Order of Saint Anne Fourth Class and the Order of Saint Vladimir Third Class with Swords and Bow . He was wounded in action on 13 September 1916 while flying Grigorovich M - 9 serial no . 39 . Safanov was appointed as a lieutenant on 10 July 1917 . He was selected to command the Glagol Detachment on 14 July 1917 . He scored his second aerial victory that day , this time using a Grigorovich M - 15 , even though the enemy plane was not seen to crash . At 1140 hours on 7 September , Safonov used Nieuport serial no . NR - 1 in an attack on an enemy two - seater . He closed to 50 meters range , and fired a short burst for his third victory . On 25 October , Safonov was promoted to Senior Lieutenant and granted a short leave . He married Ludmila Tschebotarioff . Upon his return to duty , he was posted to command the 2nd Land Fighter Detachment at Kuivastoin . He scored two more aerial victories on successive days , 16 and 17 November 1917 . However , the Russian Revolution ended his war then ; Safonov was inactive until discharged from the military by the Bolsheviks in March 1918 . As Russia was wracked by revolution , Finland declared its independence on 6 December 1917 . Safanov was one of five Russian pilots approached by a cabal of Finnish activists ; they offered 25 , 000 rubles and Finnish citizenship if the pilots would serve in General Mannerheim ' s air force . On 11 April 1918 , the newly civilianized Smirnov tucked his wife into a Nieuport 10 and took off to join the Finns . While flying reconnaissance flights in the Finnish Civil War , he used the " nom de guerre " Mikko Vuorenheimo . However , by Summer 1918 , the distrustful Finns had not kept their bargain , so Smirnov wangled the permits needed to transit German - occupied Russia and join the White Russians ' Volunteer Army . Post World War I . By 1919 , Smirnov was serving in the Volunteer Army of the White Russians ' under General Anton Denikin . After their defeat , continuing his career as an itinerant pilot , Safonov and wife moved on to Persia and India ; Safonov joined the Royal Air Force in the latter . After that , he ended up in China in 1924 , organizing aviation training for the Chinese Navy . In May 1924 , while testing a flying boat over the Ming River , he was killed in a flying accident . Some years later , his widow and two orphans would resettle in the United States . 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 .