Valery Chkalov Valery Pavlovich Chkalov ( ) ( February 2 , 1904 – December 15 , 1938 ) was a Russia n aircraft test pilot and a Hero of the Soviet Union ( 1936 ) . Early life . Chkalov was born in the town of Vasilyevo , near Nizhni Novgorod , the son of a boiler maker . His mother died when he was six years old . Chkalov studied in the technical school in Cherepovets but later returned to work as an apprentice with his father and as a stoker on river boats . He saw his first plane in 1919 and decided to join the Red Army ' s air force . He trained as a pilot and graduated in 1924 joining a fighter squadron . Chkalov married Olga Orekhova , a schoolteacher from Leningrad , in 1927 . In the early 1930s he became a test pilot . Achievements . Chkalov developed several new figures of aerobatics . In 1936 and 1937 , he participated in several ultra long flights , including a 63 - hour flight from Moscow , Soviet Union to Vancouver , Washington , United States " via " the North Pole on an Tupolev ANT - 25 plane ( June 18 – 20 , 1937 ) , a non - stop distance of . The flight pioneered the polar air route from Europe to the American Pacific Coast . As Part of the Soviet ' Cult ' of the Pilot . Fortunately for Chkalov , his professional career as a pilot coincided with a period of Soviet history when aviation ’ s prominence as a cultural symbol was second only to that of Stalin himself . During this era , the government of the Soviet Union lionized – in fact , almost deified – its pilots . This glorification applied to pilots in general but also tended to concentrate intensely around certain individuals deemed particularly exemplary . Stalin – a man noted for his paranoia towards anything he believed could possibly develop into a rival cult of personality – decided that deliberately elevating pilots to make them popular with the population at large posed no political risk to him or his government . Far from creating powerful , politically motivated people around whom dissatisfied Soviet citizens could gather , the motivation behind exalting the USSR ’ s pilots was twofold : 1 ) to raise the population ’ s morale , and , as a function of that 2 ) to strengthen the legitimacy and strength of rule of the heads of government . Aviation , specifically , was poised to positively affect public spirit . Firstly , tsarist Russia had not possessed a significant air force , meaning any successes in aviation could be wholly attributed “ to the virtues of Bolshevism . ” Furthermore , the successes of Soviet pilots ( which the Soviet press publicized widely ) offered the populace a feeling of technological superiority over both the world around them and Nature itself . Stalin felt that exalting individual pilots was not dangerous to his own political interests because although the skill , strength , fortitude , etc . , of the pilots were praised , Stalin was held as “ ultimately responsible ” for their achievements . The public narratives took pains to emphasize the father - son relationship between Stalin and his pilots . For example , Chkalov published an article titled “ Our Father ” soon after becoming the first person to fly from Moscow to the United States via a polar route . In this article , he explicitly stated that “ [ h ] e [ , Stalin , ] is our father . ” Stalin ’ s role as a paternal figure ( and the implied nature of the pilots as his ‘ spiritual sons ’ ) emphasized that ultimate responsibility for the pilots ’ feats lay with Stalin . This point was driven home by “ accounts [ which ] … credit Stalin with much of the initiative and planning of [ important flights , including , but not limited to ] listening carefully to the ideas of Soviet aviators and aviation planners , tracing [ the pilots ’ ] routes , determining who [ would ] fly , and . . . giving the final permission . ” Furthermore , the most prominent Soviet pilots ( the ones around whom mini personality cults developed ) enjoyed personal success , including compensation and other perks , within the structure of the USSR because of their successes in aviation . They thus had a strong incentive to remain publicly loyal to the regime . Stalin wished to use this system of glorifying pilots as a vehicle for promoting a type of role model to the people of the Soviet Union . The public identities of the USSR ’ s hero - pilots were to serve as representatives of Stalin ’ s conception of the New Soviet Man – someone beyond the petty machinations of politics - rather , someone who was a master of nature and an “ eternally youthful … individual hero . ” The role Soviet pilots played in Soviet society was not solely constructive – they also served to distract . Some of the most high - profile flights Soviet pilots undertook coincided with the purges . Praise for both the victorious pilots – and , thus , Stalin – hit a fever pitch at just the moment the multitudes unfortunate enough to fall victim to the purges needed both the sympathy of the public and a thorough , unbiased examination of that which they had been accused . Distraction turned to a full assault for those more well - known victims of the purges who could not be simply swept under the carpet . Such unfortunates were instead subjected to unfavorable comparison with the pilots . Again , fortunately for Chkalov , he had the honor of being “ the Soviet Union ’ s most famous pilot . ” Chkalov ’ s life story ( as the government chose to represent it ) reflects the traits of Stalin ’ s New Soviet Man – apolitical , forever young ( he died in an accident at the age of thirty - four ) , a master of nature , and as concerned with the greater good ( the integrity of his experimental aircraft ) as he was with his own life . Interestingly , the government chose to highlight Chkalov ’ s personal initiative ( that is , his youthful disdain for authority ) – a peculiar sort of dualism in a society where the collective good was ( supposed to be ) prized over individual initiative . As John McCannon writes , “ Chkalov was a brilliant instinctual flier , preferring to rely on hunches and reflex rather than standard methodology or flying instruments . He was also a daredevil who disdained authority . ” The intended focus was not on youthful disobedience ( for which , in canon , he was punished and apologized for ) , but on his use of his instincts . Chkalov , as a superman , could intuit towards the end of efficiency , something prized in the New Soviet Man . However , this intuitive strain was incomplete without a sense of “ maturity and self - discipline . ” One story in the public canon recounts how Chkalov tells a little boy he sees fighting a small girl to stop fighting and to focus his energy on his studies . The boy takes the advice to heart and is successful because of it . The point of the story is to show that though Chkalov was a firebrand as a youth , “ in becoming a hero , [ he ] had gained not only wisdom but the capacity to transmit that wisdom to others . ” This unification of bravery and maturity was the model which Stalin wished to transmit as the ideal – his conception of the New Soviet Man . Death . Chkalov was killed on 15 December 1938 while piloting a prototype of the Polikarpov I - 180 fighter , which crashed during a test flight . The series of events leading up to the crash is not entirely clear . Neither Polikarpov nor Tomashevich approved the flight , and no one had signed a form releasing the prototype from the factory . In any event , Chkalov took off and made a low altitude circuit around the airfield . For the second circuit , Chkalov flew farther away , climbing to over 2 , 000 m ( 6 , 560 ft ) even though the flight plan specifically forbade exceeding 600 m ( 1 , 970 ft ) . Chkalov apparently miscalculated his landing approach and came in short of the airfield , but when he attempted to correct his approach the engine cut out . Chkalov was able to avoid several buildings , but struck an overhead powerline . Chkalov was ejected from the cockpit , sustaining severe injuries and died two hours later . The official government investigation concluded that the engine cut out because it became too cold in the absence of the cowl flaps . Others hypothesised that Chkalov had advanced the throttle too fast and thus flooded the engine . As a result of the crash , Tomashevich and several other officials , including Arms Industry Department director S . Belyakin , who urged the first flight , were immediately arrested . Years later , fellow test pilot Mikhail Gromov blamed the designers for flawed engine cooling and Chkalov himself for deviating from the flight plan . Chkalov ' s son claimed that a plan to assassinate his father had been in the works in the months preceding his death , but the circumstances of the crash make foul play unlikely . Unlike some opinions , with Chkalov ' s death Polikarpov ' s reputation with Stalin left fine , and he continued to design aircraft . Commemoration . The village of Vasilyevo where Chkalov was born is now the town of Chkalovsk ( Nizhny Novgorod Oblast ) . The city of Orenburg bore the name Chkalov from 1938 to 1957 . There used to be a Chkalov Street in Moscow ( part of Moscow ' s Garden Ring ) , now renamed Zemlyanoy Val ; its namesakes in Nizhny Novgorod and several other Russian cities still exist . A street in Vancouver , Washington has borne the name Chkalov Drive since the 1970s . A Chapayev class cruiser was named " Chkalov " but was renamed " Komsomolets " in 1958 . The metro rail systems of Moscow , Saint Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod each have a " Chkalovskaya " station . Yekaterinburg Metro is expected to have one by 2010 as well .