RIA Novosti,
MOSCOW: An Su-30 Flanker fighter will repeat Thursday a nonstop flight made by a famous Russian pilot and his crew in 1936, an air force spokesman said.
Valery Chkalov flew an ANT-25 plane during his famous flight across the Arctic Ocean and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to the Udd Island (now Chkalov Island), off the Kamchatka coast, July 20-22, 1936. The flight lasted for 56 hours 20 minutes and covered a distance of 9,374 km (about 6,200 miles).
“The unusual flight will start today, September 7, 2006, at 23.00 Moscow time (19.00 GMT),” Alexander Drobyshevsky said. “Il-78 air tankers and an Su-30 fighter will participate in the flight.”
He said the flight will last about 15 hours, include four in-flight refueling operations and cover a distance of 12,417 kilometers (about 8,000 miles).
Chkalov and his crew of Georgy Baydukov and Alexander Belyakov also made a nonstop flight to Vancouver, Canada, in 1937. He was awarded a Hero of the Soviet Union title and died in 1938 in an air crash during a test flight.
