Background
CHKALOV, Valeriy was born on February 2, 1904 in village Vasil’yevo, Gorky Oblast. Son of a worker
CHKALOV, Valeriy was born on February 2, 1904 in village Vasil’yevo, Gorky Oblast. Son of a worker
Graduate Yegor’yevo Flying School (Moscow Oblast). Graduate Borisoglebsk Flying School, Moscow Advanced Flying School and Serpukhov Higher School of Aerial Gunnery and Bombing.
1918-1919 steamship stoker. 1919-1921 soldier-worker in an aircraft assembly crew at Nizhniy Novgorod (now Gorky) Aviation Supply Depot. From 1921 cadet at aviation schools.
1924-1930 fighter pilot. 1930-1933 test pilot, Research Institute, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Air Force. 1933-1938 test pilot at a Moscow aircraft plant.
Advocated contour flying for attacking ground targets. Developed and was the first to perform some new aerobatic flight maneuvers, such as an upward spin and a slow roll. Frequently found himself in difficult situations while testing aircraft yet always managed to overcome them with his skill, endurance, self-control, knowledge of aircraft and self-confidence.
Tested over 70 types of aircraft. 20-22 July 1936, together with pilots G. F. Baydukov and A. V. Belyakov, made a nonstop flight from Moscow via Petropavlovskon-Kamchatka to Udd Island, covering 9,374 km in 56 hours and 20 minutes. 18-20 June 1937, with the same pilots, made a nonstop flight in an ANT-25 aircraft from Moscow to Vancouver (United States of America), via the North Pole, setting a new world nonstop flight record (over 12,000 km in 63 hours and 25 minutes).
Deputy, Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Supreme Soviet of 1937 convocation.
Communist Party member from 1936.