Nikolai Kamanin
Soviet aviator (1908-1982) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin (Russian: Никола́й Петро́вич Кама́нин; 18 October 1908 – 11 March 1982) was a Soviet Air Force general and a program manager in the Soviet space program. A career aviator, he awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1934 for the rescue of SS Chelyuskin crew from an improvised airfield on the frozen surface of the Chukchi Sea near Kolyuchin Island.
Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin | |
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Native name | Никола́й Петро́вич Кама́нин |
Born | (1908-10-18)18 October 1908 Melenki, Vladimir Governorate, Russia |
Died | 11 March 1982(1982-03-11) (aged 73) Moscow, Soviet Union |
Allegiance | Soviet Union |
Service/ | |
Years of service | 1927-1972 |
Rank | Colonel General |
Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union |
Other work | Soviet space program, head of cosmonaut training |
Signature |
In World War II he successfully commanded an air brigade, air division, and air corps, reaching the rank of Airforce Colonel General and Air Army commander after the war. It was at this time that his son, Arkady Kamanin, became a fighter pilot at the age of 14, the youngest military pilot in world history.
From 1960 to 1971, General Kamanin was the program manager of the cosmonaut training in the Soviet space program. He recruited and trained the first generation of cosmonauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Valentina Tereshkova, Gherman Titov and Alexei Leonov. Kamanin was the Soviet Air Force representative to the space program, a proponent of crewed orbital flight and air force influence over the Space Race. His diaries of this period, published from 1995 to 2001, are among the most important sources documenting the progress of the Soviet space program.[1][2]