Igor Volk
Volk in 2008
Born
Igor Petrovich Volk

(1937-04-12)12 April 1937
Zmiiv, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Died3 January 2017(2017-01-03) (aged 79)
Plovdiv, Bulgaria
EducationKirovograd Military Aviation School of Pilots (1956)
Fedotov Test Pilot School (1965)
Moscow Aviation Institute (1969)
Occupation(s)test pilot, cosmonaut
Years active1956 – 2016
EmployerGromov Flight Research Institute (1965-2002)
Notable workMiG-21I testbed maiden flight
AwardsHero of the Soviet Union
Honoured Test Pilot of the USSR
Space career
Cosmonaut
Time in space
11d 19h 14min
SelectionAir Force Group 5
MissionsSoyuz T-12
Signature

Igor Petrovich Volk (Russian: Игорь Петрович Волк, Ukrainian: Ігор Петрович Волк; 12 April 1937 – 3 January 2017) was a Russian test pilot and former Soviet cosmonaut in the Buran programme.

Military and test pilot

Volk became a pilot in the Soviet Air Forces in 1956. After graduation from the Fedotov Test Pilot School in 1965, he has joined the Gromov Flight Research Institute.[1][2] He logged over 7000 flight hours in over 80 different aircraft types. Over the years, he flew on all types of Soviet fighters, bombers, and transport aircraft. He showed outstanding abilities in complex tests of various airplanes at critical angles of attack, stall, and spin. He was the first who tested aircraft behavior at high super-critical angles of attack (around 90°) and performed aerobatics such as the "cobra" maneuver.[3]

Space program

Cosmonaut Igor Volk, European Astronaut Thomas Reiter, U.S. Astronaut Charlie Duke

Igor Volk was selected as a cosmonaut on 12 July 1977 and subsequently assigned to the Buran programme. As part of his preparations for a space shuttle flight, he also accomplished test-flights with Buran's counterpart OK-GLI aircraft.

In July 1984, Volk flew aboard Soyuz T-12, intended to give him some experience in space. With Volks's participation as Research Cosmonaut on the 7th expedition to Salyut 7, one goal of the mission was to evaluate the effects of long-duration spaceflight on a pilot skills and ability to fly and land an aeroplane safely (in order to prove Volk's ability to control Space Shuttle Buran atmospheric segment of flight).[3] At the time of the Soyuz T-12 mission the Buran program was still a state secret. The appearance of Volk as a crew member caused some, including the British Interplanetary Society magazine Spaceflight, to ask why a test pilot was occupying a Soyuz seat usually reserved for researchers or foreign cosmonauts.[4]

After his orbital flight, Volk served as the head of pilot-cosmonaut training department for the Buran program and later (after the project's cancellation) worked for the Gromov Flight Research Institute as a Flight Tests Deputy Chief before retiring in 1996. He previously served as President of the National Aero Club of Russia and Vice President of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. As recognition for his contributions as a test pilot and cosmonaut he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union on 29 July 1984.

Social work

  • Member of the City Council of the city of Zhukovsky (1984-1987)
  • President of the All-Union Tennis Federation of the USSR (1986-1990)
  • President of the Federation of Aviation Fans (since 1988)
  • Member of the Executive Committee of the Green Movement (since 1989). An active supporter of the environmental movement in the USSR and Russia.
  • First Vice-President of the Federation of Cosmonautics of Russia (FKR), Chairman of the Executive Committee of the FKR (2003-2005)

Since April 1990, Volk has been a member of the editorial board of the Wings of the Motherland magazine. He participated in the transcontinental flight Moscow - Canberra - Moscow on a Yak-18T aircraft (November 12, 1991 - February 2, 1992).[5]

On 21 November 2013, he signed an open letter to the President criticizing the United Aircraft Corporation and its leader Mikhail Pogosyan for curtailing the program for the production of the Tu-334 aircraft. Also, in this letter, the Superjet project is directly criticized.[6]

In May 2016, Volk supported the program of environmentalists in the elections and primaries of United Russia in the Moscow Oblast.[7] He actively supported the environmental projects of the EkoGrad magazine.[8]

Other accomplishments

Volk was an inventor.[9] He also supported a number of startups like four-person concept flying car, etc.[10]

Personal life

Volk was married and had two children. He died on 3 January 2017 while on holiday in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. He is buried together with his daughter at the Bykovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Zhukovsky.[11]

Honours and awards

Memory

Speech of Vladimir Dzhanibekov at the opening ceremony of Igor Volk memorial bust in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast

Bust of Igor Volk is installed at Solnechnaya Street in the city of Zhukovsky.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Знаменская, Наталья, ed. (2002). ШЛИ со временем [ShLI in Time] (in Russian) (2 ed.). Жуковский: ООО "Редакция газеты "Жуковские вести". p. 400.
  2. ↑ Evans, Ben (2012). Tragedy and Triumph in Orbit: The Eighties and Early Nineties. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 614. doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-3430-6. ISBN 9781461434306.
  3. 1 2 Hall, Rex; Shayler, Davide; Vis, Bert (2005). Russia's Cosmonauts: Inside the Yuri Gagarin Training Center. Chichester, UK: Praxis Publishing. pp. 335–6. ISBN 0-387-21894-7.
  4. ↑ Hendrickx, Bart; Bert Vis (4 October 2007). Energiya-Buran : The Soviet Space Shuttle. Praxis. pp. 526. ISBN 978-0-387-69848-9.
  5. ↑ Lyakishev O. S. (5 December 2001). "Трансконтинентальный перелёт восьми одномоторных самолётов в Австралию" [Transcontinental flight of eight single-engine aircraft to Australia]. lyakishev.ru. Archived from the original on 21 April 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  6. ↑ Open letter to President V. V. Putin — Argumenty Nedeli
  7. ↑ Cosmonauts ordered environmentalists to fight crime — EkoGrad Journal
  8. ↑ Hero of the Soviet Union Igor Volk bequeathed the continuation of the Grove of a Hundred Words project — EkoGrad Journal
  9. ↑ "Patents of Igor Volk at Google Patents". patents.google.com. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "Lark-4 "Летающий автомобиль"" (in Russian). 23 March 2008. Archived from the original on 23 March 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  11. ↑ "Cosmonaut Igor Volk dead at 79". SpaceFlight Insider. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  12. ↑ "Установка бюста Героя СССР Игоря Петровича Волка" [Installation of a bust of the Hero of the USSR Igor Petrovich Volk]. ЛИИ им. М.М. Громова (in Russian). 13 April 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
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