This article provides a comprehensive overview of the history of the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation (UICA). It discusses the institute's establishment in 1970, its initial aims and objectives, and the key milestones in its development. The article also highlights the important contributions made by UICA in training aviation professionals and its impact on the aviation industry in Russia.
Keywords: Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation, history, aviation, education, educational institutions, the Soviet period, the Great Patriotic War, modernity, development, pilots, specialists, graduates, teachers, training, technical specialties, aerospace industry.
History of civil and military aviation in Ulyanovsk
The history of aviation in the Ulyanovsk region takes its start in the 1920s. In this period interest in aviation sharply increased in the USSR, which made it possible to attract people to the construction of a domestic Air Fleet. The Society of Friends of the Air Fleet, founded in March 1923, played an important role in the creation of aviation. Only in one year, nearly one and a half million people joined the Society. Thanks to this organization, flying clubs began to be created in the country, glider stations, parachute towers were also built. On May 23, 1925. The Society of Friends of the Air Fleet was merged with the society Dobrokhim and became known as Society of Friends of Aviation and Chemical Defense and Industry (AVIAHIM) [2].
On January 23, 1927, the AVIAHIM company merged with the Defense Assistance Society and was named OSOAVIAHIM. This society has done a great job of disseminating aviation knowledge and the creation of an extensive network of flying clubs, aviation circles. According to the decision of the IV Plenum of the Central Council of OSOAVIAHIM, since 1933 flying clubs have become the main form of training of flight personnel in the structure of the defense society. According to the “Temporaly Regulations on the Osoaviahim flying clubs”, the flying club was “the main structural unit of the aviation of OSOAVIAHIM for the development of aviation mass work and aviation sports among the population and for the training of defense personnel at the current working place. To ensure the fulfillment of these tasks, pilot instructors were required, the training of which was also entrusted to the flight schools of OSOAVIAHIM. The Ulyanovsk flying school also contributed to this task.
“The flight school arrived in Ulyanovsk” — such a headline in the August issue of 1931 of the Ulyanovsk newspaper “Proletarsky Way” could read the city residents. In a newspaper article, the following was highlighted: “On August 17, the regional School of Civil Aviation arrived in Ulyanovsk. The school has existed for the second year and was still found in Samara until now — in the middle of this year the first graduation of pilots took place. Due to the lack of a suitable land plot for the airdrome in Samara, they decided to transfer the school to Ulyanovsk, where there are all the conditions for an aviation school.
However, there were other reasons for the transfer: the Central Council decided to create a center of personnel for the civil air flotilla in the homeland of Ilyich. The article reported that young people from 1906 to 1911 years of birth will be accepted into the school. Advantage was given to workers and collective farmers (95 % of the number). The training program was designed for a six-month period. Since then, the newspaper Proletarian Way regularly short messages of this kind regularly appeared [2]:
— “The start of school will depend on the completion date for the construction of the airfield, hangar (garage for aircraft), the building of management and repair areas of the school premises».
— “Who works at the airport on August 22. City water supply -30 people, timber industry 30 people, printing house № 1–30 people».
— On November 19, 1931, the newspaper published a call «Everybody to the airdrome».
— The greeting of the Ulyanovsk city committee: “On the day of the opening of the flight school, the city committee welcomes the flight personnel of the school and workers and city workers who took an active part in organizing and school construction. The opening of a flight school in the city has a huge importance in the development of civil aviation, in the development of high technology and is a big contribution to socialist construction and strengthening the defense capabilities of the USSR».
The opening ceremony happened on the built for school airfield, with a large concentration of citizens. The next day, November 20, 1931, the headline appeared in the newspaper Proletarsky Way: “The air school is open. The meeting was at the airfield. «Here’s how the opening of a flight school was described: “In the morning, columns of military units, workers of urban enterprises, public organizations and students of technical schools reached Sviyaga. By 10 o’clock, the embankment of Sviyagi and Lenin Street were filled to capacity with a demonstration of many thousands. Among the demonstrators, there was a group of foreign workers from factory No. 3 with a poster: “Successes of the five-year plan is an attack to the capitalist world». By 11 o’clock the airfield was filled with demonstrators. Against them is a series of aircraft. The chatter of motors attracted general attention. Thousands of eyes glared at the airplanes. One for others took off planes from the earth, took the height. With intense attention followed all for showy flights”.
The airfield was located on the territory of modern Zasviyazhsky area of the city between the Moscow highway and the Sviyaga River. To the present the building of the command and control station of the airfield at 53 Moskovskoye Shosse was preserved. A memorial plaque with the text: “In this building in 1931–1945 the command post of the aerodrome of the Ulyanovsk united school of pilots and aircraft technicians was located” was set in the eighties of last century.
Besides this building, on the airfield there were two hangars for airplanes, a water tower, a water oil heater (for heating water and oil during the winter operation of airplanes), workshops, a warehouse for fuels and lubricants. The best buildings on Gimova Street were allocated for the school. Headquarters and the educational part was in the house number 1 (now in it is a music school), cadet dormitory in house number 3 (now it is the Wedding Palaceof the city). Nearby was a house number one on Ulyanov Street, for accommodation of command staff and teachers of the school.
The first head of the flight school was Bogaenko. The development of the aviation industry in our city did not end there. In less than five months, onthe embankment of the Sviyaga River in the building of the former art school the 1st All-Union Aviation Technical School of the Central Command of Ovoaviahim was opened. However, the creation of the training base did not end even there. By order of the Central Council of Ovoaviahim from11/05/33, the Ulyanovsk flying school and aviation technical school were transformed into the Joint School of Pilots and Aircraft Technicians of Ovoaviahim (currently there is an auto-mechanical technical school in this building).
At the time of unification, only 199 people were trained at the aviation department. Since September 1932, G. O. Konstantinov, an active social activist of the school, became the commissar of the school. Georgy Ivanovich led the school from 1932 to 1937 and proved to be a good organizer of the flight training of cadets, he taught one of the disciplines himself. In the years 1931–33 the school trained pilots, and since 1933 — instructors-pilots and aircraft technicians. According to a special program, instructors-pilots-paratroopers were trained. The school was an important methodological Aviation Center of Osoaviahim. On its basis, training and methodological meetings of managers and specialists of flying clubs were regularly held.
In February 1933 was first graduation of cadets from this flight school. In August 1933, for the first time in the country, Aviation Day was celebrated, which was solemnly held in Ulyanovsk. Meeting and mass festivities of citizens were held at the airfield, an air parade was held for the first time in the city. In the early years, the school's fleet consisted of training aircraft U-2, Ut-1, Ut-2 with M-11 engines and combat aircraft of the time I-5 with engines M-22 and I-15 “bis” with engine M-25 and reconnaissance R-5 with engine M-17 [4].
Based on materials from teacher Votintseva’s book, who was the head of educational part of the school “In the sky of Ulyanovsk” “An exceptional role in theoretical and preflight ground training for cadets was played by well-equipped classrooms. The equipment trained cadets to improve the depth of the eye, the horizontal flight, climb, descent, turns and other elements were worked out on the apparatus with a moving screen area. In classes there were acting split electrified engines and units. Training aircraft installed in the classes were prepared.
Early years of Civil Aviation Institute in Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk Institute of civil Aviation is the oldest educational institution in Russia for the preparation of flight personnel for civil aviation. The school starts its own history since 1935. In Bataysk — a small town near Rostov — at the 1st joint school of pilots and aircraft technicians of the Civil Air Fleet, Higher flight training courses were organized. Their main purpose was retraining pilots in aircraft navigation, using instrumentation, radio, at night and in difficult meteorological conditions. They taught pilots of the upper class and for heavy aircrafts (from the order for the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet dated September 19.35 No. 270). At that time, the initial training of pilots was carried out on airplanes R-1, U-2, and higher training was carried out on airplanes Ant-9, Ant-4, SB, PS-84.
In the summer of 1939, in connection with the aggravation of the international situation, the Bataysk Combined School was transferred to the Red Army Air Force, and Higher flight training courses were transferred to the city of Mineralnye Vody.
In October 1941, due to the approach of the front line to Rostov, Higher flight training courses were relocated to Tashkent. The main task of Higher flight training courses was the preparation of crews for Li-2 aircraft. In May 1944, Higher flight training courses returned to the Minvody, where they continued this work, and in 1947, training of the Civil Air Fleet crews for the new Il-12 aircraft began.
At the same 1947, the Higher flight training courses were reorganized into the Higher Flight Training School, which was relocated to Buguruslan, Orenburg Region, and in 1950 to Ulyanovsk. In 1955, training began for the flight crew for IL-14 aircraft, and in 1958 for aircraft with gas turbine engines An-10 and Il-18. At the beginning of the 60s, the development of the first Tu-104 civilian jet aircraft began [6].
In November 1955, Ulyanovsk Higher Flight Training School began training foreign crews when aviation specialists from East Germany arrived. And since 1957, truly mass training of crews from a number of countries begins. Pilots, flight mechanics, radio operators from the GDR mastered the IL-14, crews from Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary learned to fly the same plane. And when the IL-18 and An-10 turboprops entered the first squadron, training began for pilots from Guinea, Mali, Ghana and other countries of Asia and Africa.
From 1962 to 1972, Tu-124, Tu-134, Tu-154, and An-24 aircraft were mastered in Higher Flight Training School.
In 1973, for the great successes in the development of air transport, a significant contribution to the implementation of plans for the training of highly qualified flight personnel and the development of new equipment, the Ulyanovsk Higher Flight Training School was awarded the Order of Lenin.
In December 1974, it was decided on the basement of Higher Flight Training School to create a Center for Joint Training of Flight, Technical and Dispatch Personnel of the member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The first phase of construction included an educational laboratory and training facilities, a hotel with 700 beds, and secondly it was planned to build a medical unit, a club and sports complex, a swimming pool and other facilities. The construction of the most important facilities of the Center was completed in early 1983, and then its opening took place, though the training of specialists for the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries has been carried out since 1980. During this period, the training for the flight crew for the Il-62, Il-76, Il-86, Yak-42 aircraft began. During the period from 1980 to 1985, more than 15 thousand aviation specialists were trained, including from 40 countries of the world. In 1985, the Center, which then celebrated its half-century anniversary, was awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples [6].
In connection with the collapse of the USSR, the higher flying schools of civil aviation (based in Aktyubinsk and Kirovograd) rendered fell outside of Russia. As a result, the problem of training flight personnel with higher education for the aviation enterprises of the Russian Federation arose, for the solution of which in 1992 it was proposed to create a higher aviation school at the Center. The he decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 23.10.92 No. 1931-r «On the creation of the Ulyanovsk Higher Aviation School of Civil Aviation «was the result of a lot of work carried out under the guidance of the rector of the school, Honored Pilot of the USSR V. M. Rzhevsky. In the summer of 1993, the first set of cadets entered The High School — specializing in «flight operation of aircraft».
In the future, the field of activity of the school for the training of aviation specialists with higher education continuously expanded:
1994 — training of air traffic control engineers began;
1995 — the course of training students part time started;
1996 — a military department was opened;
1998 — the first graduation of pilot engineers;
1998 — graduate school opened;
1998 — the first graduation of air traffic control engineers;
2000 — the training of flight engineers in distance learning began;
2000 — training of rescuers and managers began;
2003 — the first graduation of flight engineers (distance learning department).
The Ulyanovsk Higher Aviation College of Civil Aviation today is: 5 faculties, 16 departments, the military department, the faculty of non-continuous forms of training, additional professional education, language training, flight service, training center, aviation training Center, Museum of the History of Civil Aviation.
Currently, 207 teachers train students at the school, 14 of them — doctors of sciences. In total, about 3 thousand students study full-time and part-time [1].
The number of students increased due to part-time students and graduate students. Training takes place in the flight technical specialty, life safety; management.
Today, the state is trying to popularize technical specialties and is achieving certain positive results. Aviation enterprises are still able to carry out successful projects. Explicit examples: modern civilian aircraft Sukhoi Superjet-100 and Super-maneuverable multi-functional fighter Su-35. The Sukhoi Superjet-100 is the first new Russian civilian aircraft in recent decades and the “hope of the Russian aviation industry”.
At the second International Forum on Nanotechnology in Keldysh Center, samples of products obtained using plasma technologies for applying nanostructured film coatings were demonstrated.
One of the solutions to such practical tasks as reducing the cost of aircraft maintenance and improving flight safety by creating new materials that prevent icing is to use the properties such a rapidly developing class of water-repellent substances, such as superhydrophobic coatings. In modern aviation, flight personnel are exposed to powerful electromagnetic radiation in excess of permissible sanitary standards. The ability to reduce this effect is most determined by the technical level of the glazing used in crew cabins. Glazing products with such coatings are available on new combat aircrafts MiG-29K, Su-ZOMKI, Su-35, Ansat, Ka-32 helicopters [3].
The above examples of the use of modern technologies in aviation indicate a serious modernization in the industry, which is complicated by the need to retrain pilots on foreign equipment in connection with the desire of some airlines to retool the fleet for the leasing of used foreign aircraft.
In the plans for the development of the country's industrial sector, resuscitation of the aerospace industry is one of the first places. A lot is planned. For example, the construction of research and development center in the city of Zhukovsky, the union of the most significant design bureaus into a single formation, but without loss of independence in creativity, without loss of competition — and with increased public funding.
Historical Museum
In 1983, the Museum of the History of Civil Aviation of the USSR was organized at the Center, which had four halls and collected about 7,000 exhibits and documents, 28 aircraft and helicopters, including the first Tu-104 jet passenger plane and the first supersonic passenger plane Tu-144 aircraft, which are presented in open parking
The museum of the history of civil aviation is a structural unit of the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation named after the Chief Marshal of Aviation B. P. Bugaev. It was formed in accordance with the order of the Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR B. P. Bugaev from 06/01/83 No. 97 in order to concentrate in it samples of aircraft and to create an exposition that reflects the glorious labor path of the country's civil air fleet.
Since 1999, the museum is part of the Association of Technical Museums of the International Union. The museum was awarded the title of «People's«. The total number of exhibits is more than 4000 storage units. Of this number, 730 exhibits are genuine samples that reflect the history of civil aviation from its inception to the present day [5].
The main part of the museum is a unique exhibition of domestic aircraft and helicopters of civil aviation, located on an area of about 18 hectares, adjacent to the territory of the central airport of Ulyanovsk (Barataevka village).
All equipment was transferred to the museum after the completion of its flight resource, some were found by search teams and enthusiasts across the country. At the exhibition, about 50 units of aviation equipment are exhibited, from the small Po-2 to modern jet giants. Among them are airplanes: Ak-1, Po-2, An-2, An-14, L-29, L-410, M-15, Tu-104, MiG-25, Tu-134, Tu-114, Il- 18, IL-62, Tu-144; helicopters: Mi-1, Mi-2, Mi-4, Mi-6, Mi-8. Eleven exhibits of the museum are monuments of science and technology. This is Ant-4 (TB-1) -1925; Il-14–1950; Yak-12M-1946; Mi-1–1948; Tu-104–1955; Tu-114–1957; Tu-116–1957; Tu-124–1960; Tu-144–1968, IL-62–1963, IL-154B-1968.
Direct active participation in the creation of the museum was taken by the head of the department of educational institutions of the USSR, Yury Petrovich Darymov and the deputy head of the center, Vladimir Pavlovich Deldyuzhov.
Some exhibits are unique, existing in a single copy. The exposition was replenished by moving to the parking lot of used aircraft resources, transferring aircraft to Institute of civil aviation, searching for and recovering unique models (including a copy of the first domestic AK-1 aircraft, and the crash restored ANT -4in the 1940s)
The main branch museum of the history of civil aviation is a unique sightseeing object, which is readily visited by both Russian citizens and foreign delegations and tourists. Frequent visitors to the museum are cadets and students from Ulyanovsk schools.
The museum also includes a photo-documentary exposition located in 4 rooms of the educational and scientific building No. 1. It reflects the main stages in the development of the history of Civil Aviation. The Book of Honor of Veterans of the Civil Aviation Administration and the Book of Remembrance of Veterans-Participants of the Great Patriotic War and Institute Workers are stored here. In addition to exhibits related to the history of the Civil Aviation, the museum also holds gifts handed over to the institute by students and delegations from many countries of the world.
In 2016, on January 14, the Institute was renamed into the Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation named after the Chief Marshal of Aviation B. P. Bugaev. In connection with this event, an exposition dedicated to the Chief Aviation Marshal Boris Pavlovich Bugaev was opened in the first hall of the museum [5].
The Head Branch Museum of the History of Civil Aviation is a scientific, methodological, cultural and educational institution used as an educational and research laboratory of “Ulyanovsk Institute of Civil Aviation named after the Chief Marshal of Aviation B. P. Bugaev” and is of great importance for young people both in terms of patriotic education and in terms of choosing a profession.
Conclusion
History of Institute of civil aviation in Ulyanovsk is very interesting subject for investigation as it reflects the history of civil aviation as whole and main events of Russian history. The development of Institute of civil aviation was affected by such historical issues as Great War, USSR reunion, economic crises and etc. But still it remains one of the most important centers for civil aviation training.
It should be noted that the system of aviation education in Russia in addition to modern simulators, for training pilots, new technologies are needed to assess the health of flight personnel, innovations in the field of psychological testing of aviation specialists, various information technologies and means of accounting and monitoring for the staff.
It’s clear that aviation education should become original brand of Russia. Recently, a stream of students (including a number, foreign) wishing to gain valuable knowledge and experience (especially this applies to the aerospace industry) is increasing. To learn the profession of a pilot, people come to Russia literally from all over the world so that to become real professionals and fulfill their dream.
Studying at an aviation university is not an easy task, but the fruits of hard work will not take long. Graduates are expected not only in aviation and aerospace industry — training will allow working in a variety of fields. This is the design of alloy structures, and the protection of refrigeration and heating units, and the design of devices for working in hostile environments, and software for design and engineering work, and telecommunications, and radio equipment, and robotics, and security systems, and radio navigation. The list goes on for a very long time.
References:
- Antipova A. G., Suslina K. A. Statistical materials on the educational activities of the school from 1993 to 2003. / Comp. — Ulyanovsk: UVAU GA, 2004.
- Budkevich V.I Ulyuanovskiy Flight school: its history and heroes// Patriotism: history, modernity, image of the future: International. — 2015.-- S. 134.
- Kuznetsov Yu. V. Problems and prospects of higher aviation education in Russia// Bulletin of the Chuvash University. — 2013. — No. 1
- Medvedovsky G. M. Ulyanovsk Higher Aviation School of Civil Aviation. Essays on the story. — Ulyanovsk: Simbirsk book, 1995.-- 224 p.
- Museums UI GA http://www.uvauga.ru/museum. Date of access: (02.11.2019)
- The history of creation of educational institution http://www.uvauga.ru/tc/2-content/167-data. Date of access: (02.11.2019)
