In 1929, a decision was made to create a new flight test base of Soviet significance near Moscow. The largest
runway of reinforced concrete slabs in the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was built here.
wind tunnels,
hypobaric chambers, special scales for weighing aircraft, a research plant and other scientific and testing facilities were also built. A little later, a launch slide was built here (the first prototype of a springboard take-off runway for
aircraft carriers), which was popularly called "Chkalovskaya". It was needed for the launch of heavy aircraft, primarily of the experimental
ANT-25 (RD). In 1932-35, the state flight testing institute was relocated here from
Khodynka, the Central Airfield. A reorganisation in December 1960 saw most testing arrangements moved to
Akhtubinsk in
Astrakhan Oblast. After the German
Operation Barbarossa invasion began in 1941, three fighter aviation regiments (401, 402, 403), two dive bomber regiments (410, 411), two heavy bomber regiments (420, 421), an assault regiment (430), a reconnaissance squadron, as well as three airfield service battalions (760,761,762) were formed at Chkalovsky. The base provides air support for
Star City,
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center, and other elements of the
Soviet space program and
Russian Federal Space Agency. It is also a major transport base, with the 8th Special Purpose Aviation Division (since 2009–10, the 6991st Air Base) operating the
Antonov An-12,
Antonov An-72,
Tupolev Tu-154,
Ilyushin Il-76, and
Il-86VKP. Chkalovsky received USSR's first Il-76K for cosmonaut training on 23 July 1977. On 27 March 1968, while on a routine training flight from the base,
Yuri Gagarin and flight instructor
Vladimir Seryogin died when their
MiG-15UTI crashed near the town of
Kirzhach. The bodies of Gagarin and Seryogin were cremated and their ashes interred in the
walls of the Kremlin. Wrapped in secrecy, the cause of the crash that killed Gagarin is uncertain and became the subject of several theories, including several conspiracy theories. On 18 September 2023, the
Ukrainian military intelligence claimed that they had raided Chkalovsky Air Base. According to them, the raid damaged or destroyed an
An-148, an
Ilyushin Il-20, and a Mil
Mi-28 helicopter. == See also ==