Record-setting aviator who flew Moscow to California via the North Pole, then commanded air armies on the Eastern Front
On 14 July 1937, when the ANT-25 touched down in a San Jacinto cow pasture and the rancher asked where they'd come from, Gromov replied: "From Moscow. Over the North Pole."
Soviet test pilot and air force commander who personified long-range aviation. In 1937 he flew an ANT-25 from Moscow to California over the North Pole, setting a world distance record; he then commanded air armies in the Great Patriotic War, and after the war used his influence to win Sergei Korolev's transfer out of the gulag, a turning point for the Soviet space program.
Activities and affiliations
- 1942–1943 Military command · Soviet Union · Military and defence
Career Timeline
- 1924–1930Test pilot, Air Force Research Institute (NII VVS)
- 1930–1941Chief test pilot, Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI)
- 1941First director, Flight Research Institute (LII)
- 1942–1943Commander, 3rd Air Army
- 1943–1944Commander, 1st Air Army
- 1944–1946Head, Main Directorate of Combat Training, Frontline Aviation, VVS
- 1946–1949Deputy Commander, Long-Range Aviation
- 1949–1955Head, Flight Service Directorate, Ministry of Aviation Industry
Related historical events
Test Pilot: First Flights of Soviet Aviation
Gromov's historical weight rests no less on the test-flying career that put him at the controls for the first flights of most interwar Soviet aircraft. From 1924 to 1930 he worked at the Air Force Research Institute (NII VVS), where he performed the maiden flights and trials of the U-2 trainer (the future Po-2), the I-4, I-3 and I-4bis fighters, the ANT-9 airliner, and the R-6 reconnaissance aircraft. On 23 June 1927, testing the I-1 in a spin, he bailed out by parachute when the aircraft could not recover, the first Soviet airman to survive such a jump.
From 1930 to 1941 he was chief test pilot of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), flying chiefly Tupolev aircraft. His first flights and state trials there spanned the R-7, I-8, the TB-3 heavy bomber, the ANT-14 transport, the giant ANT-20 Maxim Gorky, the long-range single-engined ANT-25 destined for his record flights, the TB-4, ANT-35, and the Pe-8 heavy bomber. In September 1934 he flew the ANT-25 prototype over a closed Moscow–Ryazan–Kharkov circuit for 75 hours and 12,411 km, setting world distance and endurance records, and on 28 September received the title Hero of the Soviet Union (Gold Star No. 8).
Beyond piloting, Gromov pressed for a scientific approach to flight safety and testing, systematizing the measurement of landing and spin characteristics and arguing for a dedicated test-flying institute, groundwork for what became the Flight Research Institute (LII). In 1940 he took charge of the scientific-technical group under the People's Commissariat for the Aviation Industry, and in March 1941 became LII's first director. His testing career overlapped precisely with the rise of the Soviet aircraft industry.