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. In the 1930s he twice broke world distance records in the ANT-25, culminating in the 1937 Moscow–North Pole–San Jacinto non-stop flight that demonstrated Soviet long-range aviation capability. During the Great Patriotic War he commanded the 3rd and 1st Air Armies on the Kalinin, Western, and 3rd Belorussian Fronts, leading air operations in the Rzhev-Vyazma, Smolensk, and Orsha-Vitebsk offensives. After the war he served as deputy commander of Long-Range Aviation and later used his influence to secure Sergei Korolev's transfer from the Kolyma gulag to TsKB-29, a decision that altered the trajectory of the Soviet space program.
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