Pavel Golovin was the first pilot in the world who managed to fly over the North Pole. His road to conquering the air was long and thorny, but at the age of 21, thanks to his determination and perseverance, he received the title of pilot. For his services in civil and military aviation, Pavel Georgievich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and other awards.
Childhood
Pavel Golovin was born on April 13, 1909 in Naro-Fominsk (Moscow Region). From childhood, he dreamed of becoming a pilot. A friend of his father had a nephew who participated in the First World War at that time and defended the front from the German army. The boy enthusiastically listened to stories about military flights and literally raved about the same. Paul's parents were against his passion for aviation.
After school, he ran to a children's club organized by a glider instructor, where he sawed wooden parts for ribs with a jigsaw. At first, Pavel was reluctant to attend school, but then he “pulled himself up,” because he realized that a real pilot should be literate. The first attempt to build a Narofominets-1 glider was unsuccessful - it crashed at a competition in Koktebel, and the school aviation group disintegrated.
After some time, the construction of the second glider “Narofominets-2” began. At 15, the boy was already helping to make drawings for a new brainchild, and the hope of flying did not leave him. To support his family, he went on a part-time job at a carpentry farm. Often he had to work at night. When the aircraft was almost ready, Pavel was unexpectedly offered a ticket to the military pilot school in Moscow, and without hesitation he agreed.
In order to enter this educational institution, he had to forge documents, since young men under 18 were not allowed to go there. Work as a carpenter made him strong and physically developed, but in the selection committee of the flight school they learned about the fake and did not accept Pavel Georgievich.
Studying at a construction college
After the first unsuccessful attempt to become a pilot, P. Golovin abandoned his studies and sent all his strength to carpentry. A year later, he again tried to enter the same flight school, but failed the exams. I had to go home again. After the death of his father, he remained the only breadwinner in the family, and a serious illness forced him to abandon his dream for a while.
The Komsomol Committee offered him a ticket to the Moscow Construction College. So for the third time he ended up in the capital of the country. Scholarships for life were not enough, so Pavel Golovin had to earn extra money at a construction site.
On the basis of the carpentry workshop at the technical school, a glider club was organized, the creation of the third glider began. The aircraft was called the Moscow Polytechnic. Work on its manufacture took more than a year, but it also crashed during the first tests.
After that, for a week, almost without rest, Pavel and his friends were repairing the airframe. As a result, their labors were rewarded - he finally managed to fly into the air. The glider flew for about 2-3 minutes, and then landed safely.
Studying at Tushino flight school
Golovin's perseverance and determination did not go unnoticed. As one of the club’s best gliders, he was offered to study at a school of civilian pilots (the Central Flight Technical School in Tushino near Moscow, now the Russian national flying club named after Chkalov). Pavel Georgievich was among her first students.
There he again had to repair an old non-working plane, from which the school authorities decided to make a training aircraft. After long classes with an instructor, Pavel was entrusted with the first to fly on this plane.
At the age of 21, he graduated from the Tushino flight school, received the rank of pilot and remained in it to work as an instructor. At 22, P.G. Golovin was already an airplane flight commander.
Work as a polar pilot
Soon after the new appointment, he met the polar pilot Anatoly Dmitrievich Alekseev, who told him about flights in the Arctic. Pavel Golovin got this idea and left the flight school in 1934 to the Main Directorate of the Northern Sea Route - a state organization created for the development of the Arctic.
The pilot carried out reconnaissance in the northern seas, was engaged in the transportation of food, medicine, equipment and wintering. The work was fraught with great danger. So, during flights on a seaplane in the Kara Sea, the compass refused a plane. A storm broke out in the sea, and gasoline ended. Golovin managed to land the plane near the steamboat with the barge, but due to bad weather the car was damaged so much that it was impossible to fly on it anymore.
In extreme conditions, he had to be a surgeon. Once, after landing an airplane near a deaf Yakut village, a local man came to him with gangrene on his arm. Pavel amputated 2 fingers to him using tools from the first-aid kit. This helped save Yakut life. In 1938, the publishing house "Detizdat Central Committee of the Komsomol" published a book for children "How I became a pilot", which describes the biography of Pavel Golovin and interesting facts from his life.
Expedition to the North Pole
In 1936, work began on the creation of the world's first scientific station on drifting ice at the North Pole. One of the project managers was I. D. Papanin. Golovin's task was to conduct reconnaissance flights to find out if there was a possibility of landing on ice.
On March 22, 1937, an air expedition of 4 aircraft set off, the purpose of which was to land polar explorers on an ice floe. April 18, they arrived at the base, located on the island of Rudolph - the last piece of land, after which the Arctic Ocean (900 km from the pole) is spread. The work was difficult due to difficult weather conditions.
On May 5, Pavel Georgievich flew towards the northernmost point of the planet. After 5 hours, he sent a radio message that he was above the pole and there are conditions for landing transport aircraft. After another 6 hours, the pilot returned to the rest of the expedition. On the way back, a strong wind prevented and the plane barely had enough gasoline.
On May 18, Golovin was sent for reconnaissance. Landing at the base this time did not work, since the island of Rudolph was shrouded in dense fog. The plane had to land on an ice floe, where the pilot and his crew (navigator, mechanic and radio operator) stayed for 2 days.
Departure of heavy vehicles to the North Pole with the winterers was scheduled for May 21. Pilot Pavel Golovin became the first pilot who managed to reach this point of the Earth. The drifting polar station North Pole-1 was successfully created.
Mastering new horizons
At the end of the expedition in the summer of that year, Golovin was given a new task: to find the missing plane of S. A. Levanevsky, who was flying from Moscow via the North Pole to the US state of Alaska. A year later, a brave pilot participated in the operation to remove sailors from ships that were trapped in ice.
In the summer of 1938, Golovin Pavel Georgievich made a flight on an N-207 twin-engine amphibious aircraft. The total length of the route Moscow - Uelen (Chukotka) - Moscow was 29 thousand km, and the duration was 120 hours.
During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. the pilot defended the northwestern borders of the USSR.
Tragic death
In the last years of his life, Pavel Golovin was engaged in test work at the Moscow Aviation Plant No. 22 named after S.P. Gorbunov. On April 27, 1940, during the flyby of the first SPB high-speed diving bomber, he died with his crew.
According to the assignment, it was required to conduct a controllability and stability test of the machine at an altitude of 2-3 km. 30 minutes after the start of the flight, the plane fell in a tailspin to the Tushino airfield. The cause of the crash, according to some reports, is the failure of the right engine.
Pavel Golovin: Hero of the Soviet Union and other awards
After returning from the expedition to the North Pole, the pilot was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and was awarded the Order of Lenin. In 1939, he was awarded the Golden Star medal, as well as the Order of the Red Banner.
Even during his lifetime, the name of Pavel Golovin was named a steamboat cruising on the Lena River. A meeting with him took place under curious circumstances: after landing a seaplane on water, the pilot and crew were nearly crushed by this vessel.
Despite his popularity, he was a very modest person. The few photos of Pavel Golovin, preserved in memory of him, are associated with flights and the conquest of the North Pole. One of the streets of Naro-Fominsk was named after him, and a memorial plaque was installed in the house of polar explorers on Nikitsky Boulevard in Moscow.