First non-stop Transpolar flight
Valery Pavlovich Chkalov (1904–1938) was a Russian pilot born to a shipyard worker at Vasselyevo on the River Volga. Chkalov, however, chose a different career, signing up for the air force of Stalin’s Red Army. There he flew stunt displays and became a test pilot.
One of the more interesting aircraft he became involved with was the Tupolev ANT-25. Designed as a long-range aircraft, Alexander Belyakov and Chkalov were tasked to push it to its limits. The two men flew it on longer and longer missions, and after a 56-hour, 5,825-mile flight from Moscow to the far east, the men returned home to be named as Heroes of the Soviet Union. The enormous range of the aircraft was due to its wide-span wings (111’ 7”) and oversized fuel tanks, which, if filled, could consume 50% of the takeoff weight.
But Stalin wanted an even grander mission, so at 4 a.m. on 18th June 1937, Chkalov, Belyakov, and Georgy Baidukov embarked on the first non-stop flight across the North Pole, departing Shchelkovo Airport near Moscow. The ANT-25 carried 2,000 gallons of fuel. Their plan was to fly east and then north up the East 83-degree meridian and then, after circling the North Pole, fly south down West 123 degrees to San Francisco. The ANT-25 had an economic cruising speed of 103 mph up to a ceiling of just under 26,000 ft., an altitude that would keep them in bad weather for most of the…