Development of aviation in the USSR (1925-1974)

Paratroopers being dropped during exercises, parachute canopies in the sky.

One of the first Soviet MiG jet fighters begins its takeoff roll on the runway.

A flight of piston fighters flies by.

The burning wreckage of a German bomber.

Photographs of Soviet fighters from the Great Patriotic War and prototypes.

A MiG-8 "Duck" light sport aircraft with a pusher propeller taxis onto the runway of an airfield in the winter of 1945-1946. The pilot's face, the pilot climbs into the cockpit.

A MiG-8 aircraft in flight.

The tail of a burning German aircraft.

Ilyushin S.V. during a meeting with aircraft designers in 1942. Drawing of the Il-2 attack aircraft.

Assembly of Il-2 aircraft in the aircraft factory shops.

Il-2 attack aircraft in flight.

Canopies of deploying parachutes.

The face of a female cadet at a flying club.

Testing an airplane model in a wind tunnel.

Interior view of the drawing room of one of the design bureaus.

Employees of the design bureau at work.

A biplane taking off from the airfield in the early 1920s.

Photograph of V.I. Lenin, Ya.M. Sverdlov and their entourage during the unveiling of the monument to Marx and Engels on Theater Square on November 7, 1918, an airplane flying over Red Square.

The leadership of the USSR on the balcony of the main control tower of the Central Airfield during the air parade in Tushino on July 9, 1961. Jet combat aircraft of various types fly over the airfield.

The face of a spectator.

A MiG-21 jet aircraft performing aerobatic maneuvers, N.S. Khrushchev observes the flight. L.I. Brezhnev and A.I. Mikoyan observe the flight, next to Mikoyan is Yu.A. Gagarin.

Another MiG-21 jet fighter takes off.

Khrushchev comments on the flight.

Spectators applaud.

Formations of jet fighters fly over Tushino Airfield.

Strategic jet bombers fly by, the faces of spectators, and foreign military attachés watching the flight.

One of the jet fighters takes off.

A Tu-144 supersonic passenger airliner in flight in 1974. A jet fighter takes off from a field unpaved airfield.

Passenger airliners take off and climb.

An An-2 aircraft sprays chemicals over a field.

View of the engine and wing of a polar aviation aircraft.

Dogs run toward an An-2 aircraft on ski landing gear that has landed on an ice floe.

Doctors on the plane.

An amphibious ambulance aircraft takes off on floats from the surface of the water.

Reindeer herders near an An-2 aircraft.

An aircraft, landed after a combat sortie in the Murmansk region, is finishing taxiing.

Il-2 attack aircraft attack a ground target; a German military convoy comes under fire (above).

The wreckage of a burning downed aircraft.

The faces of pilots conversing.

Assigning a combat mission to the crew of an Il-4 torpedo bomber in 1942. A Pe-2 bomber taking off at a winter airfield.

Pe-2 bombers in flight.

Soviet Air Force jet fighters taking off from an airfield.

Preparing a Soviet R-1 aircraft for takeoff in 1924-1925. Passenger aircraft of various modifications at Khodynka Airfield in the 1920s.

An ANT-25 aircraft taking off in 1937.