Alexandr Belyakov (1897-1982) was an air navigator, a lecturer of the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy, a Lieutenant General of Aviation (1943), a doctor of geographical sciences (1938). He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, three Orders of the Red Banner, an Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, three Orders of the Red Star, and medals.
Alexandr Belyakov was born into a family of teachers; he spent his childhood and youth in Ryazan; in 1916, he graduated from the Petrograd Forest Institute, in 1917 Belyakov finished the Alexander Infantry School in Moscow and in 1921 Belyakov finished the Moscow Aero Photogrammetric School; in 1936, he graduated from the Kacha Military Aviation School of Pilots.
Alexandr Belyakov was a participant in the Civil War as a member of the 25th Infantry Division (Eastern Front).
On July 20-22, 1936, he navigated an ANT-25 aircraft (with V. Chkalov as the commanding pilot and G. Baydukov as a co-pilot) on a 9,374-km long non-stop flight from Moscow via the Arctic Ocean and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to Udd Island (presently Chkalov Island). On June 18-20, 1937, for the first time in the world, Alexandr Belyakov completed a 8,504-km non-stop flight from Moscow across the North Pole to Vancouver (USA).
Alexandr Belyakov was a flag-navigator of Special Purpose Aviation (SPA), a flag-navigator of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army Air Forces. Since 1940, he was a Deputy Chief of the Air Force Academy (Monino, currently, the Gagarin Air Force Academy), and later on, the Head of the Ryazan Supreme School of Navigators of the Soviet Air Force.
In the spring of 1945, Alexandr Belyakov took part in the Berlin operation as the Chief Navigator of the 16th Air Army.
In 1945-1960, he was the Head of the Navigators Faculty of the Air Force Academy (Monino).
Since 1960, Alexandr Belyakov was a professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; in 1961-1969, he headed the Military Department of the Institute. He is the author of many scientific papers on flight navigation and the author of memoirs Up into the Flight through Years (1981).
The commemorative stamp provides images of Alexandr Belyakov and the ANT-25 aircraft; the main illustration features G. Baydukov, V. Chkalov and A. Belyakov after the non-stop flight from Moscow to Udd Island.
In addition to the issue of the envelope with a commemorative stamp, JSC Marka produced special cancels for Moscow and Ryazan.
Design Artist: R. Komsa.
Quantity: 1 million items.
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