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Grigori Yakovlevich Bakhchivangi Russian Pilot Test Pilot. Born 20 February 1908. Died 27 March 1943. 1943 world speed record in BI-1 rocketplane. Personal: Male. Born in Brinkovskya, Krasnodar, Russia. Crash of BI-1 # 3. Astronaut Career Astronaut Group: Test Pilot (USSR). Deceased Entered space service: 1941. Left space service: 1943. Bakhchivangi completed school in 1934 and entered the Air Force Scientific Research Institute. There he was trained as a test pilot, testing 65 types of Soviet military aircraft. After the start of the Second World War he flew five types of captured enemy aircraft. He then went to the front to fly combat missions, but was called back in 1942 to test the BI-1 rocket plane. Bakhchivangi was fatally injured on March 27, 1943 in the crash of BI-1 # 3 after reaching a record speed of 800 km/hr. He was made a (posthumous) Hero of the Soviet Union.
Bakhchivangi Chronology 15 May 1942 - First powered flight of BI-1 rocketplane.. Assignment: Prime Crew. First glide flight was on 10 September 1941, but the factory had to be evacuated to Sverdlovsk. Accidents in ground runs of the rocket engine further delayed the first powered flight. First flight performance was: First flight BI-1. Maximum Speed - 400 kph. Maximum Altitude - 840 m. Flight Time - 189 sec.
10 January 1943 - BI-1 Flight 2. Assignment: Prime Crew. Maximum Speed - 400 kph. Maximum Altitude - 1110 m.
11 March 1943 - BI-1 Flight 4. Assignment: Prime Crew. Maximum Altitude - 4000 m.
14 March 1943 - BI-1 Flight 5. Assignment: Prime Crew. Maximum Altitude - 4000 m.
21 March 1943 - BI-1 Flight 6. Assignment: Prime Crew.
27 March 1943 - BI-1 Flight 7. Assignment: Prime Crew. Maximum Speed - 800 kph. Unofficial world speed record.The aircraft crashed into the ground, killing the pilot. Plans for production were abandoned. Rocketplane testing in the USSR only resumed with the testing of German designs after the war.
Bibliography and Further Reading - Melnik, T G, Voenno-Kosmicheskiy Siliy, Nauka, Moscow, 1997.. Two-volume official history of the (now defunct) Russin space forces.
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