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Rockets and People
Working together on the control stick, we selected and added the firing control
actuator buttons, the toggle switches activating the engine start valves, and the
ignition button.
Bakhchi astounded us by several times by flying in from Koltsovo in a light
sport airplane, landing on the snow-covered ice of the lake, and taxiing right up to
the test stand. In his black leather raglan coat, flight helmet, and chrome leather
boots sunken into the snow, he seemed like an emissary from a distant world, from
the warm airfields around Moscow. During my first days in his company, I was
amazed by Bakhchi’s confidence in our work. He seemed to be convincing us that
we were creating the airplane of the future, instead of us convincing him.
Concentrated nitric acid came into contact with and mercilessly destroyed
cables, parts of the electrical equipment, and the wooden structure of the aircraft.
When the tanks were being filled for the bench tests, its reddish-brown vapor
burned our lungs. Acid leaks occurred at the joints of the pipelines, in the valves,
and at the engine inlet.Achieving reliable seals remained one of the most difficult
problems in rocket technology for decades. But for Bakhchi back in 1942, it
seemed that the suffocating scent of nitric acid fumes was more pleasant than eau
de cologne.
Bakhchivandzhi was still young. He had served at the Air Force NII since 1938.
They entrusted him with the high-altitude testing of aircraft. During the first days
of the war, many Air Force NII test pilots became combat pilots. Bakhchi took part
in air battles in a fighter squadron during the first months and shot down six
enemy aircraft. After the losses of uniquely qualified Air Force NII test pilots
became great, the Air Force Command changed its mind. In August 1941, they
began to call back the surviving test pilots from the front. The testing of new
aircraft technology—both domestic and some that was beginning to arrive from
the allies—continued near Sverdlovsk, where the Air Force NII had been evacuated
from the suburban Moscow area of Shchelkovo. Before we met him, Bakhchi
had already flown in an American Cobra. He was touched by the BI’s simplicity
when compared to the complex, heavy Cobra. It was interesting to hear Bakhchi’s
unconventional musings about airplanes.We were won over by his intellect, innate
simplicity, total lack of pretentiousness, and continuous internal visualization of
flight situations. For him, test flights were not work but a way of life. Here was a
pilot “by the grace of God.”
While discussing routine BI control problems and the flight test program,
Bakhchi contributed interesting ideas enriched by his combat experience.The lack
of radio communications for air battle control was, in his words, one of the weakest
points in our fighter aviation.
At the end of January, the stand by the frozen lake was put into operation and
began to deafen the neighborhood with the characteristic roar of the liquidpropellant
rocket engine. The engine creators sent Arvid Vladimirovich Pallo on
temporary duty from Sverdlovsk to work at the stand in Bilimbay. I only saw
Kostikov, Pobedonostsev, and Dushkin in Bilimbay one time. Bolkhovitinov and
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