Part three: "ROAD TO HEAVEN"
Twilight thickened fast. For a bright time we managed to dig out a circle on the cone of the dispersion of fragments of the plane into the ground, to understand the maximum depth of burial and start parsing the rubble. To work in the dark, opened the generator and set up a mercury lamp on 400Wt, its light is enough for comfortable work.
Load-bearing structure and almost all nodes of the aircraft highly fragmented, speed of impact was very high. For molten aluminium parts, it became clear that the plane caught fire long before the fall. Maintained recognizable form only пудеметы ShKAS tied blow on the earth in the node and thick air cylinders of a high pressure.
Read tablets happened not too much. Ammunition among the debris as there was a small amount, suggesting that the pilot for a long time led the air battle. Motor with reduction gear and cook screws were together, the United strongly curved barrel guns ShVAK and were in the land of vertical screw up and how would parallel the basic cone dispersion of fragments of the design of the plane. Apparently with the impact most of the hard and solid part of the plane burst into the ground to the side. One blade propeller we found at the beginning of excavation and was almost over all the debris, the second blade remained on the motor, a third apparently looked up still in the air, perhaps when you hit a tree.
After some time among the debris began to see details of the cabin, pulled out the armor of the back of the lodgement, regulators of high pressure, knobs, and switches, cable management, braided, dials and mechanisms of devices. The first fragments of the bones of the pilot found Andrey Vinogradov, their maximum size does not exceed 3-4см, therefore, decided to collect the remains together with the ground. The pilot found badly charred parachute, the wheel, the book the red army. Belt, personal weapons, rocket launcher was not, most likely their escape from the cabin in the fall or blow to the tree, as the fragments of the lantern of the cabin just not there.
Remains were almost at the bottom, below was «the continent». After the manual carefully dismantled fragments of the cab and then dug a pilot, we loosened and removed the engine and gearbox, propeller and 20mm aircraft gun ShVAK. The engine was damaged, but still the most important for us information - number, preserved well. Cartridge boxes guns and machine-guns were almost empty, which once again confirmed our assumption about the fierce air battles. ShVAK arched arc, but it was able to extract from the screw and remove the motor. Almost 6m soil, blue clay mixed with oil and gasoline, have played a role of a good preservative, the gun was without corrosion and the plate with the number was, as from the factory.
All fully finished by 11 o'clock in the evening. The result of well-organized and well coordinated work was the return of the pilot out of non-existence. The road back did not take a lot of time and forces, and first of all by the fact that we returned with a great sense of
perfectly completed a GREAT cause!!!
Mercury lamp on 400Wt, allows you to work at night.
Bucket takes a parsed the ground.
More-or-less reasonable form kept ShKAS and air tanks.
Beautiful and terrible plane in a moment turned into a shapeless heap.
Working pressure of 50 atmospheres. Tested at 75 atmospheres. Date 25/07/1941
Pressure regulator, was standing in the cockpit. The inscription corresponds to the occasion... (АД - HELL)
The damper. The carburetor was dragged out earlier.
To the left of the walls of the excavation sticking the blade propeller, there vertically in the ground is the engine.
To «the continent» still about half a meter debris.
The first found dial, the pilot is already near .
Fragments of the equipment of the cabin .
Dashboard and devices.
There is a pilot!
The maximum size of the fragments of bone 3-4см, so select the remains together with the ground...
Soon got a parachute with a sad fate and sorrowful date of issue (22/06/1941 date of beginning of great Patriotic War). Together with the pilot it in a fraction of a second left in the 42nd six meters under the ground.
The pilot was burned along with his war machine..
Suspension system of the parachute and the ring.
One more important subject - aircraft wheel.
Up to the last moments of the pilot held it in his hands.
