Word: osoaviakhim
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Dates: during 1934-1934
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...balloon flight came as a complete national surprise. For the past six months Osoaviakhim (civilian aviation society) had been planning a stratosphere flight, but its thunder was stolen last autumn when the Red Army balloon U. S. S. R. got away first to an altitude record of 11.8 mi. (TIME, Oct. 9). Quietly Osoaviakhim plugged its preparations. Pavel Fedeseemko, a famed civilian pilot, was in charge. lya Oususkin, youthful physicist, was his first aide, Andrey Vasenko his engineer. With only a few officials privy to their secret, the crew had its balloon Osoaviak-him I inflated at Osoaviakhim...
...been reported drifting southeast of Moscow but nobody was sure. At 3 p. m., behind the Kremlin's closed doors, A. S. Enukidze, stolid secretary of the Central Executive Committee, mounted the rostrum before the Congress. Gravely he began: "Comrades, I have bad news for you. The Osoaviakhim balloon met disaster yesterday afternoon between 3:30 and 5 o'clock near the village of Potisky Ostrog [150 mi. southeast of Moscow]. The balloon and gondola crashed and the three aeronauts were killed instantly." A mournful sigh swept like a wave through the hall. Then: "It seems the disaster...
...Since the Soviet Union is not represented in Federation Aeronautique Internationale its records are not officially recognized. However, both Osoaviakhim's and last year's Red Army performances surpass the official world's record of 61,237 ft. made last November by Lieut. Commander G. W. ("Tex") Settle, U. S. N. and Major Chester L. Fordney...