Ramming attack and loop

The main character in this article is the renowned pilot and aircraft designer Petro Nesterov, who was destined to live a very short life, but long enough for his name to go down in world aviation history after he achieved his major victories in the skies over Ukraine.

Petro Nesterov was born in Nizhnii Novgorod (Russia) on Feb. 15 (O. S.), 1887. His father Nikolai Nesterov, who was a lecturer at the city’s military school, had a hard life, never enjoying the favors of Lady Luck. His work at the military school brought him neither moral nor material satisfaction (the Nesterovs led a very modest life) and his life was cut short prematurely. Nesterov died at the age of 27 in 1889, when his son Petro was two years old. His widow Margarita, left with four children, found herself in a desperate situation with a monthly income of only 50 rubles. However, she succeeded in surmounting all obstacles and gave her children a proper education.

In his childhood and youth Petro Nesterov excelled at painting and mathematics, sang and played the piano well, and had a special interest in zoology. There was no doubt that this gifted young man had many talents, so there were many career choices available to him. He could have embarked on any and achieved considerable success, perhaps as much as he would soon achieve in the field of aviation.

Before long, however, his broad range of interests narrowed to one. During a family council, Margarita Nesterov decided that Petro would be an army officer, like his father.

There is no reason to assume that a military career was imposed on the young Nesterov, who had frequently spoken of his desire to follow in his father’s footsteps. His reasoning was that such a career choice would turn him into a world-famous pilot. Enrolling in a non-military institution of higher learning re­quired considerable expenses, but as a cadet at the Nizh­nii Novgorod Military School, Petro could study free of charge, as the offspring of a former staff instructor.

Nesterov graduated from the military school in 1904, and two years later he completed his studies at the Mikhailovsky Artillery School. His years of study provided the future ace with a solid grounding in military affairs, mathematics, geography, and other disciplines. He mastered them to an enviable extent not only because he had excellent lecturers, but also because he was a hard-working auto-didact.

Upon completing his studies, he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant and issued a diploma cum laude, which allowed him to choose his own posting. He could have easily chosen to serve in tsarist Russia’s elite units in St. Petersburg and Moscow. His final choice stunned his classmates: he applied for a posting in the Far East. His main reason was his resolve to marry Nadia Halytska, a decision that imposed serious financial obligations. Under the law, an officer who married before the age of 28 had to pay the so-called revers fee of 5,000 rubles, a huge sum at the time. The only way to avoid this payment was to accept a posting in a backwater province of the Russian empire.

The members of the military unit under Nesterov’s command thought of him as an ideal CO. As an artillery officer, he never shunted his duties onto the NCO or master sergeants. He did everything by himself. Petro and Nadia turned their home into a kind of officers’ salon frequented by Nesterov’s colleagues. They often played the piano and sang their favorite songs.

While serving in the Far East, Nesterov developed a trait that was quickly noticed by both his subordinates and his superiors: he lived according to his own rules. For example, when he became a commanding officer, he forbade his subordinates to address him as “Your Honor,” according to army regulations, but as “Lieutenant.”

On the door leading to the Nesterovs’ apartment hung a sign that read, “Leave your rank at the door.” Naturally, his superiors took a dim view of this kind of behavior, but the young officer would not be swayed. Eventually, the lieutenant’s markedly democratic trends led to his secret surveillance by the police. He was also formally reprimanded for taking the liberty of sending a neighboring artillery company back to the barracks after its frustrating performance on the artillery range.

In 1908 Nesterov became interested in aviation, then a young branch of the military industry. He combed newspapers and journals for stories about pilots and aircraft, discussed the subject with his colleagues, and even came up with his own designs. During his infrequent periods of leisure he and his wife walked to the top of the highest hill in the vicinity, from where he would launch his own model airplanes.

Some of the launches failed, but at other times the strong wind would lift up the model plane and carry it away out of sight. The interest that the commanding officer of an artillery company took in this sphere would later prove fortuitous. After some time Lt. (Artillery) Petro Nesterov formally requested a transfer to the Aeronautic Company in Vladivostok.

CAPTURED BY THE SKY

Nesterov’s plans essentially tallied with those of his military superiors, who had been racking their brains trying to figure out how to get rid of this good but obstinate young officer. The lieutenant’s request was granted, and one day Nesterov rose up into the boundless expanses of the sky in the basket of a balloon. That was when the sky captured him once and for all. One day, when he was on board a balloon, he adjusted friendly artillery fire from the air, thereby earning the highest praise from his military superiors.

Nevertheless, Nesterov harbored a secret that he had not yet shared with anybody. His life and prospects had nothing to do with balloons or dirigibles: he was resolved to become a military pilot.

In January 1911 Petro and his wife went on a long-awaited leave. After spending some time in the Caucasus, the Nesterovs returned to Nizhnii Novgorod. During a stroll one day Nesterov spotted a young man who was keening observing birds flying. The man’s name was Petr Sokolov. It took only a couple of minutes for the two of them to realize that they were both interested in aviation.

Nesterov and Sokolov became friends and decided to develop and build a glider. Margarita Nesterova helped them, although secretly she loathed her son’s obsession with flying. Soon after, a Nizhnii Novgorod newspaper carried a short item about a young pilot named Petro Nesterov, who had successfully flown a glider. Of course, by the aviation standards of The Day this was a primitive, short-lived flight of some five meters. There is no doubt, however, that this was his first step toward realizing his cherished dream.

His leave passed quickly, and soon Nesterov had to return to the Far East. However, the officer-pilot was no longer interested in a military career, let alone in the field of artillery. He went to the war ministry in St. Petersburg, trying to get himself transferred to an air force regiment of the tsarist army. His efforts did not produce results and his leave was about to expire.

Nesterov then took a desperate step without which he would probably have never become a military pilot. One morning, wearing his full dress uniform, he visited the Deputy War Minister, General A. Polivanov, at his home. Under the rules of military protocol, this was a very big risk. Later, under the Soviets, the former general recalled that the young, blue-eyed officer impressed him with his childish ingenuousness, which was combined with a firm belief in the rightness of his cause. General Polivanov signed an order transferring Lt. Petro Nesterov to the aviation department of St. Petersburg’s School of Aeronautics as a trainee.

AERONAUTIC EDUCATION

As so often happens, having surmounted one obstacle, Nesterov soon found himself faced with another. For reasons that he never discovered, he was not formally attached to the aviation department. He had to spend almost a year studying aeronautics on board balloons and dirigibles, a field that he had already mastered in the Far East. Nesterov’s formal request to be transferred to where military pilots were being trained was ignored, as was his request to take the aeronautics graduation exams ahead of schedule.

There are considerable grounds to believe that Nesterov’s problems were caused by Colonel Kovanko, the principal of the aeronautics school. The colonel worshipped balloons and dirigibles and made no secret of his dislike of aircraft. After completing his aeronautics studies, Lt. Petro Nesterov (Artillery) reported to Gatchina (the site of the aeronautics school’s aviation department), where his life-long dream would soon come true.

In his aviation classes Nesterov quickly rose to the top of his class. When it came time to apply his theoretical knowledge, sitting behind the wheel of a real aircraft, he stunned his instructor, Lt. Stoiakov, by declaring that he was not ready to fly the plane. A few minutes later, Cadet Petro Nesterov confidently rol­led down the airstrip. He was supposed to do a complete turn, a compulsory element of the exercise, while the instructor on the ground watched the young pilot, expecting him to do the “pancake” — a U-turn without any de­viations to the left or right.

Instead, Nesterov turned his plane at a 35-degree angle to the left. That was when Lt. Stoiakov realized why Nesterov had delayed his flight: he was getting ready to perform a steep turn, thereby introducing an absolutely new element into aviation practice. His instructor also realized that his trainee had mastered something he himself could not do.

September and October 1912 marked a happy period in Nesterov’s life. During those two months he completed his training with flying colors and was granted two titles: Pilot-Aviator and Military Pilot. In addition, he had become known as an outstanding pilot. Later, this graduate of the aeronautics school’s aviation department did on-the-job training in Warsaw, where he mastered the Russian armed forces’ latest model of the Nieuport Monoplane.

There, Nesterov faced an especially demanding trial in the air. During a training flight Nesterov’s plane caught fire a short distance from the hangars. He survived — and the hangars suffered no damage — only thanks to his exceptional aerobatic technique. Some historians insist that this incident marked the beginning of Nesterov’s immense popularity.

SQUADRON LEADER

Early in 1913 Nesterov was posted to Kyiv, where he was assigned to the post of commanding officer of the 11th Corps Aviation Squadron near the Syrets Military Airfield.

Nesterov proved to be an ideal squadron leader. He knew absolutely everything about his pilots and worked hard to improve their professional skills. Often he read lectures illustrated by charts and graphs he had made himself. Naturally, under such an officer the military pilots successfully carried out all the missions he assigned them, including adjusting artillery fire from the air and, later, flying the Kyiv-Oster-Nizhyn-Kyiv route. On this particular occasion Nesterov allowed a cameraman on board his plane, who filmed the entire flight. The footage was used in an interesting documentary that played in a Kyiv movie theater for some time.

Nesterov became famous after performing the world’s first loop over Kyiv in the late summer of 1913, a technique that eventually became known as Nesterov’s (Deadly) Loop.