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RP78AK
Aerodrom Komendantskiy

gorod Sankt-Peterburg

QSL via R1AU

Photos and historical info.
Attention! Information below is provided by special event station operator and published AS IS.

Kommendantsky airfield was built back in 1910, just west of the Kommendantsky horse racetrack. At the time, “Krylya” (Wings) partnership put up the funds for its construction. The airfield was used for occasional ‘flying parties’, test flights for various types of early airplanes, both Russian and foreign-built. Pilot G.V. Piotrovsky took his first flight from here to the Kotlin Island (Kronstadt), just off the coast.

In the early 1920’s the airfield housed a fighter airplane squadron. Between 1930-50 – operated as a training and testing AF base. In the 1930’s Mr. Nikolay Polikarpov, Russian aircraft designer, tested his “I”-series fighter planes here.

Prior to the WW II almost a third of all aircraft production was centered at Kommendantsky airfield. Among 17 aircraft factories in the USSR between the years of 1930-39, it was the leader in production.

During the WW II years the airfield served as base for fighter planes defending the city as well as a transportation hub for people and cargo transfers; also as AF repair facility.

“No one and nothing is forgotten” – these are famous words from Olga Berggolts, Soviet Poet. They are cast in stone at the Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery, in St. Petersburg. These words are in the hearts of the people of the city and war veterans. Kommendantsky airfield made major contribution to the victory over fascism and liberation of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) from the city blockade during the war.