Stratosphere Assault

The conquest of the stratosphere was one of the most dramatic and ambitious goals of early twentieth-century aviation. While Western efforts to push ever higher into the thin air above 10,000 metres are relatively well known, Soviet projects in this field have remained obscure outside Russia. This groundbreaking book reveals, for the first time in English, the full story of Soviet attempts to master high-altitude flight. Authors Mikhail Maslov and Nikolay Yakubovich, leading historians of Russian aviation, trace a wide range of projects that spanned more than half a century. Beginning with the bold balloon ascents and record attempts of the 1930s, they explore the development of specialised stratospheric aircraft, experimental engines, and the pioneering work on pressure suits and cabins needed to keep pilots alive. Wartime research is examined in detail, followed by post-war efforts to create reconnaissance aircraft capable of operating on the edge of space, including responses to Western high-altitude projects. Based on original Soviet archival material and illustrated with rare photographs, technical drawings, and design studies, this book highlights both successes and failures. Many of these projects never advanced beyond prototype stage, yet they inspired later generations of designers and contributed directly to the development of space technology. Stratosphere Assault offers a unique and richly illustrated account of a forgotten chapter of aviation history. It shows how the Soviet Union pursued high-altitude flight with determination, ingenuity, and ambition, and how these efforts reflected both the political priorities and the technological limits of their time. AUTHOR: Mikhail Maslov was born to the family of a serviceman in Mary (USSR, now Turkmenistan) in 1954, and was brought up in a town in the Urals. He graduated from the Moscow Aviation Institute (University) in 1982 with a degree in mechanical engineering and then worked as a structural design engineer at the Tupolev Design Bureau in 1982-86 and then transferred to the TsAGI engineering information department where took various posts, including that of a deputy head of the department. From the end of the 1990s he has been actively involved in the restoration of historical aircraft, including airworthy Po-2, I-15bis, I-153, I-16, DIT, and MiG-3 airplanes. During his work at Tupolev, Mikhail became interested in the history of Soviet aviation of the 1920-40 period and began the research and analysis of archive material. In the last 30 years of his enthusiastic work he has written numerous articles and several dozens of books on the history Soviet aircraft of that period. 222 b/w photos, 15 colour profiles