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Levchenko Viktor Ivanovich
Born in Mariupol. His father, a locomotive driver, together with the Mariupol railway workers actively participated in December 1905 in the general political strike of workers and employees of the Russian railways. Since childhood, Levchenko was attracted to the sea and sky, and he found a happy opportunity to combine these two passions: he became the navigator of the naval aviation. In 1925 on a Komsomol voucher, he was assigned to the Frunze Naval School in Leningrad, after which he was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. In 1928 returning from overseas navigation to Sevastopol, in the fleet headquarters, Levchenko was offered to go to aviation. In 1929 he graduated from a military aviation school of naval pilots with a navigator diploma. At school, he met with S.A. Levanevsky, who worked there as an instructor. The first meeting with the North took place at the young pilot in 1932 as part of the Northeast polar expedition under the command of N.I. Yevgenov. In 1933 for participation in the rescue of the American pilot J. Mattern Levchenko was awarded the Order of the Red Star, in 1936, for participation in the long-distance flight Los Angeles - San Francisco - Uelen - Yakutsk - Sverdlovsk - Moscow - the Order of Lenin. In 1935 he received a pilot diploma, but continued to work as a navigator, finding his true vocation in the navigator's business.
In 1937 on a DB-A plane as part of the crew of Levanevsky,
Levchenko participated in an attempt at a trans-arctic flight
Moscow-North Pole-USA. The
plane went missing. |
