Konyukhov sets another record: to the North Pole on a motorized paraglider

And then he will drift on an ice floe for almost a month

The famous Russian record-breaking traveler Fyodor Konyukhov intends to add another extreme project to his collection of unique raids on land, water and air in the coming year – covering several hundred kilometers on a motorized paraglider to reach the North Pole.

According to information provided by Konyukhov’s headquarters, this time Fedor Filippovich plans to make a record non-stop flight from the Franz Josef Land archipelago to the point of the geographic North Pole on a motor paraglider (paraglider). The aircraft is a two-seater. F. Konyukhov will hit the road together with another pilot – international master of sports Igor Potapkin. The length of the route can reach 800 kilometers.

A unique expedition to the northern “crown” of the Earth should take place in July 2024. An aircraft of a special design has been prepared for such an unusual air travel. Its most important part is a special two-seater trolley equipped with a motor that rotates a pusher propeller. The built-in fuel tanks hold about 190 liters of gasoline; this fuel supply can be enough for the paraglider to last almost a thousand kilometers. A fabric wing with an area of ​​42 square meters is attached to the trolley.

As the head of the expedition headquarters, Oscar Konyukhov, told MK, the crew of the motorized paraglider and members of the technical support team will leave Murmansk for Franz Josef Land on board the nuclear icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy, which is making its next Arctic cruise voyage. The start of the air journey will take place at 85 degrees north latitude: in the area of ​​​​Rudolph Island – the point of this archipelago closest to the pole, where the pack ice begins. It is from the ice floe, which has yet to be selected, that Fyodor Konyukhov and Igor Potapkin will take flight.

It is planned to spend from 10 to 16 hours to cover the entire path by air to the “top” of the planet. After landing (more precisely, glaciation) at this “zero point,” the paraglider pilots will set up a temporary camp there and wait for the icebreaker to reach them.

“According to our calculations, they will have to “sit” for about two days,” Oscar Konyukhov clarified. – The necessary means have been provided for this. They will build a kind of tent from the wing of the paraglider; in addition, they take food with them, even a gun – in case polar bears appear.

Having reached the North Pole, “50 Years of Victory” will take Igor Potapkin and a motor paraglider. But father will remain on the ice floe. We will deliver to him there on an icebreaker a prefabricated house for housing, a supply of food, fuel, and the necessary equipment. Over the next three-plus weeks, a single drifting station will operate in the Arctic Ocean.

Fyodor Filippovich will conduct scientific research during this time. One of the most important components is environmental: studying the pollution of the ocean in the North Pole area with microplastic particles. The inhabitant of the drifting station will have to take many water samples. To do this, it is planned to equip it with an ice drilling system, as well as a special filter unit. Samples prepared with its help, containing just a concentrate of contaminants, will then be sent for study by specialists to the P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

According to Oscar Konyukhov, during the next cruise voyage of the icebreaker (and the duration of each such voyage is 11 days) there will be a new rendezvous between “50 Years of Victory” and Fedor Konyukhov: “We will find my father’s ice camp to check if everything is in order there. However, after this, the single drifting station will continue to operate. And only 11 more days later, when the icebreaker is again in the polar zone, this unusual expedition should end. According to calculations, during the drift of the ice floe on which Fedor Filippovich will be, it can cover about a hundred kilometers and shift from the pole point somewhere closer to the shores of Canada.”

Given such unpredictable ice movement, it will be impossible to accurately determine the location of Fedor Konyukhov’s camp in advance. So the icebreaker will have to search for an inhabited ice floe. After the “50 Years of Victory” can reach it for the second time, the polar explorer-paraglider, as well as all his equipment, instruments, and collected water samples will be lifted aboard the icebreaker.

In total, this unusual Arctic epic should last just over a month.

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Fedor Konyukhov is the first person in the world to reach the five poles of our planet: the Northern Geographical, Southern Geographical, the Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Arctic Ocean, Everest (the Pole of Heights), Cape Horn (the Pole of Yachtsmen). In addition, he was the first in Russia to reach the North and South Pole on skis alone, the first to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world, and the first to complete the “Seven Summits” program. Konyukhov was the first to cross the Southern Ocean in a rowing boat, the first to fly around the world in a hot air balloon, and the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean in both directions (from east to west and from west to east).