Soviet ace told about the illegal flight of Yuri Gagarin over Paris

March marked the boundaries of the life of the first conqueror of space, Yuri Gagarin. In March, he was born and in the same month, after only 34 years, he died. It seems that his short and such a bright biography is well known, thoroughly studied. However, there are still gaps and distortions. At the disposal of “MK” were the memories of one of the Soviet air aces about how he once had a chance to organize an illegal helicopter ride over Paris for cosmonaut No. 1.

Oh, if not for that mysterious plane crash in 1968! He could still live among us. Yuri Alekseevich would have turned 89 now – an age that is quite achievable in modern times. Alas, fate decreed otherwise. So for more than half a century now we have only to collect bit by bit the facts telling about different episodes of Gagarin’s life. From year to year, such finds, for obvious reasons, are becoming less and less. The more valuable the materials provided to the MK correspondent by Lyudmila Vasilievna Lisina, the daughter of the honored test pilot of the USSR, one of the best Soviet helicopter pilots Vasily Koloshenko.

Vasily Petrovich himself died 8 years ago, but a video recording of his memoirs has been preserved in the family archive. And among them is a story about the events of 1965, when Koloshenko, along with several pilots, was sent to the famous Paris air show Le Bourget. There, our helicopter pilots demonstrated to visitors new helicopters created by the Design Bureau of M. L. Mil – Mi-10, Mi-8, Mi-6.

It was in France that Vasily Koloshenko met with Yuri Gagarin, who was invited to Le Bourget as an honored guest.

V. Koloshenko: “On the eve of departure, all the crews of Soviet aircraft and helicopters were gathered by the Minister of Aviation Industry Pyotr Dementyev and sternly warned: Gagarin should not be allowed to fly! We have no right to risk the life of the first cosmonaut!”

Among other Soviet pilots, a colleague and close friend of Vasily Petrovich, Yuri Garnaev, a Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the country’s helicopter aces, flew to France.

V. Koloshenko: “Garnaev was well acquainted with Gagarin. Even before the launch of Yuri Alekseevich into space, he was repeatedly “carried to weightlessness” (during the preparation of the cosmonaut, air flights were carried out in modes that make it possible to briefly simulate the state of weightlessness. — HELL.). As a result, they became friends. Therefore, when Gagarin appeared in Paris, of course, he was not slow to see an old acquaintance. And Garnaev introduced me to the cosmonaut – as the commander of the helicopter crew.

It was after this meeting that our joint Parisian walks began. For Gagarin, for the entire duration of his stay in the country, the French Communist Party allocated a personal car with a communist driver for round-the-clock use. So, in our free time from the air show program, we traveled a lot with Yuri Alekseevich – we traveled around almost the entire French capital. But to fly over Paris, to look at it from above – that would also be interesting …

But there was a ban from Minister Dementiev. Gagarin, having learned about him, lamented very much: “Why am I like this ?!” And I answered him: “Nothing, you will fly with us.” He: “So they will kick you out of work!” I object: “I have such a margin of safety after past victories in India that they won’t be kicked out!” … “

It should be clarified here that Vasily Koloshenko, being a test pilot of the M.L. as a result, India bought a batch of our Mi from the USSR, abandoning the American, British and French rotary-wing machines. But back to the veteran’s story.

V. Koloshenko: “I give Gagarin instructions: “Just before the flight, put on darker glasses for disguise.” Because the popularity of the first cosmonaut was huge. Here we are walking somewhere along the street, walking, but as soon as one of the French people we met recognized him, he exclaimed “Gagarin!” – and our walking life ends. Cars passing by slow down, people run from all sides. Some even make their way along the roofs of automobiles in order to get closer to us … It came to ridiculous. Gagarin was smoking, and as soon as he throws a cigarette butt, several people immediately rush to pick it up. The most agile takes the cigarette butt with him. And then some tried to make money on it, putting up for sale such a souvenir: “Gagarin’s cigarette butt – 20 francs.”

So, I instruct Yuri Alekseevich: “Put on darker glasses, come up to our Mi-6 and quietly slip into the cockpit.”

It all worked out in the end. We got up and went to inspect the French capital from the air. We flew over the Seine, the Champs-Elysées, Notre-Dame… Our air ride lasted half an hour, after which I landed at Le Bourget.

I leave the Mi-6 first. And he twitched to exclaim: “Ladies and gentlemen! During the entire flight, this helicopter was flown by the first cosmonaut of the planet Yuri Gagarin!” And there were about 80 people around – those who participated in demonstration flights as passengers. At first they were all stunned by surprise, deathly silence reigned. And then Gagarin appears from the cockpit. Those around him immediately rushed to him, picked him up in their arms and began to throw him into the air.

At the same time, I see that the most nimble buttons from his suit are torn off – for souvenirs … Then they even torn off the buttons from his trousers! It’s not funny anymore. It was not enough for the cosmonaut to find himself without buttons on his trousers in front of all the honest people! But our flight mechanics still found a way out for Gagarin …

Yuri Alekseevich after this flight was with us all the time – helicopter pilots. I remember he said: “I did not even imagine the beauty of Paris from the air! Let’s fly again!” I don’t know if anyone reported this epic “upstairs”. But in the end, I didn’t receive any thrashing from Minister Dementiev.”

The story of Vasily Koloshenko “disavows” the information that can be found in some sources that allegedly in 1965 Gagarin personally “taxied” a helicopter during an air excursion over Paris. Now it is clear where this version of events at the Le Bourget air show came from. Unwittingly, the Soviet ace helicopter pilot turned out to be “guilty”, which he announced years later during his video interview.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28997 dated March 27, 2023

Newspaper headline:
Illegal helicopter pilot Yuri Gagarin