From its beginning the 1911 year gave Kiev fans of aviation and aeronautics a lot of vivid impressions.
January was remembered by the first exhibition of achievements of aviators. It was held in the new building of the Public Library of Kiev society activists’ aeronautics - the third after Moscow "group glider experimenters" and the All-Russian Imperial Flying Club in St. Petersburg social organization of aviation in Russia. It was formed on the basis of the aviation group of Kiev Polytechnic Institute.
In April, famous Sergei Utochkin, already familiar to the Kiev inhabitants again demonstrated his skill at the Pechersk racetrack.
In July, on the Rubezhovsky colony not far from Svyatoshin, Kiev Polytechnic student Igor Sikorsky - the future great aircraft designer- lifted in the air the machine of his own design. He stayed in the air only 10 minutes. But after one month he already set a new all-Russian flight endurance record on an airplane of his own design, he crossed the route Syretska shooting - Pushcha Voditsa - Svyatoshin - Syretska shooting in 36 minutes 38 seconds. And in December of the same year I.Sikorsky on a biplane with a crew of three men reached a speed of 111 km / h and immediately broke two nation-wide records - speed and number of crew members.
Other members of the Kiev Society of aeronautics also were flying. One of the most active of them was Fyodor Ferdinandovich Anders, a passionate lover of aviation. Among enthusiasts of the new business, he was respected not only as a capable designer, but also as an author published in 1910, the booklet "How to build an airplane." But his main passion was ballooning. He even went to study in Germany in the world-famous company General Zeppelin. In August 1911 Anders built and raised to the sky an unseen miracle in Kiev - the airship, which he called - "Kiev". By the way, this machine was built partly on the money of Kiev inhabitants collected during the charity "air ball" which took place on January 4 this year in the Public Library. The aviation came into vogue, and rich people willingly sacrificed for new business. However, most of the costs for the construction of the balloon were the money of Anders himself. In the implementation of his plans he always put first his own hard-earned money. By the way, most of the works were done by Fyodor himself: he had indeed "golden hands" and a lot of experience with all the materials that are only used in aeronautics and aviation.
... "Kiev" was a rather unusual machine - it was the first Russian airship for civil purposes. It was the smallest of those that were built in the country (although, in fact at that time there were in the Russian Empire very little of such machines- at the beginning of the First World War, there were only 15, and only 7 of them were domestic). It belonged to the soft dirigibles ( frameless), had a volume of 1000 cubic meters of shell, the length of 35.5 meters and only one 50 hp engine . For comparison, there was built in Russia in the same year, on the project engineers and B.Golubov D.Suhorzhevsky the airship of the soft system "Albatross" with the volume of 9600 cubic meters, a length of 77 meters and two engines of 160 hp each). However, despite the small overall weight and dimensional characteristics the Ukraine airship reached a speed of 40 km / h and took on board, except for aeronaut and mechanics, two or three passengers.
In August Fyodor Anders with his son and a mechanic climbed to an altitude of over 1,000 meters and went to the place of the airship maneuvers Kiev Military District. Soon, however, interruptions in the engine forced aeronauts move to a free flight. 120 kilometers from Kiev, they came down to earth and have overcome the way back on the cart, where they loaded deflated airship.
However, most of the demonstration flights took place over the terraced Merchants garden, and business opportunities of the new aircraft were quickly appreciated by representatives of Kyiv merchants who offered designer aeronauts use it to advertise their goods. But the primary purpose of the device was still transporting people and its capabilities in this regard were confirmed by the fact that within a few months it was transported 198 passengers.
In October of the same year F.Anders on his "Kiev" has made another pretty long for those days flight by the route Merchant's garden - Kurenivka - Vyshgorod - Kiev.
Flying on an airship "Kyiv" went a whole year. Last one was happened 12 August 1912. On the occasion of the opening of "sports field" - the first stadium in Kiev on Lukyanovka - airship flew into the island, and the next day when starting the engine caught fire and within minutes was destroyed by fire. Fortunately, none of the people were hurt.
Nevertheless, soon, in October 1912, Fyodor Anders demonstrated at a meeting of the Society of Aeronautics new model of its development - the airship "Kyiv-2." This unit should be much more than the previous: it was planned that it will carry 12 passengers. But the main thing was that it was designed as such that should land on the water and, if necessary, be able to move like the ship. Unfortunately, for the implementation of this plan Anders did not have enough funds.
It is interesting that already widely known among aviation enthusiasts designer still had no higher education, and, although he worked in the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, he held a purely technical position. Such was the life: he was born in 1868 in a family of a worker of the factory "Arsenal". His father could not give him an engineering education. Therefore, he graduated from the real, and then land surveying school, and only after the revolution, perseverance and love of technology has helped him to fill the gaps in the theoretical training: Diploma of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute he received only in the Soviet era, when he was more than fifty years old.
In 1921 - 1924 the designer worked in Moscow, where he has developed a draft of the airship, which could carry up to 100 passengers, but his idea was not realized, and he returned to his hometown. It was the time of the NEP, and Fyodor Anders was the founder of the company for the construction of controlled balloons. However, the company did not construct any airship - May 31, 1926 its founder died suddenly.
Today the name of Fyodor Anders immortalized in the name of one of the streets of Kiev, and his portrait takes a place of pride in the gallery of famous alumni of the University ...