RuAviation

On 9 September, a new Russian aviation record was set at the Drakino airfield in the Serpukhov urban district of the Moscow Region. In honour of the 110th anniversary of the first closed loop in the vertical plane in the history of aviation (Nesterov loop), two Russian Air Race pilots, Sergei Gurov and Maxim Bugayev, performed this figure 110 times in a row on Russian Su-26M aircraft.

Thanks to their excellent thrust capacity, these aircraft are capable of performing aerobatics with virtually no loss of altitude. The high performance of the aircraft combined with the professionalism of the pilots helped them perform the Nesterov loop dozens of times in succession while maintaining the specified position in the aerobatic zone.

The pilots took off to perform the task one by one, while the judges on the ground counted the number of performed figures. As a result, both Maxim and Sergey showed the same result – 55 loops each. In total they performed 110 Nesterov loops, dedicating their result to such an important date in the history of Russian aviation. The set record was officially recorded by the All-Russian Federation of Aviation Races.

“We are very happy that the new record was set on such a wonderful date. And the record was set just before the start of the Russian aerobatics championship, which will be held here at Drakino airfield from 11 to 17 September. Watching the flight of the participants of the record from the ground, we have confidence that our pilots can do even more. I think that next year the pilots of the project will set new records that will go down in the history of modern sport aviation”, – commented Dmitry Motin, President of the All-Russian Federation of Air Races.

A year earlier the pilots of the Russian Air Races had already set a record for the number of Nesterov loops. It belonged to Oleg Larionov: on 11 June 2022, the pilot performed 15 loops in a row in a Su-29 aircraft. The Russian women’s record was set by Ksenia Grinberg, who performed eight Nesterov loops in a Yak-52.