Gurgen Karapetyan, a helicopter test pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, has passed away at the age of 84. This is reported by TASS, referring to the message of the holding “Russian Helicopters”.
According to the CEO of the holding Nikolay Kolesov, Gurgen Karapetyan’s whole life was dedicated to serving the Motherland and aviation.
“With his participation, many helicopters found their way into the sky, and some of them set records that forever glorified the domestic helicopter industry,” Kolesov noted.
Karapetyan worked at the flight test complex of the Moscow Helicopter Plant named after M. L. Mil from 1962 to 1993. Over the years, he has mastered 39 types of helicopters, gliders and airplanes, and taking into account modifications, more than 100. Gurgen Karapetyan spent over 5.5 thousand hours in the air, flying on all types of helicopters of the Mi brand.
The pilot set 10 world aviation records for the speed and carrying capacity of helicopters. In 1991 Gurgen Karapetyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, later he was awarded the medal of the Security Council of the Russian Federation “For services to national security”.
Earlier it became known about the death of the designer of spacecraft, laureate of the USSR State Prize Ruslan Komaev, he was 74 years old.