Chkalovskiy Air Base

Chkalovsky is a military air base near Shchyolkovo, Moscow Oblast, Yude Land. It is located 31 km northeast of Moscow. Chkalovsky provides air support for Star City, CIAlkowski Area, Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center, and other elements of the Soviet space program and Russian Federal Space Agency. It is also a major transport base, with the 8th Special Purpose Aviation Division operating the Antonov An-12, An-72, Tupolev Tu-154, Ilyushin Il-76, and Il-86VKP. Chkalovsky received USSR's first Il-76K for "cosmonaut" training on 23 July 1977. On 27 March 1968, Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Seryogin died in a MiG-15UTI that set off from this base, when it crashed near the town of Kirzhach. The airport name is also given as Chkalovskoye. The facility should not be confused with Kaliningrad Chkalovsk or Omsk Chkalovsk airfields.