Round the World & Across Russia in 21 Days, 30 Years Later: 12 Planes & 22 Aviators Thru 11 Countries When the Soviet Union Fell & Russia Returned

Book Update: With the Russian-Ukraine Slavic Civil War into its fourth destruction year, with no end in sight, it appears the World Flight Over Russia in July 1992 captured a far more unique time in history than originally thought. We transited through a time when the world changed and now, whatever evolved directly the 1990s and after Putin took over in 2000, is now being altered beyond recognition, possibly destroyed beyond recognition with the possibility it might take decades to rebuild. Round the World & Across Russia in 21 Days, 30 Years Later, chronicles in detail a flight of 12 small planes circumnavigating through Russia months after the final collapse of the Soviet Union. Organized from March 1991 to July 1992, as the Soviet empire crumbled, it was a miracle the 1st Annual Around the World Air Rally ever took place.Written using seven major pilot journals, five ancillary journals, interviews and 25 hours of videotape the author shot documenting the event, Round the World & Across Russia also captures 30 years of historical context from the tumultuous decades that followed. Pilots from a variety of background, flying single and twin engine aircraft, started at Santa Monica Airport on July 4, 1992 and became the first private group to circumnavigate while crossing all of Russia.A grand adventure at a key moment in history, Round the World & Across Russia in 21 Days, 30 Years Later combines many different elements in a complex story when geopolitical structures were falling and getting built anew. Destined to remain locked in a unique spot of aviation and general history, and all the plans for World Flights Across Russia after July 1992 were deemed unsafe and canceled. Looking back from 2024, it physically and metaphorically happened in a place in time hard to recognize only three decades later. Written using seven major pilot journals, five ancillary journals, interviews, 25 hours of videotape and what the author remembered. Pilots from California, Texas, Hawaii and Illinois in the United States and Italy, UK, Holland, Germany, and Japan participated.They rented a Soviet built IL-76T, one of the biggest aircraft in the world, to haul 10,000 galls of BP Avgas to be hand-pumped from Moscow thru Siberia.First private group of general aviation aircraft to circumnavigate across Russia & land at historic Tushino grass airfield in Northwest Moscow.Across Siberia lack of navigation aids and recalcitrant Russian air traffic controllers nearly caused aviation disasters.First private aircraft to land at Anadyr Air Force Base and ICBM nuclear launching site on Russia’s Pacific Coast near Alaska Read more