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[FOREST INVENTORY AND SOVIET AVIATION] Aeros’emka v lesnom khoziaistve [i.e. Aerial Survey in Forest Economics]

Gaveman, A., Kuznetsov, A.

Item #1533

Moscow: Goslestekhizdat, 1934. 18, [34] pp.:
ill. 35,5x25,5 cm. In original cloth with blind embossed lettering within
silver rectangles. Covers slightly soiled, few pages faded, ink numbers
on front endpaper and p.17, otherwise very good.
First and only edition. One of 3000 copies. Very rare.
Remarkable early edition on the application of airplanes in the
Soviet forest inventory.
In 1918, the first aerial photography department was
founded in the Air Fleet of the Red Army. An aerial photography and
photogrammetry school was headed by pioneer of aerodynamics
Nikolai Zhukovskii and pioneer of photogrammetry Vasilii Naidenov.
Soon the Dobrolet air company was formed in 1923 and its aerial
survey department was opened. It was divided into four sectors: flightshooting,
photo laboratory, photogrammetry and aerial photo geodetic.
The first sector was headed by professor V. Tsvet-Koliadinskii who is
considered one of the founders of civil aerial photography. The name of
Tsvet-Koliadinskii is associated with the improvement of methods and
techniques of aerial photography and the creation of fundamentally
new instruments for this activity. Due to climatic conditions, not so many
days of a year were conducive for airplane photography in the USSR, yet
it was held over time. Since 1925 aerial survey of the Soviet territories
had been started from the Tver province. In 1926-1927, territory of over
5.000 kilometers was examined in the Mari Autonomous Republic and
about 50.000 kilometers were filmed in West Siberia in 1932.
Generally, there were two people on a plane: a pilot and an
operator-observer. Contrary to foreign practice, the book reads, Soviet
aerial survey was carried out without a separate person responsible for
navigation because of no equipment.
Also, no special airplane was set. In 1930, a decision was
made to build an amphibious aircraft for aerial survey. In the same
year, a special research institute for aerial photography was organized,
headed by academician A. Fersman. The subjects of the institute also
included the development of requirements for such airplanes. By 1934,
V. Shavrov and his team completed and tested the Sh-5 model. After its
tests, the aircraft was regarded as outdated in terms of scheme, shape
and design. Despite Sh-5 had been built, it wasn’t finally accepted for mass production. This book includes a photograph of the Sh-5 model
published under a picture of the Fokker airplane that was widespread
in the 1920s. Fokker’s images were drawn on two following pages
explaining how direct and perspective shooting were made – and then,
Shavrov’s model was presented in combination of these methods of
filming.
The second (illustrative) section of the book, which opens with
the airplanes, demonstrates how operators hung some developed and
printed pictures on a wall to see them as a whole thing. Such a montage
showed them if the plane was flying crooked. Other photographs were
published to overview filming various landscapes – forests, mountains,
rivers, etc. – and visibility of their exploitation in photos.
The authors supposed that in the following years the USSR
would use autogyros and airships for aerial survey. In the early 1930s,
engineers under the leadership of N. Kamov tested Soviet models of an
autogyro. At the same time, the 1930s became a short period when the
Soviet Union actively built airships for the purpose of North exploration. However, the production of both types of aircraft were soon abandoned
and the application of airplanes continued.
In all, a source on early Soviet aerial survey and a witness of
Vadim Shavrov’s amphibious aircraft he invented for this field. Unlike
this one, his models Sh-2 and Sh-7 were produced throughout decades.

Worldcat doesn’t
track this edition.

Price: $850.00