Aviation in the agricultural sector: experiments with aviation in the USSR in the 1930-ies

Abstract

The article analyzes the experience of agricultural aviation usage for sowing of grain crops in the Soviet Union in the 1930s. A historiographical review of this problem has been carried out, which testifies to its indisputable scientific, theoretical and applied relevance. The motives for aircraft attracting to sowing operations in the first half of the 1930s have been indicated, and the methods and scale of experiments for conducting aerial sowing have been revealed. By analyzing the scientific literature, archival documents and periodicals of the 1930s, the effectiveness of sowing operations using aviation has been established. The reasons have been revealed, according to which the Party-Soviet leadership eventually abandoned the usage of aircraft as an “air seeder”, having focused the air group efforts on the fight against agricultural pests, firefighting, etc.