Regular scheduled passenger service

In November 1921, a joint German-Russian company named Deruluft formally began service between Konigsberg in Germany and Moscow using Dutch Fokker F-3 planes. By 1932–1933, the company flew more than 700 flights a year and carried more than 5,000 passengers. The company used a mix of German and Soviet aircraft such as the Dornier Merkur, the Rohrbach Roland, the
Junkers Ju-52, and the ANT-9. The latter was a nine-passenger, three-engine plane developed by perhaps the most famous of all Soviet aviation designers, Andrey Tupolev. A towering figure in Russian aviation history, Tupolev established one of the main traditions of Soviet aviation, that of designing aircraft suitable for both military and civil uses.

Dereluft was the first Soviet passenger service company, but it did not have a long history. As relations between Germany and Russia began to deteriorate when the Nazis came to power, Deruluft no longer proved economically efficient. On March 31, 1937, the company was dissolved.

But there was another organization that had a much longer-lasting life. In March 1923, the Soviet government created a joint stock company named the Volunteer Association of the Aerial Fleet, or Dobrolet. It was the nation's first major civil airline, which opened a regular air service using German Junkers F-13s along a 250-mile route between the cities of Moscow and Nizhnii Novgorod. Service on those flights was poor, and the passengers had to suffer loud noise, late flights and low temperatures. Despite those problems, Dobrolet expanded through the decade, as it extended its service to far off places into Siberia and even Outer Mongolia. On October 29, 1930, the government combined Dobrolet with the government's Main Administration of the Civil Air Fleet into one state-owned organization.

Aeroflot and after

On March 26, 1932, the Civil Air Fleet was renamed Aeroflot, a word created by combining 'Aero' with 'flot', the Russian word for fleet. By that time, Aeroflot had about 200 aircraft.

In order to reduce its reliance on foreign aircraft, the Soviet government decided in 1935 to use only domestically designed transport aircraft for air service. By the mid-1930s, such Soviet workhorses as Kalinin's K-5, Tupolev's ANT-9, and Bartini's Steel-7 were in wide use by Aeroflot. One of the most spectacular Russian aircraft of the period was Tupolev's ANT-20, a giant six-engine airplane that could carry more than 70 passengers. One foreign aircraft that remained popular, despite the government order, was the American DC-3, which was license-built in Russia under the name Li-2.

Aeroflot had three main goals: to operate an air transport system; to provide different types of services such as aerial surveying, forest-fire fighting, and
agricultural spraying; and to promote educational, recreational, and athletic activities for the public. Aeroflot, in fact, represented all aviation activities in the country that were not military. Civil aviation in Russian in the 1930s remained, however, closely tied to the military.

By the beginning of World War II, Aeroflot was mainly a domestic freight carrier, but the Second World War had a major positive impact on the technical development of the aircraft and Aeroflot advanced into a very important airline with social, political and economic effects.

In 1991 after the disintegration of the USSR, Aeroflot fell apart into five hundred local carriers. It seemed that sound competition among the airlines could solve all the problems, but actually the violation of standards and recommended practices aggravated flight safety. The establishment of strict standards reduced the number of airlines to 227.

At present there are about 112 airlines in Russia and civil aviation is one of the most promising branches of the economy of our country.

В: Answer these questions.

1. When and where was the first regular passenger service opened in our country?

2. What air company performed the flights?

3. What aircraft did it use?

4. What year is considered to be the birth of Aeroflot?

5. Why did the Second World War have a positive impact on the development of aviation?

6. What happened to civil aviation in our country after the disintegration of the USSR?

Ex. 15. Match the words in column A with their synonyms in column B.

A	B
1. joint 2. major 3. to expand 4. reliance 5. spectacular 6. far off 7. freight 8. impact 9. to fall apart 10. violation	a. lawbreaking b. to disintegrate c. influence d. cargo e. impressive f. dependence g. to develop h. significant i. united j. remote

Ex. 16. Match the words in column A with their antonyms in column B.

A	B
1. to deteriorate 2. to volunteer 3. to extend 4. state-owned 5. domestic 6. to provide 7. disintegration 8. strict 9. to aggravate 10. tied	a. separated b. to improve c. careless d. integration e. to reserve f. international g. private h. to reduce / to shorten i. to refuse j. to improve

Ex. 17. The words are taken from the text. Match the words with their definitions given below. Use them in the sentences of your own.