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1938 HELMET FOR SOVIET MILITARY PILOT PRESSURE SUIT "CH-6" BY EVGENY CHERTOVSKY

It's offered to your attention the helmet for very early pressure suit "CH-6" designed by Evgeny Chertovsky for Soviet military pilots in 1938. This suit was the last of Chertovsky pressure suits series prior WWII.

The helmet for "CH-6" pressure suit consists of metal frame covered with special rubberized airtight cotton fabric on the top and back, the plexiglass visor in front and sides, and opening small hatch at the top. The visor of the helmet is made of double cylindrical plexiglass pieces with a gap between them filled with the air, heated by the filament to avoid any mist.

CONDITION - good looking for its age. The small hatch on the top can be opened. The filament wire even still has socket on its end. Plexiglass partly lost its transparency, got brownish tint and some scratches. Some metal parts have rust on them. The fabric flakes off and cracks in some places but does not look too much shabby. Please see the photos.

COMPLETE SET - the helmet comes "as is", exactly the one what is shown on the photos.

COA can be given upon request.

Made in USSR by the first pressure suits designer Chertovsky.

Absolutely unique piece of history! Maybe only one saved from 1938!

Hisctorical reference. In 1937 the Central Aeroclub of the USSR announced a competition to create the best pressure suit and the capsule for high altitude airplane. Evgeny Chertovsky won this competition with the pressure suit "CH-3" and was awarded with a state premium "for the complete solution to the problem of providing life at high altitudes of the stratosphere with the individual encapsulation." Then Chertovsky improved his pressure suits.
The pressure suit "CH-6" was designed in 1938 and tested in 1939 - 1940. The previous version - the pilot pressure suit "CH-5" - allowed to fly at the altitude of 10-15 km, but had two major disadvantages: the glass of the helmet got misted and the fingers could not bend in the gloves. To avoid the above problems, modernized pressure suit "CH-5" and its next model "CH-6" have been designed to meet adjusted requirements. They have been tested in 1939 and 1940 onboard the Soviet bombers TB-3 and DB-3 and in altitude chamber. These tests allowed to move one step forward and resolve the problems of the previous versions of the pressure suits. Design and development of such pressure suits were the part of the pre-WWII Soviet program of creation of special equipment to fly in stratosphere. This program was stopped in 1940. After WWII Evgeny Chertovsky designed emergency pressure suits for military pilots, as well as anti-G suits for the pilots of supersonic airplanes. He designed the project of "spacesuit - capsule" and patented it in the USSR.
The information has been taken from online book "Lost victories of the Soviet aviation" written by Mikhail Maslov.