Rimantas Antanas Stankevičius (, ; 26 July 1944 in Marijampolė,

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

– 9 September 1990 in Salgareda,

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

) was a

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

and

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

in the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

space shuttle Buran programme. He was killed in a crash of his Su-27 fighter plane during an airshow in Salgareda.

Biography

In 1966 he graduated from Chernigov Higher Aviation School. After that he served as a

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

pilot in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

. In 1975 Stankevičius graduated from the Fedotov Test Pilot School and became a

. He accomplished spin testing of MiG-29. He flew 57 types of aircraft and had over 4000 hours of flying experience. In 1982 he was graded as a 1st class test-pilot. In 1979 he was assigned to the Buran programme. In February 1982 he passed all the required exams and became the first Lithuanian

. After September 1984 he trained to fly the 11F35 ( Buran, USSR space shuttle). Stankevičius accomplished 14 test-flights with Buran's counterpart BTS-02 aircraft and 6 taxi tests with Buran. He was both the pilot and the commander of the space shuttle. In 1990 Rimantas Stankevičius participated the Everett Air Show with a Su-27 fighter jet. Soon after his return home, he went to Italy to replace another USSR pilot in Salgareda Air Show. On 9 September, during a flight in the show in a Su-27, he started a loop in a lower altitude than he estimated and made an unintentional touchdown. He died in the crash. The crash resulted in only one fatality aside from the pilot. Stankevičius, along with Soviet cosmonauts Igor Volk and Sergei Tresvyatskiy, worked closely with Americans in the late 1980s to improve relations during the Cold War. The three were involved in what is believed to be the first formation flight with Soviet SU-27 fighter planes and American F-16s in history in July 1990 (before the breakup of the USSR) at the Opening Ceremonies of the Goodwill Games in Seattle. The three also flew the first Americans, (8 members of the Organizing Committee of the 1990 Goodwill Games) since World War II in an Ilyushin Il-62 from Seattle to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, USSR in 1989. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was one of the most important and secretive air and submarine bases in the USSR.

Death

Stankevičius was killed in the crash of a

Sukhoi Su-27 The Sukhoi Su-27 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker) is a Soviet Union, Soviet-origin twinjet, twin-engine supersonic Supermaneuverability, supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. It was intended as a direct competitor for the lar ...

fighter, '14 Red', at the Salgareda Air Show at Treviso, Italy on 9 September 1990. Stankevičius is buried in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

, Lithuania.

References

External links

Su-27 crash Salgareda Airshow 1990 – YouTube
1944 births 1990 deaths Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in Italy Buran program People from Marijampolė Soviet cosmonauts Lithuanian aviators Lithuanian astronauts Lithuanian cosmonauts Soviet Air Force officers Soviet test pilots Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1990 Fedotov TPS alumni Gromov Flight Research Institute employees {{Lithuania-bio-stub