Posted by Bill Ryan
(here)
Posted by Star Mariner
(here)
Yup, the first man in space was quite possibly
Vladimir Ilyushin. The theory went, that similar to any revolutionary new prototype, it had to have a test pilot. Ilyushin was that test pilot. If the mission went horribly wrong and he never returned from space it would severely embarrass the Soviet Union, so the mission was kept secret. As it was a success, Gagarin had the green light for the first publicly disclosed manned space flight. This is an old, very old conspiracy theory that has never gone away. Unfortunately it's difficult to prove if not impossible, but a 'trial run' prior to Gagarin does make a lot of sense.
Yes. Here you go. It's interesting to look up the many articles about this. I'm reasonably convinced the story is true, and that the reason why Ilyushin was never paraded to the world is because he was quite badly injured in the landing.
Here's the exact transcript, as some of the text is a little hard to read:
~~~
Soviet astronaut circles the earth three times
THE FIRST MAN IN SPACE
Back alive — but suffering from effects of his flight
THE Soviet Union has launched the first man into space and
brought him back to earth alive, according to well-informed
sources here.
The astronaut, said to be the test-pilot son of a top-ranking
Soviet aircraft designer, is understood to be suffering after-effects
from his flight.
Top aviation medical
specialists and leading
space scientists are in
constant attendance.
They are keeping him
under close observation.
An official announcement re-
garding the flight, said to have
taken place on Friday, is ex-
pected tomorrow.
The astronaut is said to have
completed three orbits around
the earth some 200 miles out in
space before returning to earth
in response to a signal from
ground-station.
EAGER WAIT
His flight was made in a space
vehicle weighing about 4½ tons
of the type previously tested in
space flight with dogs.
The city has for the last 24
hours been waiting with baited
breath in expectation of the
official announcement that the
Union has won the space race.
All day Muscovites have been
keeping an ear cocked at their
radios.
Evening papers were eagerly
snatched up and scanned for
confirmation — or refutal — of
the many rumours circulating
amoung journalistic and scienti-
fic circles in the city.
Let's celebrate the first human in space by pretending he did not exist
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Rather, he was just rolled out as the USSR's handsome poster child. (Short on time here, but I'll update more on this very fascinating topic a little later.)
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