“Heavier than air” journalas source of studying history of domestic aeronautics

Abstract

The purpose of the work. Basing on found archival materials and historiographical sources there were investigated the preconditions of the “Heavier than air” journal origin, the content and peculiarities, the structure of periodic edition were analyzed, there was established a range of priority topics of publications, found out its significance to popularize the knowledge of aeronautics and contribution to the formation of domestic aviation. Methodology. In accordance with the goal and found informative sources, the principles and methods of research were identified, the theoretical and methodological basis of which formed general scientific principles: objectivity, historicism, reliability, representativeness, etc. It was carried out using general scientific logical methods, in particular analysis and synthesis. A problem-chronological method was applied. It allowed to distinguish certain problems and consider them in a chronological sequence of historical events. The scientific novelty consists in the fact that the periodical publication “Heavier than air” for the first time in the historiographic literature is determined by the object of research, in the process of which it is intensified in the field of popularization of aeronautics knowledge. It was established that in the territory of modern Ukraine, the magazine was one of the first specialized population issues for aeronautics. Conclusions. The conducted research allowed to figure out the little-known facts on the establishment of a periodic edition of the aeronautical department of Kharkiv Department of the Imperial Russian Technical Society. The magazine “Heavier than air” was issued by own expense of Society. Diverse information on the latest achievements of domestic and world aerostats was placed on its pages. The magazine is a valuable source on the activities such well-known scientists and avia engineers as I. I. Sikorsky, S. V. Gryzodubov, A. K. Lelier, G. F. Proskurа, etc. Nowadays this publication is a real bibliographic rarity as in the territory of Ukraine in libraries (Kharkiv Korolenko State Scientific Library) only 8 соpies for the first year of publication (1911) have been preserved, and their condition leaves much to be desired. Besides the significance of the journal is a valuable source on the history of aeronautics.