The tests of the first aerial lift in Russia will take place on Saturday in the center of St. Petersburg, Vitaly Lebedev, chairman of the Aviation and Cosmonautics History Section of the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told TASS.
An airlift is a balloon fixed on the ground and rising to a height of about 100 meters to view the city.
«The first aerial lift in Russia will allow you to see St. Petersburg from the same height as St. Isaac’s Cathedral, about 100 meters, but from a new point. Today we will conduct the first tests, and in November we will start rolling tourists,» Lebedev said, adding that during the tests will be raised to a low height to check the operation of all systems and components.
Similar airlifts are already operating in London, Amsterdam, Tallinn and Riga, he said. The St. Petersburg air lift will be permanently located in the city as an object of tourist infrastructure.
Lebedev said that the idea of creating an airlift had been ripening for a long time, initially it was planned to build it in cooperation with the British, but they asked for a «space price». After a while, Russian developers created the design themselves, following the path of import substitution.
According to Lebedev, the appearance of an airlift in St. Petersburg will solve two problems — a practical one, since a new point of attracting tourists will be created, as well as a historical and cultural one. «St. Petersburg was the birthplace of domestic aeronautics and aviation, it was here at the beginning of the 20th century that the first aircraft under the control of Russian pilots took off,» said the agency’s interlocutor.
