Timur Apakidze
| Timur Avtandilovich Apakidze Тимур Автандилович Апакидзе თემურ აფაქიძე |
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| Born |
March 4, 1954 Tbilisi, Georgia |
| Died | July 17, 2001 (aged 47) Ostrov, Russian Federation |
| Allegiance |
 Soviet Union Russia
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| Service/branch |
Soviet Naval Aviation Russian Naval Aviation
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| Years of service | 1975–2001 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands held |
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| Battles/wars | Cold War |
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Timur Avtandilovich Apakidze (Russian: Тимур Автандилович Апакидзе, Georgian: თემურ აფაქიძე Temur Apakidze) (March 4, 1954 – July 17, 2001) was a Russian major general of Georgian ethnicity, fighter pilot, flight specialist and founder of the modern Russian naval aviation and Hero of the Russian Federation.
Timur Apakidze was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR into the royal Georgian Muslim house of Apakidze. His mother moved with him to Leningrad when he was one year old. There he grew up and attended school. After graduating from 8th grade Apakidze enrolled in the Leningrad Nakhimov Naval School. In 1971 on the eve of graduation the chief commander of the academy telegraphed Admiral Sergey Gorshkov about Apakidze's exceptional skills and requested his return to the fleet as soon as he had finished flight school. The Admiral agreed and from 1971 Apakidze started to serve in the Soviet military, naval aviation respectively. The same year he became cadet of the Yeysk Higher Military Aviation School.
In 1975 at the end of his EVVAU graduaction in Yeysk Timur Apakidze got appointed, with the rank of lieutenant, pilot of the 846th Separate Guards Naval Attack Aviation Regiment named "VP Chkalov" of the Baltic Fleet. By 1983 already promoted to major he acted as deputy commander for the same regiment's flight training. During that appointment he introduced hand-to hand combat training for pilots convinced that warriors without a weapon should know how to defend themselves if the situation was given. In 1986 after graduating from th Grechkov Naval Academy he was sent to the city of Nikolayev as commander of the 100th Fighter Regiment and educated himself on shipborne aviation techniques in the "Center of Naval Aviation". From the late 1980s to the early 1990s he was considered the best Soviet then Russian fighter pilot, being the first one who would land a Su-27K (Su-33) on deck of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov on September 26, 1991. During the same day he performed another three landing manoeuvre and afterwards also successfully tested the same manoeuvres at night and under difficult weather conditions, practically becoming founder of the modern Russian naval aviation. Prior to that Apakidze had lost one of the first aircraft of the series, codenamed "T-10K-8" due to control malfunctions. He survived the incident by ejecting but repeatedly stated that he could not forgive himself for not having saved the fighter.
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Wikipedia