Pyotr Nesterov
Russian aviator (1887–1914)
Pyotr Nikolayevich Nesterov (Russian: Пётр Николаевич Нестеров; 27 February [O.S. 15 February] 1887 – 8 September [O.S. 26 August] 1914) was a Russian pilot, aircraft designer and aerobatics pioneer.
Life and career
Nesterov was born on 15 February 1887 in Nizhny Novgorod, into the family of an army officer, a cadet corps teacher. In August 1904, he left the military school in Nizhny Novgorod and went to Mikhailov artillery academy in St Petersburg. He became a second lieutenant and served in the 9th East Siberian Artillery Brigade in Vladivostok. By the laws of that time, an officer who married before the age of 28 had to contribute a so-called ‘reserve’ to the state treasury – a deposit of 5,000 rubles to provide for his family in the event of his death. The only exception was made for officers who served in the Far East; as Nesterov did not have the money, he took his young wife to the Far East.
In 1909, Nesterov came into contact with aviation when he was posted to a balloon observation regiment as an observer. In 1911 he built his first glider and learned to fly it, before entering flight training at the St. Petersburg aviation school at Gatchina in June, graduating 11 October 1912. A short time later he also passed the examination to be a military pilot.
The public source identifies “Pyotr Nesterov” as russian aviator (1887–1914). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Pyotr, Nesterov and Russian.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q966524. VIAF identifies the subject as 78903196. The Library of Congress control number is no2009013954. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887, 1914, 1904 and 1909.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pyotr Nesterov” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.