Valeriy Chkalov is a name-dream, a name-legend and not only for passionate admirers of the heavenly spheres. He became the first pilot to cross the North Pole and land in America. The brave, daring, mischievous, often reckless conqueror of the sky in the bright performance of Vladimir Belokurov was not at all like the flat, one-sided, stencil characters inhabiting the films of that time.—Bazza the Beast

The film is based on the biography of Valeri Chkalov (1904 - 1938), a Russian pilot, who set several long distance flight records. Chkalov and his co-pilots Baidukov and Belyakov together had accomplished several non-stop long-distance flights. In June of 1937 Chkalov set the world record, covering 12000 kilometers in 63 hours of non-stop flight from Moscow to Vancouver, Washington, flying over the North Pole. He was flying a specially designed Russian plane ANT-25, which was also called RD (Record Distance). Chkalov was also a professional test-pilot. He was involved in testing the new Polikarpov fighter, that was designed to fight against the newest German fighters. Chkalov died in a plane crash during the test-flight near Moscow, on December 15th of 1938.—Steve Shelokhonov