Fyodor Konyukhov sets a new world record at the North Pole

On August 6, Russian traveler, honorary doctor of SPbPU Fyodor Konyukhov returned to Murmansk aboard the nuclear-powered icebreaker «50 Years of Victory». Thus ended the expedition on the world’s first single polar drifting station SP-24, which lasted almost three weeks.

On July 8, Fyodor Konyukhov reached the North Pole on a paraglider, improved by SPbPU engineers. The key part of the paraglider — the fairing made of composite materials — was designed by the specialists of School of Advanced Engineering Studies in Digital Engineering. The fairing was also manufactured under the scientific, methodological and technological control of SPbPU engineers, and advanced materials — carbon fiber and glass fabric — were provided by the Composite Division of Rosatom.

Fyodor Konyukhov and pilot Igor Potapkin set a record by being the first in the world to fly the Franz Josef Land archipelago — the North Pole.

The traveler deployed a single drifting polar mini-station at the North Pole. The drift began on July 9 in the western hemisphere. On July 18 Konyukhov crossed the zero meridian and returned to the eastern hemisphere. On July 23, the polar station reached the southernmost point of its route and began moving in the northeastern direction.

The work on the world’s first single polar drifting station SP-24 ended on July 30.

In 20 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes Fyodor Konyukhov traveled 239 km, setting a new world record for duration and distance traveled on a single polar research station near the North Pole.