He spent his entire life at sea but always dreamed of the sky. Alexander Fyodorovich Mozhaysky, who rose to the rank of Rear Admiral, went down in history as the inventor of the first Russian airplane. In the early 1860s, Mozhaysky left the service and fully devoted himself to aviation. "I wanted to be useful to my Motherland and took up the development of my project, for which I left my position of service and refused another, also lucrative in terms of salary and career," he said. Money was scarce, and the state was reluctant to help, but the inventor did not give up. In 1884, the first Russian airplane, named after the character of Slavic fairy tales, "The Firebird," was ready. The newspaper Novoye Vremya described Mozhaysky's creation as follows: "The monoplane resembled a boat with wooden ribs covered with fabric. Rectangular wings, slightly curved with the convexity facing up, were attached to the sides of the boat... Two masts were installed in the boat. The wings were held by wire ropes stretched to the masts and supports. There were two engines located in the front part of the boat... There were three propellers, each with four blades..." In the fall of 1884, "The Firebird" underwent testing. The steam-powered airplane accelerated along wooden rails, took off into the air, and, after flying straight for about a hundred meters, began to descend — the low-power engines were inadequate. Mozhaysky did not have time to refine the airplane as he passed away in 1890. The abandoned "Firebird" burned down five years after his death. Nevertheless, the inventor's legacy did not go to waste. His developments were successfully used in the early 20th century in the creation of giant airplanes like "Russky Vityaz," "Svyatogor," and "Ilya Muromets."