The Reds passed off Gagarin as an astronaut, and then later tried to make him a pilot.
Back around 1968-1969, SCIENCE AND MECHANICS magazine has a series of articles claiming the Gagarin’s trip into space was a fake. They also claimed later trips into space were also fakes.
Did he know the Clintons?
Career in the Soviet Air ForceValentina Gagarina, Sima Eivazova and Yuri Gagarin in Bulgaria in 1966 After graduating from the technical school in 1955, the Soviet Army drafted Gagarin.[7] On a recommendation, Gagarin was sent to the First Chkalov Air Force Pilot's School in Orenburg, and soloed in a MiG-15 in 1957.[4][6][7] While there he met Valentina Ivanovna Goryacheva,[3] a medical technician graduate of the Orenburg Medical School.[6][8] They were married on 7 November 1957, the same day Gagarin graduated from Orenburg.[3][6]
Post-graduation, he was assigned to the Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. He became a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Forces on 5 November 1957; on 6 November 1959 he received the rank of Senior Lieutenant.[9]
He was a pilot before he joined the Cosmonaut program, although who knows how good of a pilot he was.
He was actually a pilot before he went to space. Rumor is that he was picked partly because of his diminutive size.
A lot of our astronaut/rocket test corps had engineering backgrounds as well, Crossfield and Armstrong come to mind.
‘conspiracy theories sprung up to explain’
Should be:
‘conspiracy theories sprang up to explain’
Probably was being a hot shot and pilot error.