Air Code of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

the unified legislative act containing a systematic exposition of the legal norms that regulate social relations involved with the use of the airspace of the USSR and establishing the operational procedures for civilian aviation and civil aeronautics. The Air Code of the USSR was adopted in 1961 (effective Jan. 1, 1962; Register of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, 1961, no. 52, art. 538). It established that the USSR had complete and exclusive sovereignty over the air-space of the Soviet state—that is, all the space over the land and water territory of the USSR. The code regulates the system of registration and record-keeping for aircraft; the rights and duties of their crews; and the system of organization, registration, and operation of airfields and airports and of flights of airships in the airspace of the USSR and also of international flights within the airspace of the USSR. It also establishes procedures for the international air transport of passengers, baggage, and freight; determines the application of civilian aviation and civil aeronautics in the branches of the national economy of the USSR; and regulates the procedures for the issuance of permits by the Ministry of Civil Aviation of the USSR for the construction and operation of airfields, as well as procedures for ministry approval of the construction of buildings and structures, high-voltage transmission lines, communication lines, and other structures at distances of 10 to 30 km (for structures 200 m high and taller, up to 75 km) from the boundaries of airfields. The legal norms of the Air Code of the USSR are very important in safeguarding airfields and airports and providing for the security of flights, public order, the observance of fire regulations, and so on; they establish administrative responsibility for violations of the respective regulations.