Using only a used lens and hand-crafting the remaining components, such as photographic plates, he constructed a working camera at the age of thirteen.

Financial difficulties forced him to give up his artistic goals and enlist in the army, attending the Kiev Military School.

Kotelnikov was greatly moved by the courage and commitment of Russian pilots who ventured to the skies in shaky, primitive planes, and he realized the enormous possibilities of aerial exploration.

[1] He witnessed the death of a talented Russian pilot Lev Matsivich which was such a shock that he became obsessed with the idea of constructing a parachute, to which he devoted several years of his life as well as all his personal savings.

In 1911 he created his first parachute RK-1 (which stands for Rantseviy (knapsack) or Russian Kotelnikova (by Kotelnikov), 1st model), that was successfully employed in 1914 during World War I.

[2] In aviation, however, drag chutes were used for the first time only in 1937 by the Soviet airplanes in the Arctic that were providing support for the famous polar expeditions of the era, such as the first drifting ice station North Pole-1, launched the same year.

In addition to his creative endeavors, Kotelnikov was involved in public service, giving lectures on the advancement of rescue gear, teaching novice pilots, and lending his knowledge to aviation groups.