[1] Two years later his family moved to the village of Glebovo just outside Saint Petersburg, which they had left in 1905 before he was born, residing there until 1926.

That year Chelnokov graduated from his ninth grade of school in Kashin before starting to work as a manual laborer in Leningrad.

In 1928 he began studying at the Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute, but left it shortly thereafter upon volunteering to join the military in December.

During the Winter War he flew with the unit as a junior pilot and later flight commander, making 40 sorties on the DB-3 and surviving several close calls with death after facing mechanical failure in the freezing weather.

The aircraft was put back into service after undergoing maintenance, but on the first takeoff after the repairs he was again plagued by engine troubles.

During a mission on 18 August 1943 he led his squadron in a sortie over Anapa that resulted in the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft.

Despite his high position he continued to fly in combat; on 11 March 1944 he led a formation of 19 Il-2s in an attack on Axis naval vessels in Feodosia, resulting in the destruction of transport, patrol, and torpedo boats.

In May 1949 he was promoted to the rank of major-general, After graduating from the Military Academy of General Staff in December that year he was made assistant commander of the air force of the 4th Navy.

[7] After retiring in 1954 lived in Moscow; from 1954 to 1955 he was the deputy head of the department of air and water transportation in the Ministry of Trade.