July's "Gallery of the month" presentation, is going back in time...
Being an airline pilot, I've visited a number of interesting Aviation museums all over the world, including several ones in the US and one outside Beijing, China. While the entire collection can be found here, one clearly sticks out!
10 Years ago, I got in contact with a Russian female photographer through social media, who proposed to go to the Russian Air Force museum outside Moscow, next time I was there. I had heard about the museum but the logistics of getting there without a Russian speaker, had always been challenging. Needless to say that it didn't take long before I accepted the open invitation! Thanks Natalia!
Monino is a disused airport about 50km East of Moscow and was until a few years ago the home of the Gagarin Air Force academy. The museum which opened in 1958, is still the largest aviation museum in the former USSR.
Two hangars hold quite a few memorable World War 2 and experimental aircraft but the main attraction is clearly the more than 100 aircraft parked outside; most of them in various degrees of decay.
As one enters the "airpark", the first attraction is the worlds largest helicopter, the mighty record breaking Mil-V12 which could carry 196 passengers. This twin rotor monster still holds the 1969 record for carrying a load of 40.000 kg to an altitude of 7400 feet. Only two were built and the project was eventually cancelled in 1974.
There is an impressive collection of most Cold War strategic bombers parked at Monino. Interesting NATO used to give all Russian military aircraft a NATO name, this because the official Russian name was often initially not known.
One of my favorites, is the mighty Tupolev TU-95M "Bear". I can still remember seeing pictures of "Bears" being intercepted by NATO aircraft in the 1980's, with the Russian crews waving at the "enemy" aircraft.
While the museum is 90% military, an interesting collection of transport and airline propliners can also be found at the Western side of the static park. This includes the worlds largest turbo-prop aircraft, the Antonov AN-22 "Antheus".
The sleek looking Tupolev TU-114 flew USSR leader Nikita Khrushchev non-stop from Moscow to New York in 1959 on a state visit.
Moving on to fast jets, there is a nice collection of Soviet fighters, including some prime examples of the very beginning of the jet age such as the Yak-23 Flora above.
There also is a fair amount of rare birds on display. The weirdest one is probably the Mig-105 Spiral, nicknamed the "Shoe". This lifting body was the forerunner for the "Buran" which in turn was the Russian version of the Space Shuttle which unfortunately only did one unmanned flight before the project was cancelled with the fall of the Soviet Union.
Another aircraft with a twist is this experimental version of the Sukhoi SU-7; the S-26 equipped with skis to operate from low density runways (snow, etc..).
One of the most interesting aircraft was the Sukhoi T-4, which first took to the skies on 22 August 1972. The aircraft was designed as a high speed reconnaissance, anti-ship and nuclear bomber, a reaction to the US built North American XB-70 Valkyrie. The one on display in Monino, is one of the two prototypes that were built and the only one that ever flew. She only did a total of 10 flights, with just over 10 hours flying time. Unfortunately the project was cancelled in 1974 before the full performance of the aircraft was reached.
As I grew up I've always been fascinated by some of the wacky Russian aircraft designs. I never however thought that one day I would get to see these with my own eyes.
Given the present museum is at a disused military airport, the large majority of the heavy iron has all been flown in. There are rumors that at least part of the museum would move to Patriot park in Moscow, which likely would damage a lot of the unique aircraft on display.
Although it still shows as being open now online, it's unclear what the current state of the museum is. Knowing what's happening between Ukraine and Russia today, it's even more unlikely that I'll ever be able to go back to Monino! Happy I made it in August 2013!
Lastly, for those interested, all of the images were shot on my first Fujfilm camera, the X-E1!
Comments