Moscow Air Show 1992

[Deleted]

Part one of two parts

It's difficult to believe that it's 25 years since I was at this show. It was the first one open to foreign aircraft, though very few appeared. By this time, the 125 was certified for operation in Russia, so we decided to take it along.

It was held at Zhukovsky, the former Soviet development and experimental establishment south of Moscow. I went there a couple of days ahead to make sure that everything was in order and was treated to an outside tour of the establishment - 'nyet foto' - however, I did get to walk down the line before the show was officially opened and here are some of the results:



...and the winner of the ugliest aircraft in show is: Be 12P RA 00073 - also known as the seagull - the Beriev demonstrator. The marks on the tailplane and the floats suggest that it was in regular use.



...and the runner-up is the Myasishchev BM-3 Atlant. The reg is interesting, too. РФ-01502. РФ (RF) presumably stands for Russian Federation, so I'm not sure whether the aircraft was civil or military since it belonged to the Soviet space programme and was used for transporting the capsule and the Buran space shuttle to and from Baikonur, speaking of which:



Looks familiar, doesn't it? Interesting serial, too. CCCP 3501002. In Russian, Buran means storm, which seems an unfortunate name for a flying machine.



A general view of the main apron outside the research unit, which seems to double as a scrapyard. I deliberately haven't cropped any of the photos, so that those who are interested can examine some of the stranger aircraft in the background.



Tu-144 CCCP-77113 is looking in a sorry state there, but someone must have taken pity on it, because at several subsequent Mosaero shows, it appeared as an exhibition aircraft and was in immaculate condition. However it was broken up in 2001. This particular aircraft was previously used to train pilots to fly the Buran.



I've no idea what the An 32 was doing there - it certainly wasn't part of the show, because it disappeared later in the day. It belonged to a company called Stela based in Irkutsk, so it was a long way from home.

Part 2 to follow with a spy story - well it is Russia!

[Deleted]

Part 2:



The Russians seem to like sending one of these to their shows, perhaps as an example of their air power. I saw one (though not necessarily the same one) at each show I went to. It's certainly a beast and like the big Antonovs, makes a fair old racket, both on the ground and in the air. The large tunnels in the background where were the TU-144 engines were tested, apparently. I worked briefly with a guy who was a navigator on one of these things and he said that they were cold and noisy, which given that they were sometimes airborne for 12 hours, must have been very unpleasant.



The Antonov 72 has a Ukrainian flag on the tail, but no prefix before the numbers. I believe Ukraine had the prefix UR- by that time, but maybe they just didn't get around to putting it on. On the Russian spotter's website, it's shown as an Antonov 72B, though I cannot find the sub-type mentioned anywhere else. It appears to be a demonstrator but was not part of the show, as such.



Just a bog-standard TU 154M, belonging to Samara, but how we'd like to see them regularly these days! Bizarrely, this aircraft is now in storage in a sports complex near the Moscow Ring Road!



RA 65906 This looks odd, doesn't it? Just the sort of thing you'd expect to find at Zhukovsky. It belonged to a scientific research association, but I can find little more detail about this - perhaps it's better not to enquire too deeply!



Another strange 134. Note the underwing tanks. Originally built by order of the Ministry of Agriculture as the T134SH, which may explain the wheat-ear on the side. Since 2002 it has been fitted out as a VIP transport.



Looking a little the worse for wear here, but not long after this photo was taken, it was then leased to China as an IL-76LL, to test a new turbofan engine they had produced, but with the dome removed. At the time, it belonged to the research institute at Zhukovsky and was designated IL 976, which explains the number on the cheat line. Apparently it was given the NATO reporting code 'Skip'. Note that it is still wearing the CCCP - prefix.



The Antonov 225 did a display the likes of which I have never seen before or since for such a large aircraft. The 125 pilots and myself watched open-mouthed as it roared along the crowd line and then pulled up like a fighter, rolled steeply to the right and came back again. I would have loved to record that on film. I very much doubt whether such a display would be allowed in the west.



The infamous canard on the Tu-144, and here comes the spy story. As I understand it (this from colleagues who had worked on the Concorde sales team), the British government became aware that the Soviets had gained access to some of the plans for Concorde and had begun to design one of their own. Rather than stop the flow of documents and aware that one of the biggest problems they were having with the -144 was the power of the engines, BAC produced a number of drawings which altered the shape of the inlets in the cowlings, further reducing the airflow and thus the power generated. This is confirmed in a book written by Greville Wynne (who is called a spy but was actually a courier), called 'The Man From Moscow' in which he confirms that he carried the false documents into East Berlin. Wynne was captured, (though not at that time), put on trial and spent several years in the KGB prison at Lubyanka. The rest of the TU-144 story is well-known. So why the canards? I think it is generally accepted, that for whatever reason, the TU-144 had a different engine and wing configuration, which made it even more difficult than Concorde to control at low speeds and thus the canards were added. That's what the aerodynamics people told me, anyway!

My only regret in all this was that I did not have more film. I had used up what I had on other photographs and was not expecting such an unusual variety of aircraft. Even in those days, there was nowhere to buy film, even in Moscow, or if you could it would be of poor quality. Thank God for digital cameras!

[digit]

Great history there!

I'm fairly sure that An72 72966 was the machine involved in a mid-air collision with the An70 prototype at Gostomel, Ukraine on 10.02.95 (the An72 con. number was 36572092847).

Thanks,

GC

[Deleted]

Dec 16, 2017 18:14:57 GMT 1 digit said:

Great history there!

I'm fairly sure that An72 72966 was the machine involved in a mid-air collision with the An70 prototype at Gostomel, Ukraine on 10.02.95 (the An72 con. number was 36572092847).

Thanks,

GC

Yes, I think you're right digit. I checked the Russian Planes.net website and having re-read it, it seems as though it collided with an AN 70 during some test-flying in February 1995.

[radiostationx]

Very enjoyable read as usual @garstonboy with some interesting photos for good measure.

I keep returning to another one of your tales in the NWAN archives when you visited Turkmenistan,an excellent write up also with some amusing side stories and facts.

derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/16787/turkmenistan-tales

[ronturner]

Excellent.