Russia 1995

This was one of the first organised aircraft enthusiast tours to the newly open Russia and I jumped at the chance to go having spent many years chasing Soviet aircraft during the cold war years when it was a real rarity to see such types. This was a tour into the unknown in so far as we did not know exactly what we would be permitted to do, with photography still being forbidden or restricted at many airfields we visited.

At this time the monolithic state airline Aeroflot had only just begun to break up into many different operators with virtually all aircraft remaining in their original factory delivered Aeroflot marks. Most of the new airlines appeared from the organisational structures left behind in the many Aeroflot directorates and regions. Although operated by the various new carriers most flights still operated with Aeroflot flight numbers essentially as they had done for decades! Most aircraft noted were still operational and many were retired later in the 1990's as the financial realities of operating them became a strain

Many thanks to Eric Osbourne and Aeroprints for organising the tour, Intourist for the tour organisation in Russia and our tour guide Galena for smoothing the paperwork during each visit.

Day 1 - 10th April 1992

Early morning at Terminal-2 London-Heathrow airport to meet our group for onward travel to Moscow. Overbooking meant that our group became split with some following on a later flight. The bulk of our party boarded our Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62M CCCP-86510 for our three hour flight east.

During the flight clear weather over eastern Europe allow some airfield spotting from 30000ft! Clearly visible about an hour from Moscow was a single runway airfield with a large ramp with about 20 Ilyushin Il-76's clearly visible! Later investigation suggests that this may have been Vitebsk in Belarus which was a VTA base at the time.

A mid afternoon arrival at Moscow-Sheremetyevo allowed glimpses from the plane of extensive parking areas and huge numbers of parked aircraft. However any closer look had to wait as Russian immigration had to be negotiated. Four hours later we were finally allowed in and met with our Intourist guide for our visit. As we had some time to wait for the rest of our party to arrive we were guided to the public restaurant in the main terminal which has a wonderful panoramic view across the whole field. Best visitor hiding in the dark was North Korean Tu-154 P-551. In the fading light a variety of IL-76, Tu134 and Tu-154's were seriptitiously read off before the remainder of our party arrived and we departed for the Hotel Cosmos for our stay.

Day 2 - 12th April 1992

First day of dedicated spotting started from the hotel as it was realised that two airliners were visible in the distance from the hotel windows. These turned out to be CCCP-42304 Yak-42 and CCCP-85005 Tu-154 preserved in the Park of Economic Achievment. Sheremetyevo Airport was our first port of call for the day were the airport authorities had permitted our group to use a room used for terminal ramp control to view from. Later in the day a ramp tour around the international side of the airfield gave a closer look at the cargo area.

MPR-85644 Tupolev Tu-154M
MIAT - Mongolian Airlines
Moscow-Sheremetyevo 12th April 1992

Being the main base of Aeroflot's international division, many of the aircraft using terminal 1 were the same one's often seen at other European airports, with large numbers of Tu-154's, Il-62's and Il-86's. To the right of the terminal was the airport freight ramp with a good variety of Il-76's including an example from Cubana. Also here were a couple of rare (in Europe) Tu-154S freighters.

The far side of the two parallel runways had far more interest for European enthusiasts. At left lay the mortal remains of an Ilyushin Il-18 dumped on the airfield with old Aeroflot titles. Next came a large ramp and hangers containing aircraft operated by the weather research institute including a couple of Il-18's with strange modifications. Also here were an assortment of helicopters including a giant Mil Mi-26. A long line of parked aircraft then lead to the ramp area around Terminal 2 where a number of Tu-134's and An-24's were noted. Another long line of parked freight aircraft that led to the far right hand side of the view where a compound included another Il-76 and a Tupolev Tu-22M bomber! used for ground instruction. One interesting visitor was Yak-42 LY-AAT painted in Aeroflot colours but operated by the new Lithuanian Airlines. Yak-42's were rarely seen outside the Soviet Union in past years.

For the afternoon a visit to Moscow - Domodedevo airport had been arranged. This airport is reached by a long, purpose built highway that runs from the city direct to the airport terminal. It was apparently built to allow the Soviet leadership motorcades a direct and swift run to the airport! This airport handled traffic from the Soviet far east and south and as such virtually nothing here had been seen in Western Europe.

The first aircraft noted on arrival is a spectacular Tupolev Tu-114 four engine prop airliner mounted on a plinth in front of the terminal building! Investigation of the area to the right of the road on the airport approach revealed the fuselages of two more of the type being used for storage. After spending some time clearing formalities with the airport authority we transferred to an airport bus for our arranged ramp tour.

The airfield comprises two widely spaced parallel runways with the terminal alongside a connecting taxiway. The area to the right of the terminal has a large parking area used almost excusivly by Tu-154's. Alongside the runway on this side of the airport were a long line of parked Il-62's and Il-76's with hangers engaged on Il-62 maintenance. Also noted here were a couple of Il-18's in the process of being dismantled. To the left of the terminal lay other ramps containing a number of Yak-42's and most interestingly a group of Ilyushin Il-18's in red 'polar' Aeroflot colours, some of which flew during our visit. Tucked away to the left of the terminal another ramp was crammed with An-12's,An-26's and Il-76's to which we were not allowed access. Many of the aircraft here had out of sequence registrations in the CCCP-939XX batch as they were apparently used by the KGB!

Following our tour we were invited to visit the control tower mounted on the top of the terminal building. Following a somewhat steep climb to a somewhat rickety walkway on the roof, a fantastic view of the whole airfield could be had, with all arrivals taxying in front of us. Finally arriving during our visit was one of the first Ilyushin Il-96 airliners CCCP-96006.

Day 3 - 13th April 1992

Another very full day visiting sites of interest around Moscow started with the longish drive out of the city to visit the large aircraft collection at Monino. On the way the main road passed a large military compound in Novaya where a Tupolev Tu-104 jet was noted some distance away. This transpired to be CCCP-42485 used for police training.

Access to the collection at Monino (which lies within the Gagarin Air Institute) had been prearranged and we finally entered the base after a lengthy check of permissions by the soldiers on the gate. We were met by our very knowledgible guide for an escorted tour of the collection.

The first part of the collection was a building contained numerous displays and memorablia along with a selection of older more delicate aircraft such as a Polikarpov Po-2 biplane and Lavochkin La-7 WW2 fighter. We then proceeded outside to the very large display area. The first aircraft seen was the immense Mil V-12 helicopter that once appeared at the Paris Salon.

A huge variety of aircraft are held in the collection including almost one of every type operated by the Soviet military supplemented by dozens of prototypes and record breaking aircraft accumulated from the many design bureau's based in Moscow. I had seen few of the aircraft types here before except in grainy cold war era photographs and recognition guides. Highlights were numerous including the giant Myasichev M-4 bomber, giant Antonov An-22 transport and prototype Sukhoi Su-27 the T.10. Amazing prototypes such as the huge Mysasichev M-50 "Bounder" jet bomber which never went into widespread service and the huge delta wing Sukhoi T.100. Helicopters were also well represented with highlights being the huge Mil Mi-10 heavy lift machine and seemingly out of place American registered Vertol V-44! Unfortunately the icy cold wind blowing across the more open areas of the site had a devastating effect on my camera equipment which promptly died less than half way around the collection. More photo's can be found here

Noted outside the the museum compound were a small collection of aircraft used by the air institute including a 'Bear' bomber and a civil marked Ilyushin Il-76 along with a number of smaller unidentified types. We were told that many of the aircraft here had flown in, but with no permanent hard runway arrivals can only take place during the winter when the ground is frozen hard!

One other point of interest here is that the museum site lies under the flight path to Chakalovsky or Star City airfield. This airfield was very definately off limits at the time of our visit being used by the military and space program, however noted overflying were and Ilyushin Il-22 (ELINT Il-18) an AirForce Tupolev Tu-134 and a military Ilyushin Il-76 transport in Aeroflot marks.

Leaving the museum after an all too short visit we headed for our next airfield tour. On route we stopped briefly by a helicopter landing ground we had noticed earlier in the day. A selection of helicopters including a Mil-10 and some 6 Mil-26's (mostly unmarked) were identified here. In the trees were noted a great number of Kamov Ka-32 fuselages none identified. This field was later identified as Lyubertsey and was a test field for the Kamov and Mil design bureaus hence the number of new build Mil-26's.

We finally arrived at our next port of call, the airfield of Myatchkovo. This field was used as a base for the polar division of Aeroflot and was one of the few airfield visits where it was permitted for us to walk the field. There were large numbers of Antonov An-30 transports used for mapping and geophysical survey work which had recently been recalled and parked hear following the end of the Soviet Union and it's funding. Also evident here were a number of Ilyushin Il-14's previously operated in the Soviet north. These had been retired here and were rapidly being scrapped with only four intact aircraft being noted (about a dozen had been present a month earlier!) and a large pile of scrap.

Large numbers of helicopters were also present with some 30 Mil-2's being stored and a variety of Mil-8's. One Mil-8T VIP transport was being prepared for delivery to Sri Lanka. In addition a good variety of smaller types were parked here including An-2's, Yak-18T's and Let 410's making this field the closest to a general aviation field visited on the tour. One surprising difference was that one Yak-18T did not have the standard CCCP- registration prefix but a FLA- prefix. It later became clear this was a new prefix system for private aircraft issued by the new Russian Federation. Finally a very rare Antonov An-8 was noted on a ramp declared off-limits. This rare twin engined transport was the forerunner of the more common Antonov An-12 and was built in much smaller numbers. Photographic opportunities were very limited here with most areas off limits including a factory site next to the field and sadly the scrapping area.

Having finished our excellent tour of this field we reboarded our Intourist bus for our next destination of Bykovo Airport. This airport handled traffic from European Russia with Yak-42's and smaller airliners making up the majority of the traffic. The first aircraft noted here was CCCP-61634 Ilyushin Il-14 preserved on a plinth next to the terminal building. While our guide sought out our contact in the terminal we were allowed to walk through to a courtyard that gave some views across the airfield. Parked directly in front were a number of Yak-42's with some An-24's noted outside some small hangers to the left. With our tour organised our coach was permitted to cross airside and a comprehensive look at the ramps began. Large numbers of An-24/An-26/An-30 were noted including one An-24 belonging to the VTA. A couple of Let 410's were also present being used for medevac purposes.

Of great interest here is a large area to the right of the terminal which is a rework factory for Il-76's and Yak-42's. A number of Il-76's were parked on a ramp not easily visible from landside. Highlight here was Libyan Il-76 5A-DNA, this having been stored here since the international air embargo on Libya following the bombing of the Pan Am 747. Noted on the far side of the runway were yet another Il-14 and a Yak-42 apparently dumped.

Final visit of the day was to the airport at Vnukovo. This was a busy airport handling traffic from many destinations within the former Soviet Union and was where we planned to catch our first internal flight to Kiev. Displayed in the carpark was smartly painted Tupolev Tu-104 CCCP-L5412. Permission was gained to sit within a small cafeteria that overlooked the main ramp while we waited for our flight (photographs were forbidden). Aircraft movements are dominated here by Tu-154's and many Il-86's but with a selection of An-24's and Tu-134's. The far side of the field was taken up by a large ramp used by the Russian Government air fleet with large numbers of Il-62's and Tu-134's being noted. Also here is a large Tu-154 rework plant and parked on their ramp were exotic's B-4001 & B-4003 of China United and 7O-ACT of Alyemda!

Finally it was time to catch our flight to Kiev. In keeping with normal Soviet practice, foreign tourists were kept separate from other travellers and usually given the forward cabins on the plane. This worked as planned until the gate opened and the passengers rushed towards the waiting plane where an undignified scrum to get onboard developed! Having fought our way onto the plane (Tu-154B-2 CCCP-85407) we were soon underway with takeoff acceleration being spritely and some sharp turns on takeoff. Landing at Kiev-Borispol the reason for the scruffy carpets in the plane became obvious as none of the seat backs were fixed in place and flop forward during breaking! The only way to prevent being thrown forward into the seat in front is too dig your heels into the carpet! Landing in Kiev occured late evening and after nightfall and it was somewhat disconcerting to see the flight crew exit the plane rapidly before the passengers!

A number of aircraft were identified during taxy in and during an extended wait on the ramp while waiting for the transfer bus. Large numbers of Tu-134's were noted parked around the ramp as well as other types hidden in the poorly lit areas. Of interest was 85701 Tu154M without a prefix(UR- prefixs had not yet been adopted) having been recently delivered for use by the new Ukraine Government. A burley military officer took a severe dislike to the spotting activities of some of our party requiring the quick intervention of our guide before we were allowed to depart for our hotel for the night.

Day 4 - 14th April 1992

First port of call for today was an arranged tour of Kiev-Zhulyany airport. This airport was Kiev's first airport and was now used for mostly for local flights within Ukraine but turned out to be far more interesting. After a lengthy wait while the authorities contacted Moscow for confirmation that we were allowed to visit, we were finally ushured through a side gate onto the main ramp. Most of the aircraft in use here were Antonov turboprops with half a dozen An-30's for good measure. One of these was fully painted in new Air Ukraine titles one of the first aircraft to have been repainted. To the right of the terminal is the large Antonov rework facility separated by a wall from the main ramp. Noted were a variety of exotic aircraft awaiting their turn including two Indian AirForce An-32's and an An-26 belonging to Lao Aviation!

One area of the ramp was given over to agricultural aircraft with a large variety of An-2's and Kamov Ka-26 helicopters. Noted on the other side of the field partially hidden by trees were a number of aircraft used by a technical training school including the prototype Ilyushin Il-86 CCCP-86000 and Ilyushin Il-76 CCCP-76511. To complete the variety here a selection of military aircraft operated by the Ukraine AirForce were present including Mil-8's and An-26's. A large batch of An-24's parked near hear had recently been returned from Poland and still wore their LOT colours.

An appreciative group then boarded our bus for our next destination. Due to a misunderstanding our tour organisers Intourist had arranged a visit to the Antonov Design Bureau in Kiev and not the airfield at Gostomel as had been expected! However this turned out to be very interesting with the deputy head of Antonov giving a tour of their small museum of memorabilia. Only aircraft here however was a very early An-2 marked 'CCCP-1947' preserved by the main entrance.

Day 5 - 15th April 1992

Up at 0200! for and 0500 departure from Borispol airport for our next destination of Tashkent in Uzbekistan. Our tour group was kept separate from the other passengers as usual until it was time to board when when the cabin crew took a dislike to us and sent us down the back! Our aircraft for this leg was CCCP-86704 a standard IL-62 operated by a fledgling Air Ukraine. Boarding procedure involved letting everyone rush the plane find a seat and then make their way to the back of the plane to put their luggage in the storage area! Chaos! Take off with a full load of passengers was somewhat interesting with the aircraft taking every inch of runway to get off the ground and the airport perimeter fence dissapearing underneath by not very much!

Inflight catering comprised a lump of processed cheese, a hunk of cucumber and two chunks of bread wrapped in polythene and one small cup of carbonated water distributed by a burley stewardess.

Arrival in Tashkent heralded a welcome rise in temperature (mid 20'sC) and revealed an airport heaving with aircraft parked on extensive parking ramps on the terminal side of the field. However the terminal building afforded only limited views so not much was identified during transit.

We transferred to our hotel for the morning while we waited for our pre-arranged airport tour in the afternoon. Nothing to do except watch the badly dubbed John Claude Van Damme movie on the tv. Finally we drove back to the airport during which we discovered that there had been a monumental misunderstanding by Intourist with the arrangements, the airport authorities were expecting a business delegation and a meeting had been set up with among others the airport manager, head of security and boss of the Ilyushin factory! A somewhat embarrassing half hour meeting proceeded with the clearly unimpressed airport high brass (who can blame them!). This sadly had the effect of having our tour of the Ilyushin Il-76 factory and ramps cancelled on the spot although the airport relented and allowed a tour of their part of the airport since we had come so far.

Our tour began allowing a closer look at the many aircraft here. Many of the aircraft were operated by Uzbekistan Airlines although all were still in Aeroflot marks. These included many Tu-154's, Il-62's and most of the Il-86 fleet with smaller numbers of Tu-134's. A separate ramp contained the local fleet comprising An-24's and Yak-40's.

Further down the ramp was a large area given over to Ilyushin Il-62 maintenance with a number of very old airframes here. Also parked here were many of the airframes returned from service with East German operator Interflug all awaiting heavy maintenance and resale. All carried Soviet registrations but retained their red basic colours. In among these was one of the first aircraft repainted into the colors of one of the new CIS operators this being CCCP-86133 IL62M of Air Ukraine.

CCCP-86667 Ilyushin Il-62
Aeroflot
Tashkent-Yuzhnny 15th April 1992
Retired and being stripped of spares

Beyond these ramps were a number of Ilyushin Il-76's including some military aircraft with added tail guns! Access to this part of the ramp was not permitted unfortunately. Also noted were a group of four visiting An-12's parked well away from the terminal. Another surprising visitor was a USAF Lockheed C-141 Starlifter noted earlier in the morning. Star visitor for me was YA-TAR Tu154M of Ariana Afghan Airlines.

Somewhat disappointed we returned to the airport terminal and found a quiet spot with a view in the terminal for a little low-key spotting for a while with a few more Tu-154's being noted. Returning to the hotel we relaxed with an excellent meal and a few German beers bought from a hawker in the street outside!

Day 6 - 16th April 1992

Today we were due to fly direct to St. Petersberg, however the service we were due to use had been cancelled so this necessitated flying via Moscow. Although time consuming it did allow return visits to Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports as a bonus.

Returning to Tashkent airport a number of additional aircraft noted include more An-24's and Yak-40's. Also parked on the terminal were a number of Turkish aircraft including a airforce Hercules transport. After a while it was time to board flight Aeroflot 662 to Moscow-Domodedovo operated by Uzbekistan Airlines IL-86 CCCP-86072. Takeoff allowed a good view of the airport as we climbed out including a view over the factory site with a number of Ilyushin Il-76's noted among the hangers. Also noted was the dump containing a number of early IL-62's in various states of disrepair. Most of the visiting An-12's that had been parked in this area had departed. Our three hour flight frequently exhibited the Ilyushins characteristic of 'porpoising' during cruise, gently climbing and descending like a gentle rollacosta.

Lunchtime arrival at a cold, damp Domodedovo allowed more airliners to be logged on taxi-in and from the taxi rank outside the terminal while waiting for our connecting bus. Many new Tu-154's and Il-62's were noted along with a selection of other types.

The drive across Moscow turned out to have some aviation interest with a Mikoyan MiG-21 marked 07 red being noted on a pole outside a military facility. Also while stopped at some lights in the city center, a truck passed us with Antonov 2 CCCP-29330 on the back! Further along the road we overtook it again and managed to read the construction number from the other side of the fuselage!

We finally arrived at Shermetyevo this time going to SVO-2 the domestic terminal. This terminal handled traffic to the Russian northern areas and the terminal was full of military personnel travelling to the naval ports so discretion was necessary. Preserved outside the terminal here was Ilyushin Il-18 CCCP-75554 which we could not see from the international terminal. Our scheduled Tu-134 service to St. Petersburg had been cancelled so we rebooked on a later service. This left us several hours to wait so it was decided to return to the restaurant in the international terminal for a while.

During our wait a number of interesting aircraft were noted including two Antonov An-12's, a couple of Mil-8 helicopters and lots more assorted Tu-134's. Other visitors included JY-AFP Sabreliner of Arab Wings, P-881 Ilyushin Il-62 of North Korean Airlines and colorfully painted SU-OAB Ilyushin Il-76 of Cairo Air Cargo.

Finally it was time to depart for St.Petersberg, this time it was CCCP-85334 Tu-154B-2 that took us on our one hour flight notable only for the stunningly attractive stewardesses! We arrived in a cold, damp and gloomy St.Petersberg during late afternoon. The airfield covers a large area of land with a modest size terminal designed to represent an ocean liner, this fact being obvious as we looked back from a distance on the way to our hotel in the city. Noted departing as we taxyed in was a unidentified Il-76. A modest selection of aircraft were noted around the terminal including a number of An-26 freighters. Visible on a distant parking area was an airforce An-12 marked 95 red.

Day 7 - 17th April 1992

The day started with a sightseeing tour of the city on the way back to Pulkovo airport where our tour had been organised.

LY-ABG Tupolev Tu-134A
Lithuanian Airlines
St.Petersburg-Pulkovo 17th April 1992

Many of the aircraft noted the night before were still present but these had been supplemented by a further five An-12's and a rare active Antonov An-8. Pulkovo airport had been used for many years as the gateway to the Soviet arctic with as many as a dozen An-12's being noted previously. These appeared to nightstop and depart during the day transporting mail and other goods northward. Noted on the airfield during our tour were a number of Mil-8's including two from the Bulgarian AirForce. It was discovered later that there is a large Mil-8 rework facility here. Traffic during our visit was very slow with only LY-ABG Tu-134 of Lithuanian Airlines being of note.

During our visit an invitation to see the area radar facility was made and quickly accepted. A close look at the radar screens revealed lots of interesting flights enroute in the general area with many showing their registrations. Many of these were in unusual serial batches not often seen before, suggesting that they may have been military aircraft using civilian registrations for ATC purposes. Some years later an airfield at Pushkin nearby came to the attention of the enthusiast community with a large variety of special aircraft such as ELINT Il-22's being noted. It would seem that many of the flights we saw may have been in connection with this airfield. A polite request to the staff resulted in a look at the previous days departure logs which identified the Il-76 we saw depart as military variant CCCP-78831!

Our afternoon visit was to the smaller airfield at Rshevka. This turned out to have a variety of smaller types including lots of An-2s. A good variety of helicopters were also present here including Mil Mi-2's, Mi-8's and Kamov Ka-26's in a variety of Aeroflot colors including polar red and ex military green.

This airfield was also used extensivly by the northern directorate of Aeroflot, with five survey Antonov An-30's present and a single Ilyushin Il-14. Just like Myatchkovo before, many Il-14's had been noted here just a few months before, but all bar one had been reduced to scrap.

This was our last ramp tour of the trip so nothing now except some sight seeing and relaxing at the hotel.

Day 8 - 18th April 1992

Returning to Pulkovo Airport in the morning to catch our flight back to London. Views from the terminal were limited with some small windows being the only views onto the ramp. Three more An-12's were noted and two more Mil-8's along with a couple of other airliners all that were to be seen. Somewhat alarming from the passengers point of view is that the airfield dump was just across the ramp from the terminal and included the smashed remains of a Tu-154 that crashed here a few months before!

Finally we boarded our waiting Ilyushin Il-86 (CCCP-86050) for our three hour journey home thus marking the end of a remarkable tour which would have been unthinkable just a few years earlier

Russia Tour 1992