旅人る - Tabibito

 

Monino

 

An urban settlement in Moscow oblast which hosted Air Force Academy prior to its disbandment in 2011. Now it is famous only for the Central Air Force museum. Ten years ago no foreigners could visit it without a certain permission but now even the entrance tickets for them cost the same as for Russian citizens.

The museum has few indoors sections mostly dedicated to the oldest surviving aircrafts and WWII.

 

But most of the exhibits are staying outdoors on the premises of the former Academy's airstrip. All of them arrived here by their own.

 

Former Soviet strategic bombers.

 

The Tupolev Tu-114 turboprop airliner based on the Tu-95 strategic bomber.

 

The Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner, the soviet Concorde, also based on a strategic bomber design.

 

The Mil Mi-10 crane helicopter (not based on a strategic bomber). All the exhibits staying outdoor are in poor and not airworthy condition.

 

It is possible to take an excursion inside few of them. For example, the Mil V-12 helicopter, the biggest helicopter ever built and ever flown.

 

It was made in 1960s as a transporter for the ICBM: the missiles should be delivered by the Antonov An-22 transport aircraft to the nearest airlfield, and than V-12, which has the same cargo compartment as An-22, could carry up to 40 tons of the materiel to the launching pad which could be situated in the middle of taiga without any roads in sight. When two flying V-12 were completed, Russian military already had a smaller ICBM on hand and a need for such a huge helicopter disappeared.

 

The V-12 has two cockpits, the lower is for pilots, flight and electrical engineers.

 

The upper is for the navigator and radio operator.

 

The cockpit is mostly intact and never had any fancy monitors or whatsoever.

 

Small sleeping compartment.

 

The Tupolev Tu-4 bomber seen through V-12 windshield. The Tu-4 is a Soviet "pirate" copy of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

Peaceful natural aircrafts right outside the museum

 

Getting in (as of July 2022): M7 Volga highway (expect heavy jams on weekends). Frequent suburban trains from Moscow Yaroslavsky railway station, the fastest one can get to Monino within an hour. The museum is in about 30 minutes walk from Monino station.

What to buy: Russian patriotic souvenirs, made-in-China plane models or toys.

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