Airliners-India.com Flickr Group & Facebook    FAQ   Search   Memberlist   Usergroups   Register   Profile   Log in to check your private messages   Log in  Pilgrimage to Monino !          Airliners-India.com Forum Index -> Trip Reports View previous topic :: View next topic   Author Message ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:48 am    Post subject: Pilgrimage to Monino ! One of the highlights of the Russian trip was a trip to Monino. I had read about it online and thankfully had guidance from Sumantra Sir since he has already been to Monino. The mystery over are foreigners are allowed or not and how to reach that place kept on getting deeper day by day. As we reached Moscow, I also checked one more time on Trip Advisor and there was a review which was clear about foreigners being allowed. Some help from the internet and Sumantra Sir, gave a clear indication on how to reach there by the train and walking and so on. However with weather playing spoil sport and having wife along, couple that with little English being spoken and understood around, we decided to ask the hotel for a cab and alternately the instructions on reaching monino by train. The costing was as below 300 RUB per person each way for train entry ticket of 500 RUB per person at Monino camera charges 350 RUB This is what the hotel told me when they called Monino. That came down to about 2500 RUB just for the trip The hotel quoted 12000 RUB for a day trip with taxi, English speaking guide and former pilot. So I explored the Moscow free tour, with whom we did 3 guided tours, they were kind enough to give us some discount. THe trip still expensive but considering that it was raining heavily in Moscow, well worth it. We settled for 9000 RUB with taxi, guide, pilot, light snacks & lunch Good deal IMO, not that I had a choice So the cab came at 9am in the morning. Incidently it was not a cab, direct pick up by the pilot of IL-76. Sadly he hardly spoke Russian. It was foggy and cloudy all the way till Monino and we snarled thru the garden road then onto the highway - M7 I suppose all the way to Monino. Had quick food at a burger joint in Monino village and came to Monino museum not from the highway but from the village side Our English speaking guide, Alexander, who has studied in London welcomed us there. Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:52 am    Post subject: What followed was pure treat. Monino was earstwhile training academy for Russian Air Force. It still has an operational base near the museum and I heard a lot of planes buzz by. However due to the cloud cover I hardly saw any of it, one which I did, I could not identify. The guide explained that the trials of new planes continue to take place from Monino. I am not sure if he wanted to say that the one which we saw could be one of those newer ones. None the less, since we came from the Monino academy side, we saw some stores, building where people are still staying, old laundry, and deserted theatre, school, parking lots, basketball court and so on. For a second it reminded me of the documentary I had seen on NatGeo about Chernobyl and the town that it is today, frozen in time. The soviet area structures are so common, you can just be lifted from one place to another and its all the same. I am not sure if this was one of the ways of making people feel at home when they were forcefully relocated to establish new towns and cities. None the less, our tickets ready, we started the tour. Since it wasn't raining heavily as yet, we decided to see the open exhibits first. There was a drizzle every now and then and hence we also had to hurry with the plans. Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:03 am    Post subject: Honestly I am not aware what this machine is called DSCF0325 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr I was told that this was a dangerous machine because it was a helicopter which could carry a lot of people. The unique design ensures that in case of any impact, the fuselage is not affected. Also the engine power can be transferred from right to left and v.v so that if one engine fails, power can be distributed equally. DSCF0332 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr One of the sukhois DSCF0342 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Initial prototype of SU-7, which India used during 1971 war DSCF0345 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Su-9 DSCF0348 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr The soviet invention - we can land on ice ! DSCF0356 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Ok, not just ice, runway also DSCF0357 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr I flew first... 2 months before concorde DSCF0365 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr DSCF0366 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr The MiG-25. The only plane in the IAF arsenal which I have not seen flying, but only static DSCF0374 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr DSCF0376 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr The mighty Tu-22M bomber DSCF0378 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Impressive !!!! Thought I saw a few on ramp, I can always see them here... the iconic IL-62 DSCF0383 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:04 am    Post subject: Special mention for this. The project started just when the USSR disintegrated. Nobody knows what was to become of this at a later date. The pilot called this turtle DSCF0396 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:08 am    Post subject: The Tu-142 DSCF0399 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr One of the MiG designs I was told , which was meant for carrier based landing and take off. Never materialized Trial Craft for Boran DSCF0417 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr This mighty thing has flown only once, when the metal burnt up and they grounded it to find a replacement material, which was found, a composite which eventually was expensive than gold and hence it made its way here. DSCF0428 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Looks funny ? Notice the Tupulov behind DSCF0430 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Funnier ? DSCF0444 by ameyajoshi, on Flickr Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 2:04 pm    Post subject: Ameya Sir - this is really exciting, but I am sorry your guide told you quite a few things that are completely incorrect, including some registrations, the plane type, as well as some wrong history. Let me get back to you in greater detail, Sir. I am sorry about the complete rip-off on the Monino visit. I also see a few changes from what I had seen - I will describe these in detail, very soon - possibly tonight itself. I am familiar with most of these planes - interestingly, right from childhood, before I learned to read properly, thanks to my father. I am also familiar with the detailed history of many of these planes - and I have quite some material on these, which one will not easily find either on websites on the Internet, or on Wikipedia, for instance, including some extremely rare pictures - all from old books and magazines. Cheers, Sumantra. Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 2:08 pm    Post subject: sumantra wrote: Ameya Sir - this is really exciting, but I am sorry your guide told you quite a few things that are completely incorrect, including some registrations, the plane type, as well as some wrong history. Let me get back to you in greater detail, Sir. I am sorry about the complete rip-off on the Monino visit. I also see a few changes from what I had seen - I will describe these in detail, very soon - possibly tonight itself. I am familiar with most of these planes - interestingly, right from childhood, before I learned to read properly, thanks to my father. I am also familiar with the detailed history of many of these planes - and I have quite some material on these, which one will not easily find either on websites on the Internet, or on Wikipedia, for instance, including some extremely rare pictures - all from old books and magazines. Cheers, Sumantra. Waiting waiting waiting for your inputs and possibly pictures and scans ... Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:36 pm    Post subject: Ameya Sir - Monino is a place which only aviation enthusiasts like us want to visit, hence many hotel oeprators charge rip-off rates for the same. Of course, you had bhabhiji with you, hence you could not have taken the kind of chances I did on my trip. The Military academy is still there, and some kind of testing takes place over the Monino compound, but I sincerely doubt if the Monino airfield is much in use. It is quite dilapidated, and used to have a strip that had quite a bit on grass,in addition to some concrete. When I visited the place in 2011, the Tu-134 was being flown in the skies above Monino - I am quite sure it was from another airfield near Moscow. Monino is a suburb of Moscow, but physically incapable of handling large aircraft. It took some expert piloting to get many of the exhibits flown in to Monino - others came by road, or by a Mi-26 crane. Can I shamelessly refer the reader to my report on this, for more details? I have lovingly put in my own memories, my own information about this - I reiterate - some of it is from books and literature of the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, and cannto be easily be traced on the Internet. To Russia, with Awe: Moscow, 2011, Part 3: Monino! ``Moe-nee-na ee a-braht-na'' (To Monino, and back) http://airlinersindia.s4.bizhat.com/airlinersindia-ftopic12091.html Ameya Sir - please forgive me - I will use your images to further my point about the aircraft in question. ameya wrote: This is the largest helicopter ever built. the Mi-12 `Homer'. There is some confusion on how many actually were built - 2 or 3 in all. The rumour is that it had some design errors, hence the incredible promise the design showed, was never really put into production. Visitors had started at it in awe at the Paris air show where it was first displayed, and like many other products of the former Soviet Union, even a relatively flawed product was shown in good light with some fantastic crew in the front office performing some amazing manouvres. ameya wrote: This is the Sukhoi T-6-1 experimental aircraft, a bit different from the similar-looking Su-24. The Sukhoi bureau put a delta winged plane with a prefix `T', and a swept one, with `S'. ameya wrote: Initial prototype of SU-7, which India used during 1971 war Sir, this is an Su-11, a development of the Su-9, which in turn was a delta-winged version of the Su-7. The one the IAF used in the Indo-Pak wars was the Su-7. ameya wrote: I flew first... 2 months before concorde 31 Dec, 1968. I have some pictures of the original first flight, and the grand old man Andrei Tupolev at the ceremony, with his son Aleksei, who was in charge of `designing' this plane. ameya wrote: The MiG-25. The only plane in the IAF arsenal which I have not seen flying, but only static I guess I am a bit luckier. I have seen one in the air at Kalaikonda on 13 Dec, 1995. ameya wrote: The mighty Tu-22M bomber The IAF had four of these on lease, to test out the nuclear capability, in the aftermath of the nuclear tests in 1998. ameya wrote: iconic IL-62 There has been some change here. When I saw this beauty, the NLG was off the ground, due to some imbalance. ameya wrote: The pilot called this turtle Sir, your guide led you completely astray. This is the Beriev Bartini - an amazing plane. You can check out an amazing YouTube video of this amazing plane, in flight. This is some amazing history behind it. ameya wrote: Tu-142 This is a new addition! ameya wrote: One of the MiG designs I was told , which was meant for carrier based landing and take off. Never materialized Sir, I'm sorry, the man just took you for a ride. I have some proof even in the days of the cold war, that the MiG bureau never even attempted something like this. The closest they got to it was a STOL version of what later became the Mig-23 that too, this version never went into production. Your guide would have confused with the Yak-36 prototype, which never went into production. Instead, what came into production was the Yak-38 `Forger'. Even the Yak-141 `Freestyle' - the only supersonic carrier-based aircraft prototype - never went into production. ameya wrote: This mighty thing has flown only once, when the metal burnt up and they grounded it to find a replacement material, which was found, a composite which eventually was expensive than gold and hence it made its way here. Ameya Sir - this is the Sukhoi T-4. of which you have three pictures. Your guide may have an interesting story, but I cannot find this in any Western account I have seen thus far. Like many experimental designs, this was not put into production. Much of the surfaces has titanium and stainless steel, which made is an extremely costly and difficult-to-maintain proposition. I would rather point to the Soviet Union's failure in getting a long range supersonic bomber into operation - even with a fairly convention design. Look at the Myasischev `Bounder' bomber, partially visible in your last picture DSCF0444. This was the plane that had fuelled many a a childhood dream. I refer to the reader to the write-up in my trip report, on this. ameya wrote: Notice the Tupulov behind This is the Tu-22 `Blinder'. The lack of range did this in, though this was put into active use for quite a while. I actually have far too much material on old Soviet planes, to scan , and put it up. Can I leave it for an excuse to visit me, on your next Delhi visit? Thanks, and waiting eagerly for more from you, Sir! Sumantra. Back to top The_Goat Member Joined: 03 Mar 2007 Posts: 3260 Location: South of France Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:23 pm    Post subject: ameya wrote: This mighty thing has flown only once, when the metal burnt up and they grounded it to find a replacement material, which was found, a composite which eventually was expensive than gold and hence it made its way here. Looks funny ? That four engined monster is the Sukhoi -T4, a copy of the American XB-70 Valkyrie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_T-4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie Neither the T4 nor the Valkyrie saw any success, both not even going out of the experimental phase. Only four of the former and two of the latter were built. The Valkyie at least, had a very unique feature. The angled engine air intake would generate a shock wave which would actually contribute to the lift at high speeds. It was called Compression Lift. Loved your TR , Ameya. Thank you. Monino seems to be a really cool place. _________________ I don't know which is the more pampered bunch : AI's widebodies (the aunties) or Jet's widebodies (the planes). -Jasepl Back to top sabya99 Member Joined: 19 Dec 2011 Posts: 1399 Location: New Jersey/CCU Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:24 am    Post subject: Spectacular TR Ameya ; it seems Russia ran out of storage space and parked them in the open. Any reason why? _________________ Sabya99 Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:08 am    Post subject: sabya99 wrote: it seems Russia ran out of storage space and parked them in the open. Any reason why? Obvious, Dr. Ganguly: lack of funds. Some planes are not in very good shape at Monino. Few museums have nice large indoor spaces like the Wright-Patterson, or the RAF museum at Hendon. Interestingly, the small but impressive IAF museum at Palam in Delhi has a large covered section. Cheers, Sumantra. Back to top ameya Member Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:05 am    Post subject: @Sumantra Sir – Many many many thanks for the information in detail. Some of the inputs I got from the guide, locals and hotel regarding military academy at Monino is that it has now shifted to a different location. The deserted buildings which I mentioned could be because of the same. The monino airstrip was not visible from the museum, I saw it on Google earth on phone when connected to hotel wifi and later on laptop when home. There were a lot of planes on the ramp. Let us check again what is the google earth view. As for MiG-25, I envy you ! Infact I have seen Canberra flying, considering that when I grew up Canberra were already being phased out with just 1 Sqn operational. Once I knew it landed in PNQ and was ferried to NDA by Road, I saw it on the road. Second time I missed it was at Dundigal. Tu-22M have operated out of varied airfields in India, but restricted to mainly the full defense ones. Some in IAF say that there were more which had come in and the Russians were very active in even the flight plans for these. The beriev bartini is a treat. I did some search on this, today morning and its an interesting piece of information. Infact the guide was a dud, including the pilot. I told him few features of the Su-27 on display there. @The_Goat : Thanks Sir for the kind words and informative post highlighting the T-4 @Sabya99 : Ganguly Sir, Thanks. I wrote in the visitor book there, that restoration is important for these planes and possibly a covered section for the entire area. Also extension of the area is important. Strangely, I saw that most of the monuments in SPB and Moscow undergo regular restoration. I wonder why not the same about planes. Also I am not sure if somebody can read the visitor book when written in English ! Back to top avbuff Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031 Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:38 pm    Post subject: Many thanks for sharing your experience ameya ... and lovely pics!!! Back to top sumantra Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:06 pm    Post subject: ameya wrote: Infact I have seen Canberra flying, considering that when I grew up Canberra were already being phased out with just 1 Sqn operational. Once I knew it landed in PNQ and was ferried to NDA by Road, I saw it on the road. Second time I missed it was at Dundigal. Amazing, Sir. As a kid growing up in Delhi, I was lucky to see this beautiful plane in the air, in addition to many Dakotas, Fairchild Packets, Mig series planes and many more, operating in and out of Palam, and some, from Hindon. ameya wrote: Tu-22M have operated out of varied airfields in India Nice piece of information, Sir! ameya wrote: I told him few features of the Su-27 on display there. Nice, Sir! ameya wrote: Also I am not sure if somebody can read the visitor book when written in English! Ha ha, nice one, Sir! Back to top sabya99 Member Joined: 19 Dec 2011 Posts: 1399 Location: New Jersey/CCU Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:59 am    Post subject: @Ameya and Sumantra thanks for the update. I did not know about impressive IAF museum in Delhi. Regarding Tu-22 I know Indian Navy or Airforce used to operate from Goa. _________________ Sabya99 Back to top stealthpilot Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 6:47 pm    Post subject: Wow .... iv always wanted to see the Tu-144!! Great trip.... _________________ eP007 Back to top shivendrashukla Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 1354 Location: Mumbai, India Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:45 pm    Post subject: ameya wrote: Tu-22M have operated out of varied airfields in India, but restricted to mainly the full defense ones. Some in IAF say that there were more which had come in and the Russians were very active in even the flight plans for these. IAF did not operate Tu-22M. Navy did. Tu-22M were used for Maritime recee when IL-38's were refurbished in Russia and for subsequent evaluation. Navy finally settled for P-8I. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         Airliners-India.com Forum Index -> Trip Reports All times are GMT + 5.5 Hours Page 1 of 1   Jump to: Select a forum New Members----------------Sign-up Guidelines Airliners-India----------------Civil AviationNon AviationTrip ReportsMilitary Aviation & SpaceInternationalAviation Polls & PreferenceTech/OpsAviation PhotographyEditorial/Analysis/ArticlesAviation HobbyAviation LawAviation Questions & CareersSite Related Flickr Group----------------Photo of the Month My Message Board----------------Pin Up  You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com