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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:48 am Post subject: Pilgrimage to Monino ! |
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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. |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 9:52 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:03 am Post subject: |
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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 |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:04 am Post subject: |
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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 |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:08 am Post subject: |
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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 |
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sumantra Member
Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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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. |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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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 ... |
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sumantra Member
Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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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
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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.
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. |
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The_Goat Member
Joined: 03 Mar 2007 Posts: 3260 Location: South of France
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Posted: Wed Jun 05, 2013 10:23 pm Post subject: |
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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 ?
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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 |
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sabya99 Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2011 Posts: 1399 Location: New Jersey/CCU
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Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:24 am Post subject: |
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Spectacular TR Ameya ; it seems Russia ran out of storage space and parked them in the open. Any reason why? _________________ Sabya99 |
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sumantra Member
Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi
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Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:08 am Post subject: |
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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. |
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ameya Member
Joined: 09 May 2007 Posts: 3671 Location: Pune,Maharashtra
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Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:05 am Post subject: |
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@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 ! |
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avbuff Member
Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 5031
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Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 1:38 pm Post subject: |
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Many thanks for sharing your experience ameya ... and lovely pics!!! |
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sumantra Member
Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi
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Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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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! |
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sabya99 Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2011 Posts: 1399 Location: New Jersey/CCU
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Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2013 4:59 am Post subject: |
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@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 |
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stealthpilot Member
Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB
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Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2013 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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Wow .... iv always wanted to see the Tu-144!!
Great trip.... _________________ eP007 |
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shivendrashukla Member
Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 1354 Location: Mumbai, India
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Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:45 pm Post subject: |
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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.
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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. |
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