Russia (2012)

Despite the late arrival, we had to get up early again on Friday (10 August). While a small part of the group opted to go to Zhukovsky that day already, two buses headed out to Monino, the large aviation museum outside Moscow. This place is a must-see for every military aviation enthusiast! A lot of prototypes of current fighters (like the Su-27, MiG-29), but also fighters and bombers of which only one or two examples were built during the Cold War. Many pictures were made this morning, and the weather was playing ball as well! Much to our delight we saw fighters taking off from close-by Chkalovsky, in order to practice their fly-by at Zhukovsky. Su-27s, MiG-29s and Su-25s took to the sky to form a “100” over Zhukovsky as the start of the flying program. We also saw the aircraft land, resulting in some nice pictures.

After finishing, we set out to the “Central Armed Forces Museum” in Moscow. Besides a large collection of military objects, this museum also has quite a large collection of aircraft in the backyard. Inside one of the buildings, one of the many highlights here are the remains of the U-2 of Gary Powers, shot down in 1960. Last stop of the day was the aircraft collection at Khodinka. Once a very beautiful museum, now just a collection of old metal. Graffiti, destruction; it really hurts to see these aircraft been treated this way. The day was ended with a cold beer in the hotel!