Russian Air Force Museum - Monino

Kane and Yak 141 'Freestyle'

WARNING: This blog may not be of much interest to non-aviation enthusiasts.

Tu 95 'Bear'

On my final day in Moscow, I took a gamble and decided to visit the Monino Air Force Museum, about 30 miles east of the city. As my train for Warsaw was scheduled to depart at 5pm, it was a little risky trying to get to Monino and back due to unpredictable public transport links.

MiG 25 'Foxbat'

The risks paid off handsomely and I was extremely lucky with the Russian public transportation system on my journey back into Moscow. On the way to Monino, I decided to have a stress free and speedy journey there by taxi. It was anything but - the taxi driver got completely lost and spent expensive minutes driving around fields and forests trying to find the museum.

MiG 29 'Fulcrum' and Tu 144 'Charger'

Monino has to be a Shangri-la for aviation fans. I absolutely loved seeing the exotic planes on display - real legends of aviation. Wonderful! I spent around 2 hours there and did two circuits of the outdoor exhibits. The first circuit using my wide angled lens and the second was reserved for zoom lens shots.

Yak 130 and Sukhoi T4

The only disappointing aspect of the museum was seeing such remarkable exhibits slowly rotting in the open air. Clearly very little money is spent preserving these aircraft and it can only be a matter of time before some are sent to the scrappers yard. If it had been a museum in the USA, these aircraft would be in pristine condition within a hanger.

Tu 22 'Blinder'

After my successful return to Moscow, I met Joep for an hour and then found my train bound for Warsaw via Belarus. Apart from being woken up and quizzed by Russian and Belorussian border guards, the journey to Warsaw was quite uneventful. It was a little odd not having Joep around with his regular guidebook sourced km-by-km updates of the route. Inspired by all the MiGs I saw that day, I watched about half of 'Top Gun' in my upper bunk before nodding off.

Su 27 'Flanker' prototype

The biggest problem with this blog entry is that I can only put a small sample of pictures up showing my visit to Monino and the amazing aircraft on display.

Selection