Monino, Moscow
Flying Legends dislay
The Flying Legends show was held at Monino - with public access through the Gagarin ramp, so we took the opportunity to photograph the aircraft that are
normally 'hidden' .... The organisers had parked trucks in front of these planes - but did not try to stop us photographing them.
Su-27 Bort 'Red 21' with its covers on.
Bort 'Blue 28' is from Savasleyka AB - notice the 'George-and-Dragon' on the fin.
A closer look at bort 28.
A bagged Su-24 on the Gagarin ramp at Monino.
And from the other side.
Another shot...
MiG-29 SMT at the end of the ramp.
Port side view of the MiG-29SMT.
A Su-22 in a bag.
Tu-22M3
Tu-22M3 nosejob - note the varying weather in these photos.....
Hind in a bag......
Su-25 - I think all these machines are used for trials purposes ?
Tu-95MS - note that the 'bags' even cover the propellers!
Front end of a Bear.
Meanwhile, back at the Flying Legends show proper - the ground display consisted of a number of bunkers to represent a Soviet wartime airfield...
The exhibits from the museum had been placed as though on a Soviet wartime airfield. This is the museum's Tu-2.
Another shot of the Tu-2.
Take a photo of the museum's Petlyakov Pe-2 bomber......
Photo manipulate it to get rid of the tape and save it as grayscale - and you have a wartime photo !!
Another view of the Pe-2.
And yet more.... you can see that the weather had brightened up a bit.
Another go at playing with the photos.............
Get rid of the red-and-white tape, the human beings......
And save it as grayscale - bingo - a Pe-2 at dispersal on a wartime Soviet airfield.
The Monino museum's Il-2 'Shturmovik'.
Looking very nice in this setting....
Modern day trappings removed......
Ready for a sortie into the Kursk salient......
Back to reality.
The museum's I-15bis replica.
One of the least realistic of Monino's replicas - the MiG-3.
Lend-lease P-63 Kingcobra.
Lavochkin La-7 in the markings of Soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub.
Close-up of the 62 kill markings and the three 'Hero of the Soviet Union' medals. The 'laurel wreath' is recently applied - I'm not sure what it represents ?
A view from the earth banking behind the La-7.
Scale replica Ju-87 Stuka visiting from the Ukraine.
Yak-11 visitor from the Czech Republic.
Austrian B-25 sponsored by Red Bull.
Not quite WWII!! T-28 Trojan from Austria.
The L-39's of 'Team Rus' arrive for their aerobatic display.
The weather started to worsen.....
Team Rus singleton.
Another pass - this time inverted.
Back on the ground - this Yak-9U was on display at the museum - but not as part of the Flying Legends display.
Port side of the Yak-9U.
This Tupolev SB was also not part of the main display for some reason.
In the Monino museum proper, I found this new exhibit - the Yak-141 that was formerly at Khodynka and the Yakovlev OKB.
Also new was a second Yak-38 - this time a later variant
Note the strakes beside the lift engine doors and the folded wings.
Lisunov Li-2 at the main museum display.
Ilyushin DB-3 bomber.
Mighty Mil Mi-26 'Halo'.
And its predecessor - the Mi-6.
Freshly painted An-12 at Monino.
The mother of all helicopters - the Mil V-12 uses TWO Mi-6 rotors and drive trains.
This is the main entrance to the Flying Legends show on the Gagarin ramp. The weather is just about to dump on us!!!
This Berezniak-Isayev BI-1 rocket fighter is in the main hangar at Monino - the paint scheme is a bit suspect!
Whilst sheltering from the rain, I took some more pics inside the hangar.
This is what the ground was like after the downpours.
Out of the gloom appeared the 'Strijhi' (Swifts) aerobatic team with 5 MiG-29's, popping flares.
Three single-seaters and two tandem-seaters.
The new colours scheme on the Swifts is most impressive.
Just look at the water in the air as it streams off the wingtips!
The weather cleared just a little bit....
But only for a few minutes.....
The skies get darker, making photography very difficult.
Head-on break towards the crowd!!!
Then haul it round over their heads.
And compress that moisture!
By the time the Su-27's of the Russki Vityazi (Russian Knights) arrived, the weather was closing in again...
But they put on their usual impressive display.
It got so dark - they had to use their headlights !!
And their flares !!1
The dark skies makes for some good photos - if you can catch them right!
Rolling towards the crowd - AND popping flares - now you see why I like Russian airshows!
A little more sedate this time - just an inverted flypast.
followed by his escort.
Thank goodness for a 400mm zoom lens!
Definitely a day for wellies!