Monino

Copyright © A. Gretchikhine, 1997. All rights reserved.   Air Force Museum, 141170 Monino, Moscow, Phone 2445624 ext. 2186 or 2225 Hours: 10AM-1PM, 2:30PM-5PM Monday-Thursday; 10AM-2:30PM Saturday; restricted access. Admission: $2.50 During my latest trip to Moscow I had a chance to visit the Central Museum of VVS (Soviet Air Force Museum) at Monino. I was pleased to discover quite impressive collection of the aircraft. Due to the lack of time (museum closes early) and knowledge (I was too impatient to wait till next guide) I managed to miss a part of the exhibition which was "hidden" in two large and deteriorating hungers on the far side of the field where the main outdoor exposition is located. ...In about 30 min after leaving my folks place, me and my father ended up in front of the gates separating Monino AF base and the rest of the Moscow region. Trying to raise less suspicion (we knew that it is a real base and access to the museum is restricted) we parked a little on the side. This did not work and a middle aged officer left the comfort of his booth and start walking toward our car. We decided to start dialog first and my father (who drove and felt that he is responsible for the vehicle facing the AFB gates) said: "Comrade, ... comrade lieutenant, we are curious ... we would like to... you see... my son is interested in aviation and we would like very much to visit the museum." Two or three minutes later gates were lifted and we found ourselves on the shadowy road leading to the one of the museum buildings. We parked the car and proceed to the entrance. At the ticket window (actually ticket window was absent and tickets were sold by a lady sitting behind of what appeared to be a piece of the kitchen furniture) we were questioned if we were locals or foreign visitors. I have not said a word yet since we have passed the gates and I felt that I had to express myself in my native tong before new pair of Levi's gave me up as an American spy. It turned out that they did not care much if I was one and the main reason for interrogation was to charge me right admission fee. Back then there were two sets of tariffs - for the citizens and for those who are not. After shelling out 200 rubles (about 10 cents) we walked into the first exhibition hall. It was full of weird things which did not really fit together and were poorly labeled, but I did not care too much, this was my idea of fun. Among the exhibits were ejection seats, aircraft guns (one was gatling and looked like Vulcan) and MiG-21 cockpit section along with an engine, plus a bunch of scale models and other aircraft and aviation related material (unguided rocket pods, AAMs and radios and propaganda drawing hanging from the walls). I was barely half way through when my father came back to hurry me up after he reached the end of indoor exposition. In next large pavilion I found La-7 which was flown by WWII soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub and P-63 Kingcobra. Next to them were a Pe-2 bomber, I-16, Yak-9 fighters and Bolkhovitinov BI (Bereznyak-Isaev) rocket fighter - more traditional analog of Me-163 and first liquid rocket jet to fly. Unfortunately, no pictures can be taken inside and two old ladies were keeping constant track of me, so that I would not steal the best kept secrets of WWII and late 60's technology. Most of the modern planes are located out in the field. A pre WWII era SB bomber in the beginning of the outdoor exhibition makes you think about durability of the aircraft. It must have been exposed to elements - heavy snow loads during cold winters for few of decades. Some planes to mention: T-10 (Su-27's prototype) with noticeably different airframe and removed engines; Su-24's prototype with fixed geometry wings along with Su-24 itself; Su-25,-7, -15, -22; supersonic "raketonosets"- Sukhoi's S-100/T-4 with dropped nose, surrounded with iron bombs. Yak-38 and its less successful predecessor Yak-36 which had no auxiliary lift engines and only two (!) variable geometry nozzles (fed by two jets) in the fuselage under the wings and reaction boom in the nose (Looks like very pregnant MiG-15); Yak-28; Yak-25. Mikoyan design bureau was represented by MiG-9, -15, -19, -21, -29UB, -31 (or one of the prototypes of MiG-31. It had its tail unit removed and was covered, but I noticed tandem main undercarriage characteristic for MiG-31. This a/c was in very bad shape and it look like it is waiting its hour to be restored), E-266 and E-166 record breaking planes. MiG 105-11 lifting body experimental prototype of space plane Lapot (aka Spiral). It flew few times under its own power and was dropped from specially modified Tu-95 Bear. Two Myasischev's bombers (Mya-4 and Mya-50/52) along with high-altitude M-17 Molniya aircraft (it is believed that Molniya absorbed a large part of the Myasichev design team) with sign "Geophysics" and Aeroflot marking. Tupolev's Tu-4 Bull, -16 Badger, Tu-95 Bear, -22 Blinder, -22M Backfire; a bunch of cargo and passenger planes (Tu-114 and supersonic transport Tu-144 are worth to mention); Bartini's VVA-141 WIG (wing in the ground) effect vehicle in Aeroflot markings looked like a complete write off: huge holes in fuselage and wings and engine nacelles are on the ground along with the fuselage. (I have a photo of this one). Plane resembles a trimarane with its small fuselage and a couple of tremendous pontoons. Also there was a Be-12 Gull. Helicopters: Flying Banana, Mil's Mi-12, Mi-6, -12, -8, -24, Yakovlev's flying pullman and couple of Kamovs Definitely worth spending a few hours or better few days. You probably need to prearrange your trip if you are not speaking fluent Russian and can fake your citizenship. Museum is part of VVS base. Expect to run into problems if you want to take pictures. For full catalog of Monino photographs click here. From Brian Lockett (brianl@west.net) I have been photographing aircraft at airshows, air bases, and air museums in the U.S. (primarily in California, Nevada and Arizona) and internationally. For over 25 years and have accumulated a large collection of Kodachrome transparencies. I have attended airshows at Paris, Zhukovsky, SHAPE at Chievres Belguim, Abbotsford B. C., and Farnborough. I have taken photagraphs at over 100 airshows, primarily at USAF, USN, and US Marine bases. I have extensive photography of southwest U.S. military airshows and airbase operations with particular emphasis on Edwards AFB. Some of this photography is stereoscopic. I have just opened my internet account. It is my hope to set up a web page to allow others access to this photographic resource. In August of 1993 I traveled to Moscow to attend the airshow at Zhukovsky and visit the air museum at Monino. Getting into the museum presented a bit of a challenge. I had met a man who worked for McDonnell Douglas at the hotel I was staying at, and he had suggested that I not bother trying to get in. He had been turned away with a request for a letter of introduction from his employer. I was traveling independently for recreation and decided to try anyway. I first attempted to call the number given for the museum in an english language magazine provided by my hotel. It was answered by someone who apparently did not speak any english, and they hung up on me immediately. I consulted the service desk at the hotel to make contact with the museum. The woman at the service desk confirmed that the phone number was indeed correct and proceeded to make an appointment for our visit, speaking in Russian. I could hear that she was requested to identify the driver of our vehicle, but she referred to us only as American tourists. She informed us that the entrance fee would be a couple of hundred rubles and that taking photographs would cost 300 rubles apiece (at 1000 rubles to the dollar). When we arrived at the gate to the air force base, the driver was summoned into the guard house to provide his identification. We were not asked to identify ourselves. We drove onto the base to the museum in a drizzling rain. There was a quiet person tending a table displaying model airplanes in the entry to the museum office. A dour faced old man wearing a beret stood in my path, looked down at my camera bag and tripod and queried, "Photoapparat?". I responded "Da, photoapparat.". He stated his terms, "Fifty dollars.". Somewhat taken aback I asked, "In dollars?". He asserted, "No, must be rubles.". Considering the time, effort, and expense involved in getting to the museum I unhesitatingly pulled out five 10000 ruble notes (in a country where people were making several lhundred rubles a month). We were not actually allowed to photograph any of the indoor displays, but the old man in the beret became considerably friendlier and acted as our tour guide. After examining the world war two displays and models and the piece of Gary Power's U-2 indoors, we stepped out into a bright sunny day. Beside myself, my mother, our driver Andre, and the old man the museum was deserted. The old man took some delight in explaining the displays at length in Russian. Occasionally an Ilyushin-76 or Antonov-124 would pass overhead in the landing pattern. Presently he realized that I was more interested in photographing the displays than in following his discourse. The others stopped at one of the park benches and allowed me the run of the museum. I was equipped with two cameras mounted on a bar and photographed nearly every outdoor display in stereo. Actually the 50,000 rubles with which I bribed the guide was less than I would have paid at the 300 ruble per photo rate. As I finished my photography, the clouds closed in almost on cue, and the sunlight went away. Web Sources: Monino official(?) site. Superb images and text. The site is mirrored in russian also. This site provides some useful information about other aviation museums located in Moscow (Yakovlev OKB museum, Khodynka etc.).

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Last modified on: Saturday, January 31, 1998.