The Ukrainians didn’t really maintain these facilities very much, did they? Looks like Zaliv could benefit from a massive overhaul, like the one they did to Morye in Feodosiya not long ago.

Another guy was filming right next to that guy:

Clearly military vehicles parked there too, so I take it this was by the shooting range during the preparations for the now-ongoing exercises. It’s a bloody wonder nobody was killed!

I wonder how the hell it happened, that’s a blunder of mountainous proportions.

Su-27 single seaters in the US: S/n (369110)-
*-27918, built 1989, ended up in the Belarusian AF after 1992. Subsequently sold by Belarus to the US in November 1995, shipped over in boxes via the UK.
*-27717, also built 1989, ended up in Belarus after 1992, was still in service with them by 1995. In 2001 it showed up in Ukraine. Subsequently sold by Ukraine to the US shortly afterwards, also shipped over in boxes.

Then there are two -UB’s that were demilled, as noted already, and hardly comparable to any 30MKx or whatever. But it’s not like these ’89ers are much relevant today either, save for purely aerodynamic evaluations in dogfighting perhaps (which, incidentally, seems to be what they’ve been doing at A51). They’re miles behind -27Mx , -30Mx and -35S in every other respect. Apart from these, you also have export models of MiG-29s and what not that’s been flying out of Groom Lake, originally from Moldova among other places. Plus a heap of export MiG-21s, -23s etc, that were even more widespread during the Cold War and much more easily obtained.

Something for Ken to try one of these days. Would love to see it.

Looks like it would be a painstaking masking job, except this guy (his name’s Budanov so cred to him) appears to have used a sharpie or something to get the edges alright (note the variation in color)

Are there any decent 1:48’s out there by the way?

Speaking of Antonov, rumor has it that the new government in Ukraine has finally killed the last parts of it.

Yes, confirmed officially. Ukrainian media says that the Poroshenko government is liquidating the entire concern and putting its assets up for auction. This despite protests from the industrial and business sectors and from the parliament itself:
https://delo.ua/business/pohorony-ukrainskogo-mashinostroenija-chto-skryvaetsja-za-volnoj-333090/

I wonder how this will impact Antonov production in Russia? Russia has for the past couple of years built ten times as many Antonov-branded planes on license at VASO and Aviastar (I think, or does Aviastar only service Ruslans etc?) as the factories in Ukraine (Kiev, Kharkiv). Actually, I’m pretty sure that Antonov in Ukraine has only finished a total of 2-3 aircraft since the so-called revolution of 2014, including the An-178 prototype. This compared to some 50-60 planes in Russia over this time, in spite of their actual HQ being in Ukraine and all.

Antonov himself was Russian and the whole thing started in Russia (then-USSR, but in the Russian SFSR) but the main HQ was moved from Novosibirsk to Kiev, then-Ukrainian SSR in 1952. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Antonov became a Ukrainian enterprise and one of the most high-profile ones at that too, something that independent Ukraine took great pride in having. Which makes sense, given Antonovs legacy and its numerous unmatched, even world record breaking flying products.

So, all of this is a bit sad. R.I.P. Antonov, 1946-2017, I guess.

Would be cool to see the Flanker in a full “missile truck” configuration, loaded to the max with 16xRVV-AE plus 2x wingtip RVV-MD. Just saying.

Perhaps more fitting in the historical aviation part of these forums, but since it’s MAKS and everything I decided to put it here.

Ilyushin Il-2 from the 46th ShAP of the Northern Fleet (Pechenga), shot down in November 1943 over the Kola Peninsula and subsequently sank to the bottom of Lake Krivoye, from which it was raised in 2012 and ultimately restored to flying condition this year.

Trident, all good points and I agree wholeheartedly. Mind you that in this case, I make a distinction between the Russian Federation and the RSFSR (and naturally, by extension the rest of the USSR) though. The USSR didn’t lag behind in civilian airliners at all, in fact it found itself at the forefront a lot of the time in both general airliner development and their respective powerplants (Tu-114, Tu-104/124, Il-62, Il-86/96, all groundbreaking at the time in one way or another)

Regarding the SaM-146, I’d say it’s a stretch, dontcha think? It is a top notch engine for a plane the size and purpose of the SSJ for sure, and Saturn/Lyulka builds it in Russia, but they only developed the fan and compressors AFAIK, whereas the core/turbine and FADEC etc. is all French, and it’s very much a one-off deal for the SSJ. No other applications even envisaged, right?

Oh well, I am no authority on the matter. At any rate, we can agree that the MC-21 and the PD-14 are important, much more so than the largely “legacy” SSJ (though the SSJ probably broke some much-needed new ground as it finally made its way into the Western hemisphere with Interjet, CityJet, Brussels Airlines (on lease from CityJet) etc, something that will greatly help the prospects of UAC and the MS-21 in the future I think)