Russian Air Force Museum at Monino

At the top of the list of things I wanted to see was this helicopter, the largest which has ever flown.   It has the NATO code name "Homer" and is usually referred to as the Mi-12, however since it never entered production its correct name is actually V-12.   Two or three prototypes were built and did quite a bit of flying, including a trip across Europe to the Paris Air Show.   Depending on which source you believe, this was either in 1965, 1971, 1981 or 1985; as far as I can tell 1971 is the correct date.   The V-12 used two of the power plants and rotors from the already massive Mi-6 "Hook", which you can see later on this page and also in Vietnamese Air Force colours.   The fuselage is 37 meters long and 12.5 meters high (121 x 41 feet), the rotors are each 35 meters (114 feet) in diameter and it can lift up to 25 tonnes (55,000 pounds) of cargo, though in a special record-breaking effort in 1969 it lifted 40 tonnes (88,600 pounds) to a height of 2250 meters (7400 feet).   With a more normal load the maximum range was a very useful 1000 kilometers (625 miles).

This was one of the few other space exhibits at the museum, the MiG 105-11 "Spiral" single-person lifting body craft, which actually has a turbojet engine to allow it to divert or reattempt a landing after a failed approach.   This craft did several flights after being dropped from a modified Tu-95 "Bear".   As you can see, the grass in this display area could really use a cut, though most of the aircraft looked to be in quite good condition.

There weren't too many naval aircraft on display, apart from a two-engined Beriev Be-12 "Mail" seaplane and this Yak-38 "Forger", which is a vertical takeoff and landing fighter which went into production in 1975 and served aboard Soviet Kiev-class aircraft carriers.   Near the Yak-38 was another Yakovlev designed VTOL naval fighter, the supersonic Yak-141 "Freestyle".

I'm not a great expert on Soviet aircraft, so it was a real treat to see some of the less common types which I wasn't familiar with, like this Myasischev M-50 "Bounder" supersonic intercontinental nuclear bomber which first flew in 1959.   This is one weird looking aircraft, the long tubular fuselage with pointed nose mounted above a bicycle style undercarriage with outrigger landing gear at the end of the wings.   An engine is mounted at each wingtip, leading one person to comment that it looked like it had been designed by a ten year old boy!   Very few of these aircraft were built, because Khruschev decided that all efforts in this area should be concentrated on ICBMs.   This decision spelled the end for both the Myasischev and the Lavochkin design bureaus.

In the last photo you can see a part of the field set aside for the display of Russian designed helicopters.   There must have been a total of 15 or 20 helicopters at the museum, just a couple of the interesting Kamov models with contra-rotating rotors, and almost all of the others being Mils, like the well-known Mi-24 "Hind-D" gunship at the front of this photo, standing next to its less well-known Mi-24 "Hind-A" predecessor.

This Mi-10 "Harke" was a great sight, tucked away at the back of the display.   The Mi-10 was a flying crane dating back to 1960 which, like the V-12,  used the same powerplant and rotor as the Mi-6 "Hook".   As you can see, the Mi-10 also featured a platform which could be used to carry a vehicle.   Although all of the display areas were surrounded by low chain-link fences, the custodians quickly gave me permission to go past them in order to get better photographs.   Although they didn't speak English and I didn't speak Russian, I was able to make my request known to them by sign language and acting out what I wanted to do!

Mil and Kamov were the dominant Russian helicopter design bureaus, but early on Yakovlev also tried their hand, producing this Yak-24 "Horse" which was intended as a troop transport.   To my surprise, parked behind the Yak-24 was an American twin-rotor Vertol H-21 helicopter, complete with American flag painted on the vertical tail surfaces!   Strange as it might seem, this was apparently sold to the Russians in the late 1950s.

Although they had no equivalent to the B-29, the Russians had always been capable of developing large aircraft, and home-grown alternatives to the Tu-4 soon came into existence, such as this Tu-95 "Bear".   The Tu-95 is one of the classic Soviet cold war aircraft and was frequently encountered by western military aircrews as the Tu-95s shadowed NATO naval forces.   It has the world's most powerful turboprop engines driving contra-rotating propellers mounted on a wing swept back by 35 degrees, making it almost as fast as jets of the time, and has a range of 15,000 kilometers (9,400 miles).   It first flew in 1952 and has been phenomenally successful, remaining in production into the mid-1980s and serving in a wide variety of roles.   It's still in service and as recently as 1999 some Tu-95s on simulated nuclear bombing missions against America were intercepted by American fighter planes.

The Antonov design bureau specialized in large transport aircraft and to this day they hold the records for the largest transport aircraft, the An-124 with four jet engines and the even more massive An-225 with six jet engines, which has a maximum takeoff weight of over 575 tonnes (1,250,000 pounds).   The museum doesn't have an An-124 or An-225 but it does have this An-22 Antheus (NATO code name "Cock"), which is the largest propeller-driven plane ever built.   It has the same model of turbo-prop driven contra-rotating propellers as the Tu-95 and is capable of carrying 80 tonnes (80 tons) of cargo.   Behind it you can see one of the most unusual aircraft at Monino, the remains of an "Ekranoplan" or Beriev VVA-14 ground-effect hydroplane, designed in 1972 as an anti-submarine craft.