Home to one of the best collections of aircraft I’ve visited, the Oleg Antonov State Aviation Museum is well worth taking a 25 minute Uber to reach from central Kiev. There are over 70 Soviet era planes and helicopters, both military and civil, to explore, neatly arranged in sensible groupings.
I’ve never seen so many helicopters before, the most eye catching of which were the Mil Mi-24D Hind, both for their striking design and colourful paintwork.
The largest was this enormous white UN branded Mil Mi-26, which was open to see inside. The pilot chairs looked particularly uncomfortable.
There were plenty more helicopters of all shapes and sizes, many of which were unfamiliar to me.
More familiar was the row of MiGs, from the 1949 MiG-15 up to the 1977 MiG-29, one of which was painted in patriotic Ukrainian colours.
There were plenty of fighter jets manufactured by Sukhoi, MiG’s main competitor.
The Yakovleva Yak-28U was one of the most striking planes.
There were a couple of intriguingly unusual flying boats, Beriev Be-6 and Beriev Be-12, with the Yak jets under their wings giving a sense of scale.
Strategic bombers were well represented by the huge Tupolevs.
There were a number of commercial passenger planes, some of which could be visited inside.
The Ilyushin Il-76 was the largest plane there, with a 50m wingspan.
Behind it was an Antonov An-71 surveillance plane, with a large radar mounted on top.
A selection of photos other planes there, they had such a variety.
Leave a Reply