Went to Riga and gutted I missed this.....

[S3_Graham]

They have a pretty awesome aviation museum, 250 yards from the airport. Unfortunately I saw the aircraft and only researched when I got home! (was on a flying visit - arrived 15:30 Monday, left 09:20 Tuesday!) Hopefully I'll get to go again

http://aviamuseum.org/EN

Edited by S3_Graham on Thursday 1st August 23:18

[onyx39]

that's like an a-z of Russian aviation!

[IanMorewood]

Is that a Backfire on the right? If so thats an interesting photo for the scale I never thought of it being that big.

[onyx39]

IanMorewood said:

Is that a Backfire on the right? If so thats an interesting photo for the scale I never thought of it being that big.

That was my first thought too

[anonymous-user]

onyx39 said:

IanMorewood said:

Is that a Backfire on the right? If so thats an interesting photo for the scale I never thought of it being that big.

That was my first thought too

I was thinking exactly this.

[S3_Graham]

Was/is indeed a backfire! There are some super YouTube vids of it.

But weird that the MIG 29 seems to not have any tail plane.

The website is worth a read, story is that one guys started it in the USSR as a training school, then with the USSR breakup he got funding from Latvian gov until '97 when it turned into a museum. Backfire looks awesome in the flesh but sadly I was rushing while working on another aircraft.

[Eric Mc]

A Backfire came to Farnborough for the 1992 show. Boy was it noisy.

[S3_Graham]

My dad was telling me about that, said he'll never forget the blue afterburners

[anonymous-user]

The Mi-6 looks impressive too.

[Eric Mc]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...

The voice on the PA system is the late John Blake.

[S3_Graham]

Thanks Eric, miss the days of all the car alarms going off

[rednotdead]

Daft question but why did the Soviets always use that particular shade of green for the interiors of their cockpits?

[creampuff]

Jaysus, that is a big helicopter!

[Eric Mc]

creampuff said:

Jaysus, that is a big helicopter!

The biggest operational chopper in the world. They also built this. The Russians like 'em big -

[anonymous-user]

Eric Mc said:

The biggest operational chopper in the world. They also built this. The Russians like 'em big -

The Mi 26 is actually 'bigger' (larger MTOW, Length, cargo capacity etc) than the Mi 6 pictured.

[Eric Mc]

I assumed it was a 26.

There was a 26 at Farnborough 92 as well - impressive beast.

[onyx39]

Eric Mc said:

creampuff said:

Jaysus, that is a big helicopter!

The biggest operational chopper in the world. They also built this. The Russians like 'em big -

reminds me of BEA Colours.

[S3_Graham]

onyx39 said:

Eric Mc said:

creampuff said:

Jaysus, that is a big helicopter!

The biggest operational chopper in the world. They also built this. The Russians like 'em big -

reminds me of BEA Colours.

It's a shame those days of crazy advancements and pushing the boundaries of what can be done are over

[anonymous-user]

rednotdead said:

Daft question but why did the Soviets always use that particular shade of green for the interiors of their cockpits?

Apparently its a very calming colour. They had a weird shade of blue aswell. The japanese used a similar colour in their aircraft during ww2

[Eric Mc]

S3_Graham said:

It's a shame those days of crazy advancements and pushing the boundaries of what can be done are over

They're not.

This particular helicopter did not work very well so the concept was abandoned. The more "normal" Mil 26 fulfilled the role envisaged for the Mil 12.

The twin outrigger concept is actually a rather old idea and was used on some early helicopter models, such as the designs by Focke Wulf and Focke Achgelis. The Mil 12 was probably the most extreme example built but it just wasn't that effective.

Here's some old Focke Wulf and Achgelis choppers -