What was it like to fly the Soviet skies at the height of the Cold War? In 1963, Time magazine correspondent Edmund Stevens, the first Western citizen to make the Havana — Moscow run, described his experience:

One struggles up a ramp that is like a staircase leading to the fourth floor of a building—the Tu-114 is around 40 ft. high when standing on the ground. Inside the hatch, cabin follows cabin: a crew compartment; a large compartment empty of everything but a few suitcases, food hampers and cases of soft drinks; a serving pantry, with a galley down a flight of steps on a lower level. Then come the first-class compartments, four of them, each completely private. In contrast with the rest of the plane, where fittings are as spartan as those on a troop carrier, the first-class section has wood paneling and curtains.

Read the whole piece here.

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Effectively, the industry is entering a third phase in its post-Soviet existence. At first, the issue was merely staying afloat; then the focus turned to serving the large domestic market and shoring up the sector’s financial wherewithal. Now, airlines and manufacturers have ambitions beyond the confines of Russia and its immediate neighbors.

For the rest of the run-down on recent developments, click here.

In the course of his article, he also has a few things to say about this week’s news that Aeroflot missed a key deadline in its interim agreement with Boeing for the purchase of 22 of the American firm’s 787 Dreamliners. As a result of the Russian government’s failure to approve formally the $3 billion deal by November 1st, Aeroflot has lost out on a discount of some $10-15 million on each of the planes. Thomas speculates that the decision may be a gambit aimed at further strengthening the Kremlin’s hand in its efforts to secure a significant role in the development of the Airbus A350 XWB (Extra-Wide Body) a potential rival to the Boeing 787. (A final announcement from Airbus on the A350 XWB project is expected this month).

Whatever the future holds for Moscow’s Airbus connection, the missed deadline with Boeing is bad news for those concerned about Russian air safety. At the earliest, the 787s originally contracted for 2010-2012, now will not arrive in Russian until 2014. For some passengers facing the prospect of flying on aging Aeroflot aircraft, those two additional years may well mean “Eternity.”

In other news, this past week the Moscow Prosecutor-General’s Office arrested Alexander Surikov, general director of the aircraft parts supply company SB-120 Sheremeyetvo. (SB-120 has a warehouse at the Moscow airport, but is not affiliated with the airport authority itself.) Surikov was taken into custody along with Viktor Gamayunov, the company’s Chief Engineer. The two have been charged with fraud, document forgery, and violation of airline safety rules for supplying faulty aircraft parts and for conspiring to sell parts with expired service lifetimes. The company had come under scrutiny during investigations into the sorry state of Russian’s civilian aviation programs begun in the aftermath of the Tu-154 and A-310 crashes earlier this year.

If Thomas Lifeson’s speculations regarding the Kremlin’s motives for missing the deadline on the Boeing agreement are correct, they would suggest Russian officials’ willingness to sacrifice safety on the alter of perceived state interests. This would be a callous and cynical approach to rebuilding the country’s aviation program but one, unfortunately, not without historical precedent…

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The decision comes as no real surprise, indicating the Russian state’s interest in maintaining good relations with both the American company and the European consortium.

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