Sheremetevo airport, Moscow’s main international terminal, is located eighteen miles NW of the city’s center. Given the Russian capital’s expansion since the airport opened in 1959 this is now not at all far from Moscow proper, though it seems much farther to downtown by car. (It can easily take over an hour to reach the [...]

[Note: For previous posts in this series, click here: 1 2 3]
Extending the length of the other side of long walkway, directly opposite the aircraft of the Great Patriotic War are more than one dozen craft representing the Sukhoi OKB.

Aircraft of the Sukhoi OKB
For whatever reason, the Sukhoi OKB collection is “book ended” by two [...]

[Note: For previous posts in this series, click here: 1 2]
Getting Down to Business: The Aircraft Collection
The Museum’s outdoor aircraft collection is divided into eight different sections. One of these is devoted to helicopters. Of the remaining seven, two consist of groups devoted to “Military-Transport Aircraft” and “Airplanes of the Great Patriotic War.” The rest [...]

[Note: For the previous post in this series, click here: 1]
Getting In:
According to the official website, the VVS Museum is open:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday from 9:30 am until 5:00 pm with a 45 minute break from 1:30-2:15 [Currently, the Museum seems not to be observing the scheduled break on these days]
Saturday the Museum is [...]

[I’ve been hard at work in archives and libraries over the course of the last two weeks. Although I’ve manage to accomplish a great deal on my multiple research projects, I have been less than assiduous in issuing dispatches from Moscow. In an effort to rectify my delinquency, I’m going to treat Avia-Corner visitors to [...]

One of the things that I most enjoy about researching with old periodicals are those occasions when I stumble upon some otherwise long-forgotten article that tells you as much about the present as the past. I found one yesterday afternoon while thumbing through regional newspapers at the Russian State Library branch located in Khimki. The [...]

Of all the major construction projects that graced the decade of the Triumph of Soviet Socialism none, arguably, was a greater success than the Moscow Metropolitan named for Lenin. True, the project was a mass of confusion that fell behind schedule and went over budget while squandering natural resources and human lives, but what else [...]

[From a meteorological standpoint, my arrival in Moscow last Friday came at just the right time. I managed to escape entirely an unusual spring heat-wave during which temperatures soared into the mid and upper 80s. Since then, the weather has been nothing short of marvelous (highs in the low to mid-70s, sunny, light breeze). After [...]