Hey guys, I am sorry for the week long delay for my post here, its cause we have just finished our move to moscow from canada and we had no internet here for a week before we could hook it up. well anyways enuf of my life and on to MAKS: the pictures you shall have when I can find a scanner to scan em, about in one week time I will make a post with the pics.
Getting There:
Needless to say, they expected problems from the start, not ones in the air, but on the ground. The territory of the Zhukovsky airfield is very large, however, every day except for the start on friday, there were 200,000 people attending. Thats an enormous ammount to get from the city to the airfield on the outskirts. However, the Moscow government was well prepared, they had commuter trains going off from the dowtown train station 'Kazanskii Vokzal' to the station nearest to Zhukovsky 'Otdih'. Needless to say, these trains were packed so full that people trying to be smart to 'beat the crowd' and get on the train not at the departure point, but one of the stations in between, had serious problems trying to get into the train, if they could fit into it at all. I was one of the lucky ones, I was one of the first ones in the train and I got a seat, while about 40 others, not so lucky, had to stand for the 45 minute trip. For those who brought cars, a nearby airport, Bykovo, was closed down for the weekend and the airfield was made into a LARGE parking area, and I mean large, over 10,000 cars at the busiest time. As before, the government officials that organised the event did not faulter, there were no traffic jams while leaving, it was a nice grid systems with 4 exits onto 4 seperate roads from the airport, so when leaving, you had a slow, but steady flow of cars, about 20km/h for the first 15 minutes before entering the parking area. From Bykovo and from the train station 'Otdih' there were shuttle buses that took us to the actual Zhukovsky airfield. Once we got off the bus, we encountered the next step: security. This was extremely high, and we had to wait about 20 minutes to get into the MAKS area, the gates to MAKS lookes just like an airport security area, metal detectors, X-ray machines, plus a quick search of the bag and a K9 unit beside the metal detectors. There were, thankfully, no disturbances or incidents reported.
Inside:
When just passing security, you come head on to a stationary, brand new, Illyushin 96-400 (brand new model) you could touch it and everything, but not mess around with the landing gears, they had them fenced off, and the engines covered up (on all stationary aircraft) to prevent some idiots from throwing objects inside the engine. Now to the left of the IL96 are about 100 aircraft, fighters and helicopters on either side of the taxiway, you can go up to and touch most, and with a few you could climb in the cocpit! There was also a IL-76MD and a A-50 that were the large aircraft to the left. The most interecting I found was Saturn's exhibit, Saturn is a russian (government owned) company that makes high tech jet engines, and their exhibit was 2 modified Su-37 fighters for experimental purposes at the Gromov Flight Research Center (based in Zhukovsky). Between these jets was a pretty large screen and it showed the details of the engines and why they were so special, the exhaust could actually be directed in any direction giving the jet manuevering capabilities that named it most advanced in the world ever since its debut in Fairford in 98 when it wowed the crowds with its legendary vertical position, but horizontal flight. Sukhoi also had the whole Su-27 Flanker family on display, and when heading back toward the IL96, taking a left brings you to the large jets, the B52, the AN74, another IL96, a new model of the Tu-204, an experimental Tu-334, and several more large jets and prop planes. The thing I found the best here was that I was able to go inside the Tu-334, which is still in the process of getting russian and international certification this one is a prototype, it has 620 flights and needs 1000 for certification, 6 units are in factory and almost done while one is undergoing finishing touches in Samara to join its sister in september to get certification faster. Basically, to sum it up in a few sentances, I loved it, this jet was much better than any russian jet of its size and better than the A318 (which is the same size as it) and all the Mcdonnel Douglas series planes that are its size. First of all, the controls are comfortable and state of the art, it is very roomy, allthough at first glance it looks like a small bird, it holds a little over 100 passengers, in a 3-3 configuration, in one salon. The back section of the plane was set up in passenger config while the front part was full of equipment used to measure airflow, fuel consumption and other variables, it is still, after all, a prototype. The headroom was much more than that of a DC9 and so was leg room. Also, unprofessional of me to say, but I think that from the outside, this plane would have to be the cutest civilian plane I have ever seen
, and no if you were wondering, I dont have a thing for this plane
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The Flights:
The flights lasted about 6 hours, starting with an Italian team of 10 small jets that wowed the crowds with their head on flights and use of smoke, second was the russian team Russ, it was a time killer to make was for the next team but the 4 man team did some very good head on flights and 'starbursts'. Then, the team that I liked the most, the French, on their Mirage fighters, the 10 frogs dazzled the crowds with their vertical climbs, starbursts and best of all, their use of smoke, they several times made the French Flag in the sky and then what put a smile on everyone's face, a giant, blue and white heart in the sky followed by a large russian flag to get the 200,000 people on the ground on their side. Next were the Shtrizhi, not bad, the powerfull MiG29's really can climb fast, make alot of noise and put on a show, but they made no effort to wow the crowds, the best thing about them would be a vertical climb with a spin while deploying their trademark firework flares. Next was the F15, not bad but it was shoved into the shadow by the Su-37, which had the crowds wiping their eyes in dispbelief as this thing moved at a fast speed, to turn up and angle its special engines mentioned above, and stop in mid air, to drop straight down, idlining engines in an eerie silence, only to turn them on in the final seconds to make a beautiful recovery, hats off to the pilot and all the time he spent practicing those manuevers. So in my opinion, the team award goes to the Frogs, followed closely by the closing Russian Knights in their Su-27's which also put on a huge show, and the individual award goes to the Su-37!. There were many I did not mention cause they were simple demo flights, not displays, like the Tu-204 for example.
Leaving MAKS
Easier said than done, try having an airfield full of about 170,000 people that stay till the last minute try to leave through a bottleneck (the bottleneck was on purpose cause only 8 shuttle buses could fit in the pickup area at one time) Ofcourse there has to be pushing and shoving in the great heroic russian spirit of 'I wanna get there first' but even this the organisers could cure with: skydivers, yes, the Russian Special Forces put on a show for us while we made the way through the bottlneck onto the buses to Bykovo and Otdih, but at Otdih, as you can understand, you can only have so many trains on a track at once, and since about 150,000 to 170,000 people stayed to the last minute, getting back took 1.5 hours, 2 times longer than getting there, and all this, was worth it!
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