(plane engine roaring)
(performers singing)
(plane engine roaring)
(performers singing)
(plane engine roaring)
(audience clapping)
(epic music)
- I've been to many great air shows in the world such as
Paris Air Show, Farnborough Air Show, and Dubai Air Show
but if you ask me "What's the best air show I've ever been?"
I would tell you it was an air show
in North Korea five years ago.
- During the festival, you will have lots of fun.
(plane engine roaring)
- It feels like turning 50 years back in time there.
(plane engine roaring)
To enter North Korea by air, there's only two gateways.
One is from China and the other is from Russia.
(plane engine roaring)
So in September 2016, about 200 aviation enthusiasts
gathered at Beijing International Airport.
We were boarding onto an Air Koryo Tupolev 204.
Air Koryo is the national airline of North Korea.
We're bound for Pyongyang, then we'll be
transferred onto Wonsan to attend the first air show
in the country, the Wonsan Air Show.
(plane engine roaring)
Air Koryo used the Tupolev 204,
which is a modernised version of Soviet Russian aeroplane,
comparable to a Boeing 757 or Airbus A321
from the external fuselage.
(plane engine roaring)
Air Koryo was also the world's only one star
Skytrax airline, but is it really that bad?
Is it really one star?
Take a look at the service.
Take a look at the food, the drink,
the entertainment we had on board.
(plane engine roaring)
When we reached Pyongyang Airport immediately
we were transferred across the terminal and boarding onto a
Russian Soviet time machine, a Tupolev 154.
(plane engine roaring)
(passengers talking)
Oh, full house.
This is first.
(Asian music)
- [Flight Attendant] To fly Eastern, 173 kilometres
and the speed is 520 kilometres per hour.
For the safety of the flight--
(drowned out by plane engine roaring)
- It was just amazing to hear the engine starting
at the back of the Tupolev 154.
It was just a far cry from the modern day of aviation.
(plane engine roaring)
And after 30 minutes of flying,
we reach our final destination, Wonsan.
We were one of the first aeroplane to touchdown
at a brand new international airport that was built
and maybe for specifically for the air show.
Our group spend the rest of the day
at the airport tarmac filming all the Soviet aeroplanes
in the Air Koryo fleets that is coming in
to participate for the air show the next day.
(epic music)
(camera shutters clicking)
(plane engine roaring)
(camera shutters clicking)
(plane engine roaring)
Now this is not aviation, but I felt this
is really interesting and funny.
We didn't spend in any tourist hotel,
we were actually taken to a children hotel.
If you look at the room, there were three or four beds,
all dressed in pink colour sheets,
and I actually slept quite well in this tiny little beds.
No complaints.
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(upbeat music)
So the next day before the air show starts,
we were actually taken to two giant dear leader statues.
All the tour guide accompanying us are probably political
binders and they're watching all our moves.
(upbeat music)
As soon as we arrive at the air show,
we saw this massive crowd.
(crowd talking)
- During the festival, you will have lots of fun,
including sizing fly over by different planes of choice,
of your own choice, enjoying music and dance performance
and soiree, and tasting different brands
of famous Korean beer.
- (speaking in Korean)
- I hope all the festival makers from all over the world
will have a great and memorable time during their stay here.
- (speaking in Korean) - Thank you!
- Just right after the opening speech,
the very first aeroplane to on the air show
is a 1969 Ilyushin 18.
- [Translator] (speaking in Korean)
(epic music)
(plane engine roaring)
What's interesting and rare about this air show
is that this is not a pure civilian air show,
they also combine military.
It is very rare to see the North Korean air force in action,
at least showing to the Western world.
(plane engine roaring)
So right after the Air Koryo Ilyushin 18,
there's the Korean people's army air force MiG 29 in action.
(plane engine roaring)
(crowd clapping)
- [Charles] And indeed, it really was like an air show
in any other country.
The whine of jet engines, the thump of distant pop music.
(crowd talking)
- [Charles] Flags flapping, and the smell
of cooked meat on the breeze.
The pace of the display was impressive,
with one aircraft displaying while the next sat
at the holding points, ready for takeoff,
and the one after that starting engines in the parking area.
We ask the organisers how they did such a slick job on their
first ever air show and they said they watched videos
and DVDs of Riyadh, Farnborough,
and other famous events abroad.
They did a fantastic job.
(helicopters roaring)
- The crowd are so excited every time when there's
a helicopter flying over past them or whatever.
And with all the music going on and cheering, you know,
it could be anywhere, but we have to remind ourself
we are in North Korea.
The airshow is in North Korea, and this is unreal.
(plane engine roaring)
The afternoon was kicked off by another
smashing hit, the MiG 21.
A pair of female pilots were piloting the MiG 21.
(plane engine roaring)
- (pilots speaking in Korean)
- [Sam] And this was followed by the low flight paths
of a four engine Ilyushin 62.
(plane engine roaring)
And then there are Mil 17 helicopter, Ilyushin 76, and M 24.
(plane engine roaring)
And when they pass by, you smell the jet fuel in the air.
It smells great.
It is raw aviation, mega fun.
(plane engine roaring)
- [Charles] The air show was also an insight
into North Korean life as tourists had never really
been allowed to mix with locals before,
but we were free to roam
in the crowd of 20,000 North Koreans.
I was impressed by the pavilions selling souvenirs,
clothing, soft furnishing, toys,
showing a degree of commerce and private enterprise,
not usually apparent.
(crowd talking)
- And this is a great opportunity and the only time
we are actually allowed to mingle freely
with the North Koreans there at the air show,
because normally your tour guide will separate you
and the local people.
You were not able to talk directly with them
in any other places, so this is the first time ever.
Of course, they were not able to understand each other,
so we can only use simple hand gesture, hand sign,
and a smile, international diplomacy.
What really impressed me is at the end of the air show
on day one, there was a mass crowd marching back,
walking in the dark, going back home.
Of course we were privileged westerner.
We were on the bus, but watching these tens of thousands
of people walking on the street like soldiers marching,
it was incredible.
And that night, there were a great performance
in the local theatre, showcasing the North Korean arts.
(performers singing)
(crowd clapping)
(Asian music)
(crowd clapping and speaking Korean)
So the next day at the air show,
it was mainly joy riding on many Soviet's rare aeroplanes
type from Air Koryo's fleets.
(epic music)
(helicopter engine roaring)
There's not many airshow actually allow you to buy a ticket
and to go on for a joy ride,
so this is why it's so unique and such a great experience.
My favour is always the Ilyushin 62.
It was Soviet's premier Intercontinental aeroplane
back in the 1970s and eighties.
(plane engine roaring)
Sitting at a very end of the Ilyushin 62,
listening to the different pitch of screaming sound
from the D30 Soloviev engine.
It was just beyond amazing.
It was nothing like it.
(plane engine roaring)
The next interesting joy ride was an Ilyushin 76.
This was used as a transporter,
so it has a bench sitting across each side.
Each of these joy rides were very short.
They were about 15 minutes circuits, a takeoff,
a long circuit, and come back to land.
(plane engine roaring)
Another rare aeroplane to fly on is the Ilyushin 18
four turboprop engine, 1969 made.
This aeroplane in Air Koryo fleet recently had
a refurbish in interior.
It certainly looks better than it was
over a 50 year old aeroplane.
(plane engine roaring)
In the evening, as we thought the show was over,
we were wrong.
We were taken to a square.
There were 5,000 people dancing and 10,000 spectators.
Foreigners like us were invited to dance together
with the North Koreans, all going for a very
happy dance together.
Obviously, the air show was a smashing hit.
Not only we get to see the Soviet's aeroplanes , the military,
and also we get to joy ride on some of these very rare
aeroplanes you wouldn't able to do so in the West,
but there are also lots of great humanities and goodwills
in this air show.
Foreigners, for the first time, are able to freely mingle
with North Koreans.
I think aviation really unites people
and bring the world closer.
- [Charles] This was the biggest event in the North Korean
Events Diary of 2016 and there was much hope
that it would become an annual event,
but alas, international tensions that rose with the election
of Donald Trump as president of the United States
meant there was no tourism at all to North Korea in 2017
and after that, the momentum was lost,
making the 2016 Wonsan Air Show a one-off
and surely the most exotic air show of all time.
(epic music)