hello all my Aces we are on the way to a very very special place here in Finland
very very special place for aviation history now we're just making the corner
here the Sun is out it's a beautiful day and what do we have right there is a DC-3
There we go, that's the Finnish Aviation Museum that we're going to be visiting
We can already see a mig-21 right there and you know what let's go
inside and see all the great stuff they have on offer.
now before we actually go
inside and look at the great exhibits on offer I do have to make a short public
service announcement you will notice in this video that some of the aircraft
have seemingly a swastika painted on them this is in fact not the swastika
that you might be thinking about which was of course used by the Germans
between 1933 and 1945. It is extremely important to remember the historical
significance and difference between the symbol that the Finns used and the
Germans. The Finns started using this symbol already in 1918. Back then a
Swedish aristocrat gifted a airplane to the new Finnish state and this
essentially set the foundation of the Finnish Air Force and this aircraft came
with the personal symbol of good luck or good fortune for this aristocrat which
happened to be a blue swastika and the Finns adopted it as their symbol as
their airforce symbol in 1918 a good decade before it became popular in
Germany for completely different reasons. The story of the FAF
symbol is of course well known amongst aviation enthusiasts but since people
might come here and not be familiar with the story I thought I would mention it
briefly. Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed a look at some of the great Finnish planes
that we have at the Finnish Aviation Museum
all right so I'm standing in front of the Sääski II - this is the first production
aircraft that Finland has ever built in series and it is a home made design. Now
as you notice this of course a seaplane and has been used as a trainer and Coast
Guard aircraft by the Finnish Air Force. One of the things that makes it
across the extremely interesting is that the Air Force in fact did not order an
aircraft of this type. What happened is that the state aircraft company
essentially went out on whim and decided that they wanted to create an aircraft
that could potentially be used by Finland and they worked on this on
weekends and evenings outside the normal working hours and eventually they came
up with the Sääski. They went to the Air Force showed them
the design, showed them the aircraft and the Air Force said: oh let's give it a
shot. And they flew it they have some trials, gave a little bit of feedback
and then the true production model was in fact created and the Air Force said
well this one we like we'll take it and that is how the Sääski II became the first
serial production of a Finnish design in Finland. Okay so now we're standing on a
evolution of the Finnish trainer aircraft, this is the Tuisku and
Valeri here is going to explain exactly what makes this aircraft so special.
Yes, this is the first aircraft built by the Finnish state aircraft factory: Valtion lentokonetehdas
or VL as it's abbreviated which has a metal frame so
it has the framework of the fuselage is made of steel tubes, welded together
but it still has a lot of old, wooden components.
The wings mostly, yes. The wings are mostly wood and the propellor for instance is wooden.
The State Aircraft Factory was quite fond of woodwork.
It makes sense in Finland. Yeah, we have thousands of lakes and forests here
so we have a lot of lumber and it's natural to use the natural resources.
Of course. In particular as the aircraft industry is part of our
defense industry which you want to be as autonomous as possible. And at this time
yours had a lot of craftsmen that were able to work with wood - yeah- that are
is highly skilled that's why you need to retain a lot of wood in these indigious
Finnish designs. This was a training aircraft obviously two-seater
and I believe it's also the first one that was armed. Yes
you could practice aerial shooting with it.
It had a MG mount on the top of the front cockpit. Essentially to the top right of the pilot.
How did pilots respond to this design, did they like it?
Yeah, this was pretty liked.
It served up to the 1950s! 1950s? Yes.
So even post-WW2. And introduced it was in...?
In the mid-1930s, the first aircraft in the series were produced in 1936 (First flights ~1934-35)
This is essentially gearing up to World War II and we see, sort of an arms race, a resurgence of
aircraft designs and aircraft are being more more taking seriously, let's say
by all nations and then of course we have the Tuisku which is a perfect example of this.
This is basically the time were the industry moves from being essentially Carpenters
workshop, to being a light metal factory. Industry becomes more professional.
There is one more little detail that makes this aircraft a little bit more personalized and that is its nickname
Yes, this aircraft was nicknamed 'Sokeri-Sirkku' which means 'Sugar-Sirkku' (Sirkku = A company). The thing was that the Finnish
sugar factory sponsored the production of one, one Tuisku and they
essentially got a sponsor label on it. And this Tuisku, which is signed
Tu-178. It's actually
the second 'Sokeri-Sirkku' because the original one was destroyed in a crash of
in 1947. The title was given over to this one. Did the company
essentially use this as a publicity stunt on the sugar packages? Yeah yeah
Sirkku is the label of the company.
That's actually quite early then if this happens the 1930s that we can see
this kind of commercial aspect -yeah yeah- to these aircraft. That's interesting. So yeah that is
the Sokeri-Sirkku... 'Sokeri-Sirkku' that you can can visit here in the Finnish
aviation museum. Now we're going to move on to another plane that's also a
Finnish design and there you'll see the evolution from this design to a more
modern kind of type of aircraft.
Okay so now we're standing in front of
an evolution of the Tuisku and this is essentially the zenith let's say of
Finnish trainer design before the second world war ends. And you probably have to help
me pronounce this because I've butchered it a couple of times, Ryku (?)...
So this is called Pyry, essentially like 'The Blizzard'.
It's a monoplane which is fairly obvious to see of course. This is a step away from what we have earlier
with the biplane trainers which are probably easier to fly and get the job
done back in the heyday of aviation but now the more advanced design we are
stepping into a new generation essentially of trainers in Finland.
If you could explain a little bit more context of this aircraft?
Yeah, so as said we're closing to the Second World War and their airplanes
are becoming more and more powerful, especially the fighters and we've
reached the point where a pilot can't essentially just move on from a
basics trainer to being a fighter pilot so the Finnish Air Force commissioned
their first fighter trainer an advanced trainer for those who have already
received basic training often during their mandatory military service ... and pursued
into an active career in the Air Force and they would receive receive some
fighter practice with, with this Pyry. As said, it's a monoplane as you can see it has a
canopy so the top speeds are already -way above what we had before - yes. Was, this aircraft armed?
Yes, it was armed
you could do some shooting practice with it.
It has, like the Tuisku, it has a
combined metal and wooden framework it still has wooden components. -The wings, probably?- Yes
The frame is metal, with metal sheets on top of it.
For the engine, is that also a Finnish design or a foreign design?
It's a foreign design. - And this is probably a constant and all these trainer. - Yes so we
we bought engines and engine manufacturing licenses from abroad
but aircraft engines were by definition not built in Finland.
Alright, so that closes us with the...you'll have to help me again with the name... - Pyry - ...Pyry!
Alright, one thing that I have noticed is that you already have the updated roundel on this aircraft.
Yeah, so this is the roundel symbol. So the Pyry
introduced to the Air Force in 1941 but it was used well after the Second World
War. In 1945 for quite obvious reasons, the old swastika was replaced and
they chose this blue and white ground symbol instead.
This can still be seen on modern Finnish military aircraft.
I hope that you enjoyed this look at some of the Finnish training aircraft
these are aircraft they can really only find here at the Finnish Aviation Museum
in Helsinki so if you happen to be in the area if
this is a museum ago it really is recommended. Behind me is a DC-3
of Finnish Airlines, this one no longer in flying condition however the engines
they're actually giving them a go every couple of weeks to make sure that
they're running smoothly so it kind of a working exhibit, but not fully.
I want to thank once again Valeri and the Finnish Aviation Museum for having welcomed me here
they have given me a tour and also having explained some of the things that make these aircraft so special
to you guys. Make sure you go into the description down below below this video
and check out their social media and their website. If you enjoyed this
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your living room. As always I hope you guys have a great day, good hunting and see on
the sky