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- Today's video is all about Soviet aviation.
Many of you may be unfamiliar with this,
but I want to show you what's flying on the Russian Plane,
a Soviet airplane's like, and I also have the expert
of Russian Soviet aviation, Charles Kennedy with me.
Antonov has the world's largest aeroplane ever.
- [Charles] Yes, the Mriya, the Antonov 225.
- [Robert] Yup.
- [Charles] And also the Antonov 124,
the Ruslan transporter.
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- [Robert] Still, the size just leave many people wonder,
how does this thing get off in the air.
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- [Robert] The Tupolev 154 is a three engine aeroplanes ,
one of the fastest flying three engine aeroplane
in the world. - That's true.
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It was, yeah.
It was very, very fast.
The sweep of the wings was very extreme.
So it was, yeah, like an arrow.
- [Robert] What's the best thing about Tupolev 154 to you?
- [Charles] For me, well, it was the workhorse
of the Soviet Union.
Even to this day, a third of all air flight passengers
ever in history flew in the 154.
They built nearly a 1000 of them,
so it was the backbone of the Soviet Union.
Which, by the way, is a country that spanned 11 time zones.
- I want to share with you, my last Tupolev 154 flight.
It was a flight from Moscow to a place
called Polyarny Odace.
Which the Tupolev 154 was used,
because Boeing 737-800 couldn't make the landing.
The runway is extremely bumpy and a lack of maintenance,
so the only 154 can do this kind of hard landings.
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(landing gear squealing)
- [Automated Control Panel] 80, 60, 40, 20, 10.
(rumbling)
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- So the second plane I want to show you guys
is recently just retired.
It's also operated by Alrosa Aviation from Russia.
It is the Tupolev 134.
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This very trustworthy pocket rocket
has done so many trips across Siberia.
- [Charles] Yeah.
- [Robert] My last flight on them was in 2017,
from a Mirny to Irkutsk.
And I wanna show you guys
how the men's are flying the Russian plane.
What difference is the western pilots
in compared to the Russian pilots?
Why the Russian pilots seems like pulling every muscles
they have to operate the plane?
- It's a good question.
I think the aeroplanes were very basic
and not a lot of what you would call power steering.
These were--
- [Robert] Made for real pilots to fly.
- [Charles] Yeah, real pilots.
The expression of like-- - No pushing a button.
- [Charles] No, no, no.
It's man-draulic.
- [Robert] Man-draulic. - Yeah.
Not hydraulic, man-draulic, yeah.
But the 134, a real, like you said, pocket rocket.
Very high performance.
In fact, it was even used to train fighter pilots.
Before military guys went onto fighter jets,
they'd have flights on the 134 for training,
'cause it was such a rocket.
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- The next aeroplane I want to show you
is an Antonov 12, four engine turbo prop.
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Designed probably in the late 50's, early 60's?
- Yes, exactly.
- It's still operational in a lot of countries
like Belarus, and the flow one, which channels together.
- Yeah. - And I remember,
they opened the cargo ramp during--
- That's right. - --in the air,
just to show us the capability of it.
- [Charles] Yeah.
- [Robert] And then you see all the smoke trail coming out
from all the source in the engine.
That was a great experience on An-12.
- Yeah, really great, really great.
Just the cargo net between you and the sky.
- Yeah, and what I admire, is this true
airmenship of the pilots.
They work synchronizerdly as a team--
- Yeah. - --to operate this An-12.
We've got navigators sitting underneath,
you've got engineer and you got two
pilots sitting on the upper deck.
- [Charles] Yes.
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We're gonna show us the Antonov 74.
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- Now this aeroplane has two jets engine,
mounted high on it's wing.
I was very fortunate.
I've flown it in Iran, and they use aeroplanes converting
from cargo to passenger.
Very lucky, I had the GoPro in the cockpits
to land and you can see how the footage,
from how the pilots fly them.
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Now Charles, what's your favourite aeroplane
in Soviet aviation?
- I have to say, it's the Ilyushin 62.
- Ah.
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- [Robert] Four engines, Soviet premiere.
- [Charles] Yes, yes.
- [Robert] Intercontinental aeroplane.
- [Charles] Yeah, Moscow to Havanan, Moscow to Pyongyang,
to Beijing, and yeah, all over Africa.
A beautiful looking aeroplane, like you said,
four engines at the back.
A real classic.
- [Robert] I particularly enjoy sitting towards the end,
the rear of the plane, to listen to the four
solo FB30 engine.
It is a symphony, especially towards landing.
You can hear different pitch, while the pilot's
throttling the landing.
It's this amazing music to my ears.
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The Soviet Union, they're very creative.
- They are creative. - Their lack of materials,
lack of technologies, but they had to survive,
they had to adapt, and came up with
different ways on these aeroplanes .
- So do you remember in North Korea,
we flew on the Ilyushin 76.
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The big jet freighter.
- [Robert] Of course.
Four engine also, same engine as the 62.
The solo one, I believe.
- [Charles] Right, that's exactly right,
that's exactly right. - Solo xc30 engines.
- [Charles] Yup, yup.
- [Robert] You know, it's just, you were inside
a shoebox, basically, at take off, and then you can't see.
But it's just, wow.
Crazy noise, this aeroplane makes.
- [Charles] Crazy noise, yeah.
- [Robert] Crazy noise.
And I'm gonna show you the footage.
During one takeoff in North Korea,
they have to put lots of weight in the middle.
Carry lots of stuff to balance the weights,
because it was not used to have empty weight.
Just a few passengers inside.
I'm really glad that we've flown a cargo plane together.
- [Charles] I know.
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So I'm sure you know this, the thing to remember,
but it's actually the fist super sonic airliner
ever built was not concord.
It was the Tuploev 144.
This is a fantasy delivery air courier,
never had the 144, but airfloat did.
- So I hope you liked the video.
I am Robert Glada.
I was born at a time when there were
still a lot and lots of Soviet Russian aviation going on,
but they were very fast disappearing in the sky.
I'm glad that I seized the opportunity
to fly on this planes.
Now sharing this video with you.
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