Antonov An-2R (c/n 1G190-04/1980, OK-RYA), landing at Roudnice nad Labem airfield during the 2019 edition of the Memorial Air Show, Roudnice, June 2019. At the end of August 2026, it has already been 79 years […]
On 24 April 1946, Yakovlev Yak-15 and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, the two first-generation Soviet jet fighters, made their first flights. In the late 1930s, the development of operational jet engines entered a breakthrough phase. In Germany, […]
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19PM (c/n 651045, formerly “1045” of Československé letectvo / the Czechoslovak Air Force), on display at an intersection in Líně, near the Plzeň-Líně airfield, July 2025 At the beginning of the 1950s, the Soviet […]
On 27 February 1965, prototype of the Antonov An-22 Antey, a heavy turboprop strategic transport aircraft (NATO reporting name: “Cock”), performed its maiden flight from Kyiv to Uzyn. The An-22 was intended as the third […]
On 19 February 1986, a new chapter in human space exploration began with the successful launch of the DOS-7 core module of the Soviet space station “Mir”, marking the beginning of the first modular orbital […]
On 26 December 1975, the Tupolev Tu-144, the first supersonic passenger aircraft (also known as the “supersonic transport” – SST), performed its first operational flight, carrying mail cargo from Moscow to Alma-Ata (now Almaty, Kazakhstan). […]
Ilyushin Il-28U (c/n 610501, formerly “CD-10”, later “0501”, of the Czechoslovak Air Force), exhibited at Letecké muzeum Kbely (Kbely Aviation Museum), Prague, September 2025. In June 1948, the Soviet authorities officially launched a development programme […]
Yakovlev Yak-27R / Як-27Р, NATO reporting name “Mangrove” (c/n 477, formerly “0708” – “red 28” of the Soviet Air Force), exhibited at Technikmuseum “Hugo Junkers” in Dessau, August 2025. In the early 1950s, the Soviet […]
Francis Gary Powers, one of the best-known American pilots of the Cold War era, was born on 17 August 1929, in Jenkins, Kentucky. Interested in aviation from an early age, he graduated with a bachelor’s […]
The An-26 is one of the most recognisable aircraft designed by the Antonov design bureau and remains one of the best-known Soviet-era transport aeroplanes. Although smaller than aircraft such as the An-124 or An-225, the […]
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