Tupolev Tu-154 does a road trip

[upnorth]

Hello all,

I'm a bit later than I intended in getting these pictures up. I took them at Kunovice, Czech Republic last Sunday (25.9.2016) when a new exhibit for the museum there arrived.

A former Czech air force Tupolev Tu-154M was, after two years of work and a very successful internet crowdfunding campaign, moved by road from Prague's Kbely airfield to Kunovice. This particular aircraft has the nickname "Nagano Express" as it was used to fly the gold medal winning Czech ice hockey team home from the 1998 Wintoer Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

The whole project was called Velký Přelet or The Great Flight. Enough money was raised through crowdfunding that the museum could not only move the aircraft, but also buy fresh fasteners to reassemble it and give it a fresh coat of paint among other things.

At that, here's some pictures from the day:

















If you wish to know more about the Velký Přelet project or the Kunovice air museum and their activities, please click on the link to my "Pickled Wings" aviation blog in my signature line below.

[PR19_Kit]

Look like a giant kit going together! 

What's the 'kit form' ATR doing in the background?

[Martin H]

What's the 'kit form' ATR doing in the background?

Looks more like one the Let 610 prototypes to me Kit

[upnorth]

What's the 'kit form' ATR doing in the background?

Looks more like one the Let 610 prototypes to me Kit

An L-610 it is. The museum has three L-610s in the collection, one complete and two partials.

[PR19_Kit]

I've never even heard of a LET 610.................

[upnorth]

I've never even heard of a LET 610.................

It was an unuccessful attempt by Let to build on what they had achieved with the L-410 Turbolet. I did a  write up about it for my blog a while back, it was quite an interesting story to learn all of what went wrong and worked against the aircraft:

https://pickledwings.wordpress.com/let-l-610-the-l-410s-star-crossed-sister/

[PR19_Kit]

Thanks, you learn something new every day. 

[NARSES2]

I wonder how much glue they used ?  Fascinating pictures, thanks for posting

[Captain Canada]

Great pics ! Thanks for sharing. Always neat to see stuff like this. Looks like a lot of work ! The pic with the chopper makes the wing section look like a makeshift landing pad 

[upnorth]

Great pics ! Thanks for sharing. Always neat to see stuff like this. Looks like a lot of work ! The pic with the chopper makes the wing section look like a makeshift landing pad 

That helicopter, being a Robinson R44, probably could have landed on one of those wing sections.