Yak-40 aircraft museum will be opened in Yekaterinburg

The first interactive aircraft-museum will be opened in Yekaterinburg, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the project’s Technical Director, Sergey Smirnov.

The real Yak-40 aircraft manufactured in 1978 was handed over to the city as a gift by a businessman. The 10-tons aircraft will be installed in a square between houses of Akademicheskiy District in late October in the network of development of the city’s infrastructure.

“According to our idea, the aircraft museum will be a place for excursions arranged for students of secondary schools, universities and guests of Yekaterinburg. Guests of the museum may visit the jet’s cabin, cockpit, take a pilot’s seat and press some buttons. Maybe someone would want to hold a wedding here or other events,” Smirnov said. According to him, specialists removed all the units responsible for the engine start from the jet. At that, the aircraft’s control panel remained the same; only seats and doors of the jet were renewed.

“In order to transport the aircraft specialists disassembled it, because the largest components like wing and fuselage have a length of up to 20 meters. When the cold weather comes, the aircraft will be transported to a urban district, installed on a pedestal and fitted with illumination (in order to create an illusion of flight at night),” the source said.

According to organizers, this will be the Russia’s only interactive Yak-40 aircraft museum available to anyone.