Air for all one

What was shown at the Max 2015 air show. Reporting Andrei Kozenko

On Sunday, August 30, in Zhukovsky the next Moscow Airlines Salon ends. Max is still one of the main Russian events in the field of aviation. As before, the airier is collecting a record number of visitors: according to news agencies, only about 120 thousand people arrived on Friday to Zhukovsky, on Saturday there were more than 150 thousand. The special correspondent of Medusa Andrei Kozenko went to Max - and found there the old aviation equipment and fresh flags of Novorossia.

“Don't linger at the door. Trains are still going to the airier, ”the driver of a crowded electric train that went from the Kazan Station, probably, did not understand his own irony. In one, Max remains unchanged: it is always a crowd and huge lines. The queues for free buses from railway stops, queues for a police officer, queue for entrance tickets. The queues for food and queue to the toilet. The queues for airplanes that can be examined from the inside, the queues for aircraft traffic and stands at exhibitions. Only for the electric train setting back to Moscow, there are no bursts, although in them people burst in crowds.

The giant exposition of aircraft and helicopters in Zhukovsky has been registered since 1993. More recently, in 2011, Boeing representatives brought here only Dreamliner airlines that fell into the hands of airlines; They showed a finger at A-380 competitors from Airbus and said that this is the best plane of today (however, they still developed a plane of tomorrow). In 2015, at first glance at the exposition, you think that it was strange to call this event an air show, because, in fact, it is more like a museum. Of the innovations this year, there was only Airbus A-350, but it was kept away from the public.

Here is the cargo IL-76, converted into the laboratory. Here is the Yak-42, who has been living in recent years on regular commercial flights-and also turned into a laboratory. Here are the Tu-154, which, probably, every Soviet man traveled. Here is the supersonic Tu-144, flying away in the early 1980s; In the middle of the zero, they tried to cut it into scrap metal, but defended it - and now it is exhibited on Max (for the first time appearing here, at least in 2007). Or the Tu-155, from which the paint is already peeling, is the most unlucky Soviet aircraft, which they began to develop in 1988, but then the money ended first, and then the Soviet Union. Behind the territory of the air show, literally behind the fence, there were also different old aircraft-from IL-18 to Tu-134. Old, with holes instead of portholes. From the point of view of the entourage, it is it. However, in the end, the airier did not look like a place where they think about the future.

Of the new aircraft, two Superjet were presented (one in the livery of the Yamal airline; the purchase agreement was concluded here a few days earlier) and the Czech L-410 aircraft. The latter is a fully recycled version of the well -known model in the USSR for a couple of dozen passenger places operated on flights of short duration - from the regional center to a large district center, for example. Now transportation of this type has been preserved only in rich oil regions, although they used to be widespread. Modern Russian prospects of the aircraft are unknown. It was only reported that in the coming years he would advance to the Chinese market.

The rest of the relatively modern expositions were only helicopters and military aircraft.

“No, I’m no longer with airplanes, I ...” the man who spoke on the phone looked around in an attempt to navigate. “You know, I'm like an old Arbat.” Here narrowly, all around the kiosks and sell all kinds of crap. ” From past years, souvenir tents remained on Max, where accurate copies of well-known aircraft in the livery of airlines from around the world, as well as tents, where they sell not very accurate copies of cheaper-for example, A-380 in Aeroflot colors, although no Russian company does not have these airbuses. Moreover, during the air show, it became known that their deliveries of Transaero, scheduled at the end of 2015, are delayed with a delicate wording “as soon as the economy and passenger traffic are restored”. What in our conditions means until the best and vague times.

But it was true that T -shirts with portraits of Vladimir Putin migrated to the air dealerson from the Arbat collapse. The president was presented on horseback, and close -up, and in dark glasses, and without them. In military uniform and civilian. With quotes attached to portraits from the series "Whoever offends us, he will not live for three days." And without quotes, but with such a severe expression on the face that everything was clear. "We Speak English, WelCome!" -In a tent with this inscription equipped with a friendly emoticon, the most vigorous souvenir-agitation products were sold, where Putin's portraits were mixed with portraits of Joseph Stalin, the image of “polite people” and the flags of “Novorossiya”, as well as scarves with the signature “God and the Andreevsky Flag”. All this had the slightest relationship to aviation, but in some demand was in some demand.

In the pavilion, where they showed products for civil aviation, it was not very crowded. Boeing and Airbus opened stands here, introducing the entire line of their passenger aircraft. But the participation of companies formal looked like. None of these largest world manufacturers even translated commercials into Russian. Not to mention the fact that from their weekends it followed that they were prepared not for Max, but for the June air show in Le Bourget . “The front part is still nothing,” commented on the next visitor in the context of a layout of one of the long-range aircraft, pointing a finger at premium and business classes. “And the back - just look, this is a cattle.”

But in the pavilion with military equipment it was not possible to push through. Each parent considered it his duty to show the children, for example, the active-passive radar head of the “Gran-CE” for the tactical anti-ship missile X-35ue.

In small street pavilions, you could try yourself on the MiG-29 simulator. The Almaz-Antei Corporation invited Horizon-E to the point of guidance-there were also many children here who were happy to see how goals appear and disappear on computers monitors. A nearby simulator of the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, unfortunately, was closed to visitors.

A tent of the Alfa-Patriot sports club is located nearby. Here it was possible to aim from some types of small arms (young men posed, girls took pictures; sometimes the other way around), as well as from a grenade launcher. “You, young man, decide for a start with whom you are going to fight,” the instructor of the next grenade launcher taught. - If with the enemy, then I recommend deploying the weapon with the other end. However, if you want to shoot in your own, you can leave it as it is. ” Young participants in Alfa-patriot were grinned. In their black (and not always in size) form they resembled guards from some choke.

From Friday to Sunday, demonstration flights continued on all types of equipment capable of climbing the air. Plus, according to tradition, legendary pilot groups acted - “Russian Knights”, “Swifts”, “Falcon of Russia”. And the new group “Taurida’s Wings” on the Yak-130 aircraft that joined them this year. “Perhaps someone will ask: why is the wings of Taurides, and not, suppose, Borisoglebsk, where the group is based? Yes, and the commander -in -chief was finished by the Borisoglebsky Vwal ... The fact is that it was in the Tauride province of the Russian Empire that domestic aircraft emerged, ”the text about the history of its creation said .

The person who commented on flights was a real fan of aviation; The figures of the highest aerobatics and even the very fact of finding in the air of a particular vehicle were more important for him more important than the entire policy combined. On Friday, American transporters flew on Max from the Second World War DC-3. “Of course, there are disagreements between our countries, but there is one air for everyone,” just in case he defended the planes. On Saturday, the turn of the Baltic Bees from Latvia came. While the pilots dived on their L-39, and then scattered in different directions with rays, the presenter called the military from the country entering NATO, "big friends." “We are friends since the USSR and now friends,” he said. - There are no nationalities in the air at all. We speak the same language there. ” After these words, I wanted to go into the air.

In total, Max 2015 was attended, according to the organizers, 720 companies, 609 of them represented Russia. In the field of commercial transportation of the greatest successes, the group “Sukhoi” reached, which agreed on the supply of about 40 Superjet aircraft to Russia, Kazakhstan and Mexico. At the same time, for the first time it was stated that Transaero and UTair refused to acquire Russian aircraft. The show of some new products (like a passenger aircraft MS-21 or Ka-62 helicopter) is postponed to the next Max scheduled for 2017. The commercial results have not yet been summed up, but the organizers immediately warned that the amount of transactions would be less than 18 billion dollars - a two -year -old indicator.

Andrey Kozenko

Zhukovsky