Maria, who is a mathematician from Novosibirsk "scientists city" as it was called in Soviet times, has a rather unusual hobby. Can you guess what is she up to just by looking at the photo above? Probably the first thought that comes to mind is that her hobby is flying planes or plane spotting. Well, not really. Her hobby doesn't consist of flying around, she actually has a large passenger jet to restore piece by piece, slowly.
Maria, who almost finished her doctorate program in a local university, has got a real, once operational Soviet TU-104 plane to restore. The plane is parked at the very far end of the airfield and it's pretty far away from her day job and place of residence, however she visits her plane almost every day to work on it, just like a dedicated person would!
Maria has met and greeted the photographers near her plane, trying to calm the watch dogs of various types living near her plane. "I am coming here a few days a week. It takes one hour and a half to get here. First on a bus, then in a taxi", says Maria. "It's very hard to get here in winter, when the snow is high. I get shoes full of snow whilst getting to the plane. It's very cold in the plane in the winter.".
And when the photographers got into the plane, it really was much colder inside than outside.
"I first got interested in planes because of my frequent job related trips.", says Maria. " So I got interested in how they work, and what they consist of."
Five years ago she learned that there was a written-off - out of service, grounded plane here in Berdsk. "I came here and asked to take a look at what's inside", says Masha. "It was a very sad sight - all of the gauges and devices were ripped off, the wiring was stolen by the scrap metal hunters."
"So I offered to them that I would restore the plane." At first they were skeptical, however as Maria started bringing in the rare pieces of equipment for the cockpit they became more assured of her seriousness.
As you can see, a lot of gauges are already in position!
"For now I restore only the cabin, the cockpit, the dashboard", says Maria, "I find the parts via the internet, online, some for money, some people give them to me as gifts". She didn't mention the prices of those things, so as not to attract a new bunch of burglars and scrappers.
She still hopes that someday this plane can fly. "However, as for now, the ready to fly state of this plane is zero percent ready, almost nothing is in here - no engines, nothing" says the girl. "We have finished 60% of the cockpit and cabin, but it is really not enough for the plane to fly".
"It's more likely that we'll make a museum piece of the plane. Even now whole families come to me and ask to sit inside, take photos, etc."
She started alone, but recently her boyfriend started to help her from time to time, and then two senior ex-pilots joined her effort in restoration jobs.
"This plane has stayed here for 36 years already!", says the girl, "At first they used it for some training for paratroopers, then it was used just as a storage facility, and later it was just abandoned."
Maria has yet to learn how to fly a plane, for now she is finishing her doctorate and after that she plans to take flying classes.
As for this plane, it is a TU-104 - the first Soviet passenger jet. It was used from 1956 to 1979 and around 201 planes were built. The crew is 7 people, and it can carry 50 to 100 passengers. According to studies, almost 18% of these planes got into an emergency or crashed, which makes it the worst among all Soviet planes.
A big thanks to Maria for restoring the aircraft and to the photographers!
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What was the Tupolev Tu-104?
The Tupolev Tu-104 was a Soviet twin-engine jet airliner introduced in the mid-1950s, among the world’s first jet-powered passenger aircraft to enter regular service. Its later supersonic stablemate was the Tupolev Tu-144, the Soviet answer to Concorde.
Who is Maria the aircraft restorer?
Maria is a mathematician from Novosibirsk who restores a retired Soviet Tu-104 airliner as a hobby. Parked on an airfield in Berdsk, the aircraft had been stripped of its gauges and wiring, and she rebuilds the cockpit piece by piece using parts she sources online.
Can ordinary people restore old aircraft?
Yes. Enthusiasts and volunteers often restore retired or derelict aircraft privately, tracking down rare instruments and parts through online communities and donations. Maria’s Tu-104 cockpit restoration is one such grassroots project.
Where is Novosibirsk?
Novosibirsk is a major city in Siberia, Russia, long associated with science through its Akademgorodok, the so-called “scientists’ city.” Maria, who restores the Tu-104, is a mathematician from there.
What other notable aircraft did the Soviet Union build?
The Soviet Union produced a remarkable range of aircraft, from airliners like the Tu-104 to experimental machines such as the rocket-powered Bereznyak-Isayev BI-1 interceptor, one of the first aircraft of its kind.
Can you tell me why civilian planes, like this one, has a glass nose cone instead of the cones used in Western planes?
Thanks in advance.
Francisco
Because these airliners often find themselves operating in remote areas where radio and GLONAS/GPS coverage can be next to non-existant, they were often built with these glazed navigator’s stations so that they could do their job via landmarks and the stars if needed.
I met a pilot from the former East Germany who went to flight school in the former USSR and who flew for the Interflug national airline and he told me Tupolev was a big name in the era of propeller driven airplanes but when the world switched to Jets in the late 60s two plane makers came to dominate the global market Boeing in the USA and Iluyshin in the USSR . If Maria likes restoring old Tuploevs there are a number of TU-144s that need her help!