Update on the Monino Fire

Hey.

I don't know which group I saw the subject in so I'm responding to all
three I could think of. This is from the Aero-News Network, a snippet
from a longer article about an effort to build operational replicas of
pre-WW2 Russian planes...

...as previously reported in Aero-News, a fire ignited by a welder destroyed a building
at the Air Forces Museum at Monino that was home to a collection of 20th Century
aero engines, and worse, contained tens of thousands of irreplaceable documents.
The best the firefighters could do was keep the damage contained to that single building.


Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922
{Sig Quotes Removed on Request}

Oh Crap!

Bill Banaszak, MFE

I was there a week ago last Sunday - and all is not lost.

We were told the day before our group visit that there had been a fire -
and that our visit may be cancelled - but it wasn't.

When we arrived we were dismayed to see that there was a large panelled
fence in front of the museum - and what looked like the skeleton of the
hangar rising above it.

Closer inspection revealed that this skeleton was in fact the metal
girders of a NEW hangar being built on the site of the old one - and it
was a spark from a welders torch that had caused the fire in one of the
old hangars.

The museum curator told us that they had lost some precious artifacts -
engines, models, documents etc from the very early (late 1800's - 1917
era) exhibition hangars - but that the rest of the collection was OK.

The billboard in front of the metal skeleton had an artists impression
of the new buildings - all glass & steel - due to be opened in November!!!

I wish I had taken a photos of all this new work - I don't know what
came over me!!

All the aircraft from these rebuilt hangars are either out on display -
or in the larger display hangars over the other side.

There is some money going into Monino - which is good from the
preservation point of view, but bad from our enthusiasts standpoint !!

The pathways betwen the aircraft exhibits in the 'park' have been
re-surfaced and a low chain-link fence has been put in place.

This stops the punters from going on the grass - but the museum staff
did not seem to mind when we stepped over the fence and got amongst the
exhibits - as we had always done in previous years.

I suspect though that things will get tighter in future !!!! I can see
us having to stick to the pathways.

Ken

Mad-Modeller wrote:
Oh Crap!

Bill Banaszak, MFE