Airliners - Russia / USSR: books - history and construction

Aeroflot - Fly Soviet

Despite the borders of the USSR being closed to majority of its population, Soviet citizens were among the world's most frequent flyers.
This book unfolds the story of Soviet air travel, from early carriers like Deruluft and Dobrolet, to the enigmatic Aeroflot. Organised like an Air Force, with a vast fleet of aircraft and helicopters, Aeroflot was the world's biggest air carrier of passengers and cargo, responsible for a wider range of duties than any other airline.

Aeroflot - Fly Soviet uses beautiful graphic ephemera to illustrate a parallel aviation universe that existed for 70 years, from the very beginning of the USSR through to its demise in 1991.

Russische Jetliner

Jetliners of the Red Star

This book tells the story of every jetliner produced by the Soviet Union, including the Tupolev Tu-104 (the world's first successful passenger jet), the Ilyushin Il-62 (Aeroflot's flagship) and the supersonic rival to Concorde, the Tu-144.
Other chapters cover the Tu-154 workhorse, the Il-86/-96 jumbo jet and the world's first regional jet, the Yak-40 (and -42).
The meltdown of political certainties coincided with the Tu-204, which was able to form a bridge out of the old Soviet era into the current age.

The story of commercial aviation and aero engineering behind the Iron Curtain is told in fascinating detail accompanied by beautiful illustrations taken from Russian archives by Charles Kennedy, one of aviation's best-known writers. Not only for aviation fans but also a fascinating look Soviet history, European socialism and the evolution of technology.

Soviet-Era Airliners: The Final Three Decades

When the Soviet Union fell in December 1991, there were close to 3,500 assorted Soviet-built airliners that could be deemed operational - more than there had ever been before. The vast majority of these Antonovs, Ilyushins, Tupolevs, and Yaks flew for Aeroflot, and were scattered far and wide at bases across the Soviet Union.
Thirty years later, they have almost all disappeared. Now dominated by state-of-the-art Airbuses and Boeings, the world's airports and airways will never be the same again without the noise, smoke and charisma of these iconic designs from Soviet times.

This book follows the fortunes of the great Soviet airliners over the last three decades and looks at what happened to this immense fleet: the fragmentation of Aeroflot into a myriad of new operators in the 1990s, the bankruptcies and consolidation of so many airlines that followed, and then the slow, inevitable disappearance of these aircraft from our skies.
Illustrated with 220 photographs, most of which have never been published before, and supported by many anecdotes, facts and figures, this book conveys the nostalgia and wonder of this special, tumultuous time in aviation history.

Russian Airliners Outside Russia

Presents a variety of Soviet and Russian built civilian aircraft which were supplied to the export market, including LOT in Poland, Malev in Hungary and CSA in Czechoslovakia.

This book explores both those aircraft built before the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as those that have come to dominate Russian sales overseas. It includes photographic content, and detailed captions.