Russian aircraft memories
Hi Seb. I was neither pilot nor engineer but I was a Customs Officer at London Airport in the 1960s and regularly boarded Russian airliners - mainly TU104s and 114s. Both showed their military origins in the cockpit and included a glass nose. I thought it strange looking out through the front of the aircraft, like a bomb-aimer. Flight crews were required to communicate with you through an interpreter who was a political commissar. All the uniforms were very military and you could very easily imagine that you were in a jet bomber. We had to clear the crew and secure the bonded stores, such as they were. The commissar escorted us to the galley. In-flight refreshments consisted solely of tea, water vodka and indifferent hard biscuits, with the occasional tin of caviar if there were VIPs on board. The passenger cabin on the TU104 was like something out of a Victorian drawing-room, dark wood, chintz cushions, heavy curtains and furnishings matched only by very heavy and buxom hostesses who carried all before them. The Russian flight crews were usually very cheerful, except for the commissars, who often were not. Russian aircraft were certainly unique and old-fashioned even in those far-off days but they took off like rockets. Later on in the Customs I was in charge of overseeing Russian aircraft spares and stores in their warehouse, and I was amazed at the apparent crudity of many of the Russian fixtures and fittings compared to western aircraft. Good luck with your project!