#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In Novosibirsk, the specialists continue to restore the Douglas aircraft, evacuated from the Taimyr tundra by an expedition of the Russian Geographical Society’s regional branch.
The restoration work on the future interactive museum exhibit has been held by the Novosibirsk company Heliocopter since December 2021 and will continue for two years. The regional department of the Russian State Register reports that the Novosibirsk specialists managed to completely restore one of the engines, almost torn out during the forced landing of the aircraft with passengers in the Volochanka region.
The pilot’s cabin is put in order, the keel is restored and installed on the fuselage tail. For the winged machine’s heavily injured bow, Heliocopter made two new frames. It is still unknown whether it was possible to deliver to Novosibirsk the missing spare parts found by the beginning of restoration. In the USA, the Visconsin state is still using Douglas, although the airline itself was eliminated back in 1967.
The American plane entered the Soviet Union in 1943 on lend-Lease, not to the front, but for working in polar aviation. It was engaged, in the Kara sea ice exploration. A year before the plane crash, the aircraft was transferred to Krasnoyarsk as the USSR L-1204.
In 1947, during the flight with passengers on board, commander Maxim Tyurikov made a forced landing in Taimyr, 180 kilometers from the village of Volochanka. Three crew members, led by the commander and six passengers who went in search of the village, did not return to the scene of the accident, but the people left near the aircraft were found and rescued.
Douglas lay in the tundra for almost seven decades. In 2018, the project to save the plane became the winner of the Russian Geographical Society Prize in the Best Russian Expedition category.
Assistance in the aircraft evacuation to the mainland was also provided by Nornickel. So, two Norilsk people who participated in the 2019 expedition were awarded the Krasnoyarsk region governor’s letters of thanks.
Douglas 47, found in Taimyr, will become the central exhibit of the future North exploration park-museum on the Molokov island in Krasnoyarsk.
Follow us on Telegram, VKontakte.
Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, photo: Krasnoyarsk region government press service
