This is a photo trip report of the highly successful Ukraine Grand Aviation Tour which took place in late July 2018.
Tour Highlights
- Ramp tour at Antonov facility.
- Fly An-24 of MotorSich Airlines. (also An-140 for those departed to Minsk)
- 3 flights on Yak-40 special charter for our group.
- See ANT-7 - only one in the world.
- See TU-114 - one of three left in the world.
- Ramp tour of Motorsich aircrafts at Zaporizhia.
- Ramp tour of Shiroke Airfield - 60 Let L-29, 13 Antonov An-2, 9 Mil Mi-2
- Ramp tour of strategic bombers - Tu-160 White Swan (only one in the world in a museum) Tu-95MS, Tu-22M3
I arrived at Kiev the day prior to the tour and stayed at The Ukraine Hotel in the city, with an amazing view of the Maidan square.




I visited the monument of motherland briefly in late afternoon.
Kiev at night (View from my room)
Day 1
Our group met in the lobby of Ukraine Hotel at 8am. The first stop was a coffee/tea stop at the yellow plane, which is a Yak-40 on stand.
Afterwards the group visited the Antonov facilities and were given a tour of their hangar and the production line. Due to some personal circumstances, I had not been to the Antonov plant. The pictures below were provided by another tour member who visited the plant.
The An-225 is on duty flights in South America but the group were shown the 2nd An-225 currently unfinished in the hangar.

We had lunch in the Antonov canteen, and then headed off for a quick tour of The Kiev Museum Aviation Training Institute and Hangar.
We saw the world's only Tupolev ANT-7 preserved in the hangar.
The hangar is literally a classroom, with many aircraft parts on display. There is: An-2, Yak-42, An-24, Let-410, Tu-154 and Mil-8 aircraft, all in pristine condition. A demo of flaps and gear up/down were shown to the group.
Afterwards we headed off to the Ukraine State Aviation Museum at the Kiev Zhulyany airport. I recommend spending at least 3 hours in this fantastic museum. There was so much on display to see, with many planes opened up to allow a visit to the interior too!
We had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant and then were flown to Zaporizhia at 8pm by Motor Sich Airlines An-24.









Our hotel, Intourist Hotel, is 20 minutes away from the airport in the city of Zaporizhia. I was lucky enough to have been allocated a "retro" suite.




Day 2
We departed hotel to Zaporizhia airport to fly on our chartered An-2 to Shiroke airfield.



After a 20 minute flight over The Dnipro River, we arrived at Shiroke airfield. We were allowed to visit 60 Let L-29, many Antonov An-2 and Mi-2 stored there. For more information about Shiroke Airfield, please visit here.








We flew back to Zaporizhia and had a tour of the Motor Sich airlines facility. We spotted An-2, An-12, An-24, An-74, Yak-40 and some IL-76 in the background. We were also allowed to visit inside of a VIP version of a Yak-40.
There were heavy thunderstorm and rain over the city in the evening; I took a few photos from my hotel room balcony. Zaporizhia is a typical Soviet industrial city and many buildings still display their Soviet heritage.

Day 3
Today was a big day; our group flew on a specially chartered Yak-40 from Zaporizhia to Poltava then to Kryvyi Rih and back to Zaporizhia.




Upon landing at Poltava airport, we were given a great welcome by the local authorities. Local media were out filming our arrival as we were the first users of the newly renovated airport.



Аэропорт Полтава принял первый рейс с пассажирами после реконструкции
We then transferred to Museum of Long-Range and Strategic Aviation with a ramp tour of Tu-160 White Swan, Tu-95MS, Tu-22M3, Tu-22K, Tu-16, Tu-134UBL etc. We were even allowed to go inside of many of the aircraft on display!
The next stop was Kryvyi Rih, on our chartered Yak-40. Flight time from Poltava to Kryvyi Rih took 40 minutes. Kryvyi Rih, an industrial city with 600,000+ inhabitants, has a much older Soviet style terminal.



We visited Kryvyi Rih Aviation Museum which houses a Tu-114 and many other soviet built aircraft. They still have CCCP-xxxxx registration on the tail.
Everyone climbed the stairs to visit the interior of the giant Tu-114. We discovered there is a lower deck (galley) inside the massive Tu-114!



Day 4
Our group flew back to Kiev by An-24 in the early morning. That was the end of a great tour! A few of us flew the Motor Sich Airlines An-140 to Minsk, in a bid to experience this unique turbo-prop. (the only one left in commercial service) See the separate report here.
I hope you enjoyed the tour through these images. We are planning on a new tour in May 2019. I will provide the tour update on this blog. See you in Ukraine!