Tver Air Base
By: Frank GrealishDate: 3rd August 2009
Location: Tver - Migalovo (KLD / UUEM), Russia
Tver Migalovo is a heavy transport air base in Tver Oblast, Russia, and it located 10 km west of the city of Tver. It is home to the remainder of Russia's Antonov An-22 fleet and it is also home to Ilyushin Il-76 and Antonov An-12 transports.
Worlds Largest Turboprop
Powered by 4 contra-rotating turboprops, the An-22 remains the worlds largest turboprop-powered aircraft. The first An-22 picture in the report has a guard standing under the nose which helps to add some scale to this beast.
Unfortunately this visit was static only, no aircraft were flying during the visit. However one example each of an An-12, An-22 & Il-76 were brought out to be photographed, while some of the stored / retired An-22 were also available to be photographed.
It was hoped that the recently painted camouflaged An-22 would be available to photograph but it was undergoing maintenance at the time the visit in preparation for the MAKS 2009 air show.
Even though the time on base was short and there was no flying it was nice to get up close and personal with massive An-22.
And finally...
A big thank you goes to all the Russian Air Force personnel at Tver for their patience and hospitality while a special word of thanks has to go to Alex Golz for organising the visit.
