Tupolev 142 plane to be set up at naval aircraft museum

The process for setting up of a naval aircraft museum in Kolkata completed its first phase with the arrival of a Tupolev (TU) 142 aircraft in the city, a Defence official said here on Saturday. The turboprop plane that was handed over to Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) last year was dismantled and brought to the city on a truck on Friday, the official said.

It will now be reassembled for setting up of the museum, the second of its kind in the country, he said. Preparatory activities at the New Town site has commenced with the earmarked plot of land cleared, flattened and the base on which the aircraft will be erected has been completed. The aircraft reassembling will commence shortly and is likely to be completed by early March, the official said.

KMDA has also started work on the next phase with the identification of an architect to design the layout of the museum, the official said. There will be a mannequin resembling a pilot in the cockpit and visitors can see the machinery, bombs, torpedoes and gunner compartments of the plane as they walk through the aircraft museum, according to sources. The Indian Navy's workhorse long-range maritime patrol and anti-submarine aircraft TU-142M was de-inducted in March, 2017 after 29 years of service.

The Russian-made turboprop aircraft with four engines and eight propellers, aptly named the 'Albatross', was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1988. The first such naval maritime aircraft museum in the country in a TU-142 plane was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind at Visakhapatnam on December 7.

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