A naval museum is coming up next to the New Town police station.
Its biggest exhibit will be a Tupolev 142M, a long range maritime patrol aircraft, which, because of its massive wing span, is also called an Albatross.
The TU142M aircraft being assembled Sudeshna Banerjee
The flight, made in erstwhile Soviet Union, was inducted in the Indian Navy in 1988 at Dabolim, Goa and shifted to INS Rajali, the naval air station in Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu in 1992. It became the most formidable long range reconnaissance and antisubmarine aircraft of the Navy.
The museum is an initiative of the KMDA. According to Hidco sources, the Navy offered the aircraft to minister Firhad Hakim to build a naval museum.
The two-acre plot was chosen by Hidco as it wants to build zones of attraction at each of its legs of Biswa Bangla Gate. “This way, the whole area will become vibrant. You can see the naval museum from the viewing gallery of the gate. Once the museum is ready, the KMDA will hand the facility back to Hidco for operation as a tourist attraction,” said Hidco chairman cum managing director Debashis Sen.
ABCs of Albatross The Telegraph
Another aircraft from the same consignment deinducted in March 2017 has been turned into a similar museum in Visakhapatnam.
The aircraft, dismantled in parts, reached Calcutta in 16 trucks. “Its total weight is 110 tonnes. It took the heavier trucks 16 days to reach calcutta from Chennai while the lighter trucks came in seven days,” said Captain V.R. Venkatesh of Taneja Aerospace & Aviation Ltd, an aviation maintenance and repair company based in Chennai, which is in change of assembling the craft. “For the last two and half years, it was kept in a preserved state, with the kind of maintenance scheduled for non-flying aircraft.”
The TU142M was designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau and manufactured by the Kuibyshev Aviation and Taganrog Machinery Plants. It saw action during Operation Cactus in the Maldives and participated in airborne surveillance missions off Sri Lanka. It was the fastest turboprop aircraft in the world during its years of service and reportedly was difficult to intercept by fighters. The anti-submarine and surveillance operations expert could detect the lowest noises underwater, such as that of nuclear-powered submarines. Capable of remaining airborne for 16 hours at a stretch, it has given the Indian Navy 29,000 hours of accident-free service.
In the last 10 days, the major part of the fuselage has been assembled on the spot. “Connecting the inner wings were the most critical. Now we need to lift the body 9ft into the air to fit the undercarriage. Once the weight of the fuselage comes on the tyres, the rest will be easy for us to fit,” said Capt Venkatesh. Thirty technicians from Chennai are on the job. The aircraft is supposed to be assembled in another week. The Navy will then develop the other exhibits for its interiors.
