The 13th International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS-2017) was favorably endowed with premieres and events. One of the most emotional and touching for both spectators and participants of the program was the flight of the IL-2 attack aircraft, a participant in the WWII. This airplane was piloted by Valentin Skopintsev, who was a member of the 46th Assault Air Regiment of the Air Force of the Northern Fleet. The plane was shot down in 1943, near Murmansk. In 2011, divers in Lake Chernogubsky found it. The aircraft was lifted up and restored to flying condition by joint efforts of specialists from the SibNIA named after S.A. Chaplygin and the fund “Крылатая память победы”, with the support of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC).
OKB “Spetziazhproekt” LLC delivered the legendary aircraft to Zhukovsky, to participate in the aircraft show.
On July 8, a convoy of two trawls, on which the fuselage and wings of the aircraft were stationed, escort cars and the traffic police cars left Novosibirsk. The first trawl carried the wings of the aircraft weighing 500 kg; the second trawl carried the fuselage weighing 4.5 tons, 3 meters high and almost 5 meters wide. The route ran through the cities of Omsk, Petropavlovsk, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Penza and Ryazan. On July 12, the road train stopped in Samara. It was here that the “flying tank” was made.
3,5 thousand km were passed with an average speed of 20 km / h. The escort vehicle controlled the passage of the overall width and height along the entire route. In the Moscow region, for the unimpeded passage of cargo, concrete blocks of dividing fences were dismantled on one of the sections of the route.