Russian aviation is not ten feet tall, either

The Russian military equipment is not ten feet tall. In fact, it is less tall than our American equipment, in my humble opinion. And I worked with a Russian engineer who said much the same thing. And I grew up aviation style until I flunked the depth perception test. And so when I read alarming news reports about Russian aviation sales to Venezuela, Syria, and Iran I took it with a grain of salt. In another day, I did not. But time and experience changes many things. Perhaps the Russians are taking in a lot of money, paying a lot of engineers, and then seeing their exported gear parked due to lack of maintenance and maintenance funding. I only wish we could get them to do this more!

My Russian friend always dreaded the flight back to Russia since there was a good chance the Aeroflot plane would be build by Ilyushin. He always wished to fly a Boeing plane if he could get a choice, which he could not.

Right now there are reports than the President of Venezuela is spending 3 billion dollars of his nations wealth, oil income mostly, for Russian planes. Fine and dandy if he is also spending the required 15 to 20 billion dollars to do the infrastructure support to include education, parts and supplies, and even weapons that fit the planes. There is little evidence of this, and the planes may be parked for a long time.

The same principle applies to Russian exports of jet airplanes to the Middle East. Alarming reports of top of the line Russian jets to Syria, paid by Iran, and shared by both, come to mind. This is of concern, until one looks at the 25 or so Russian planes Syria paid for around 1975, and they are still parked because they do not run.

Just watch the History Channel to be impressed with the Russian jet dog and pony shows, mostly in the west. They make good machines. It’s the buying the fleet with its support to influence foreign policy of Syria, for example, where things come up lacking. On the face, the Russian jet planes are pretty good. Especially of worry is when they are electronically retrofitted with European avionics stuff. What is not of worry is the Russian made label. And the recent resurgence of Russian strategic aviation is a political move, given that all the airframes and most of the avionics are still 50 years old. Go figure what Putin is trying to show, but these people and their airplanes are not ten feet tall.