This Coot was built in December 1962 as an Il-18V but converted to a freighter in 1979. It was retired and made its last flight to Szolnok - Opera in April 1987 for display at the Szolnokmuseum. Fortunately or unfortunately, the museum has relocated to a new site that did not have space for any of the larger exhibits and so this beautiful old aircraft was left behind. I hope that the fact it is being cleaned means that the eventual intention is not to scrap it.

A Polish-built Po-2, formerly HA-PAU.

The MiG-15UTI was built in huge numbers as a general advanced trainer. This one is preserved in the museum at Szolnok which is quite nice. Situated 100 km east of Budapest, it is also easy to get to by train and city bus.

Faded fighter Viggen.

This used to be the colourful bird in the Sky Hussars display team.

The flag marking presumably represents the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The real No 27 (c/n 1027) crashed in October 1957. This is in fact an East German machine, 534.

The K-5M Alkali beam-riding missile armed the MiG-19PM interceptor.

This Il-2 was shot down into Lake Balaton towards the end of WWII.

The MiG-17PF all-weather interceptor was a MiG-17 fitted with Izumrud radar.

A classic MiG in the rather nice museum at Szolnok.

The UB was the two-seat trainer model of the MiG-23. It first flew in 1969 and was produced at Irkutsk from 1970-78.

The Ka-26 was in Hungarian air force service from 1969 to 1988, mainly in the training role.