There is an opinion, especially among Petersburgers, that "in Finland there is nothing to watch." Well, maybe live in a cottage, fish on a forest lake or go skiing. Fortunately, this is not so. In addition to water parks, ski slopes and shops with Fairy and red caviar, there are other attractions in Suomi. One of them - aviation Museum in Tikkakoski, 20 kilometers from the city of Jyväskylä.
Once the Aviation Museum in Tikkakoski wore the status of the “Official Museum of the Finnish Air Force”. In 1970, this quiet place was probably a dream of Soviet intelligence. Why? Everything is simple - here is located the Finnish Air Force Directorate, the Pilot Air Force Training Center, the Information Service and the Flight School with a base of training aircraft. In addition to the Academy of the Finnish Air Force in Tikkakoski, there is also the country's largest research and development unit specializing in the development of aviation systems ... In general, the place for the museum was not chosen by chance. By the way, another Finnish aviation museum is located not far from Helsinki in the suburb of Vantaa, but so far it has not been visited.
But back to Tikkakoski. The first thing that strikes the exposition is the abundance of the swastika. The swastika itself does not represent anything negative. This is one of the most ancient graphic symbols denoting the movement of the Sun around the Earth, from east to west. In the European culture of the XIX century, this symbol was very popular on the wave of Aryan fashion theory.
The Finnish “Khakarishi” swastika hit the wings of the planes during the civil war: March 6 1918, a Swedish count Erik von Rosen, gave the white army of Mannerheim the first aircraft with a swastika on board. After that, in general, the Finns had no choice - by the order of Mannerheim, this emblem entered the symbolism and breastplates of the young republic.
It turns out that the swastika in Finnish aviation appeared long before it became a state symbol of Nazi Germany. However, historically the Finnish swastika "Khakaristi" did not have any relation to the "German-fascist" symbol.
During the Second World War, the Finnish Air Force used “Khakarishi” as the identification mark of the aircraft of the country of Suomi - a blue swastika in a white circle, was put on the wings and fuselage of the aircraft.
After the Second World War, the swastika of the Finnish aviation had to be abandoned, this symbol, strongly associated with German fascism, became too odious.
Today, on the emblem of the Finnish Air Force, instead of “Khakarishi”, there is a neutral white and blue circle, repeating the colors of the national flag of Finland.
If we talk about the museum building, then this is one considerable reinforced concrete hangar, more like a large factory floor. Probably, due to the lack of space, the planes are very close to each other and sometimes it seems that this is not a museum, but a large warehouse of old aircraft.
Surprisingly, “capitalist” Finland in the 1960-80х years actively and with pleasure used Soviet-made military aircraft. For example, in the picture - IL-28Р bomber. From 1961 to 1981, three such aircraft were used as target tugs, and in addition there was one “real” IL-28P bomber. I suppose that this car is in the museum.
In the fighter aircraft served "our" MiG-21. In general, the first MiG aircraft in the number of 4 units entered service with the Finnish Air Force in 1962 year. These were training MiG-XNUMHUTI. One of them is in a bright green, “acidic” color to the front of the museum, and his photo is posted at the beginning of today's post. Later, several dozen more MiG-15s were received. One of the aircraft, just shown in the picture.
MiG aircraft were in service with the Finnish air force until the 1990-s (in the fighter aircraft - until the end of the 1980-s). Today, the cabin of one of the aircraft is in the museum and anyone who desires can feel like a military pilot. Interestingly, the main part of the dashboard inscriptions are in Finnish, but if you look closely, there are also familiar Cyrillic characters.
Next to the cabin of the MiG aircraft is part of the fuselage of the Swedish aircraft SAAB 35 Draken. At least in terms of the number of instruments, the Scandinavian aircraft loses to “our” MiGs ... An interesting detail is that the onboard systems of the “Soviet” MiG planes were refined by Nokia (yes, yes, the most ...), which provided a uniform data format coming from the SAAB aircraft and MiG-21.
And this is an American Douglas.
Unfortunately, due to the abundance of exhibits to remember them all there is no way. However, the overall impression of the museum remains positive - diverse, interesting, unusual. For children it is especially important that you can get on some planes and even “steer”, feeling like a real pilot.
Well, you can buy genuine technical documentation for 50-70-s aircraft as a souvenir. Instructions, drawings, schemes, including those for domestic cars (and even in Russian!) That have become unnecessary, are sold at a reasonable price at a souvenir shop at the exit from the museum.