JetStar's weblog

Ilyushin 18 for sale

During my trip back from the ILA in Berlin (a report will follow later) I came acros a piece of nostalgia somewhere at the former German-East German border. It was a Ilyushin 18, along a secundary road near the small vilage of Harbke near Helmsted. The aircraft was converted to a bar/restaurant but unfortunatly everyrhing was closed. Whilst looking for a good spot to take a picture, the front door opened and the owner asked us to come in and take a look. The persons who used to run the bar went out of money and the owner now lives next to the Ilyushin, together with his wife, to prevent vandalism. But, due to his not-so-good health he wants to sell the aircraft. Anyone interested in buying the aircraft can contact him via telephone number +49 (0)3 9406 150113.

We were invited to drink coffee and eat some (very tasty) pie on board, listining to his story on the aircraft. He bought it around 10 years ago and then faced the problem how to move the aircraft from Berlin to its current location, not even close to an airport. We were shown the photos of the transport and the reconstruction of the Ilyushin. A very impressive job!
The interior of the aircraft looks quite good! The main cabin has been refitted with Caravelle (!) seats as the aircraft was completly stripped inside when he bought it.

The foreward cabin is a bit different and looks like a reception. Sometimes DDR-STD "Tango Delta" is used for weddings. Photos of weddings can be seen as you enter the aircraft.

We continiued our tour to the cockpit wich is remarkably complete. Most of the instruments were gone but replacements were found. One mistake has been made; the left-hand control column is in fact a right-hand but modified to fit.

unbelievable how they squeezed in six persons in this cockpit! (captain, first officer, 2 flight engineers, navigator and a "political officer")
Next is the flight engineers panel; see the handy way to reset all circuit-breakers at once, below each line of circuit breakers is a sort of bar wich can be moved up to set everything back into position.

The navigators panel; something completly different than today's MFD's!
On the desk you can see a morse-device that was used to stay in touch with the company on long flights.

On to the central console. In the middle is the autopilot. As everywhere in this aircraft (and most soviet-built aircraft) everything is in metric units and all text are in Cyrillic.

The last shot from the cockpit is the overhead panel:

Before leaving the aircraft the owner says goodbye to us via the (still operational!) p/a system. Thank you very much for your hospitality, the coffee and the pies! We hope the aircraft gets a good new owner or a good new home.

Our brief stop here turned out to take more than an hour and a half!
The new owner has to do some cleaning, but the aircraft is in an overall good shape and things like the landing gear doors are still working.

A last shot of "Tango Delta". On the right side of the aircraft you can see the house. On the first floor a corridor takes you to the starboard rear entry.

I hope you enjoyed this virtual tour as much as we did the real tour!
Peter

How much ?

22:35, 22 May 2006 .. Posted by jumpseat

Yes, indeed nice reading!
Thanks for sharing!

Would be very cool to have, as a club or restaurant, coffe shop or something.

Did he mention a price ?

No price

22:53, 22 May 2006 .. Posted by jetstar

No, nothing on a price. You could give him a call! :-)
My backyard is too small...

great story

09:29, 24 May 2006 .. Posted by mclaudio

What a great story! I wouldn't mind having that beauty for me and I even have the space to put it...but surely not the money.