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Friday, August 27, 2010

A40 Albatross

The wildfires that caused chaos across Russia late July/early August this year drew my memory back to November 1992 and the visit to NZ of Beriev A40 Albatross '378' for the Auckland Air Expo airshow. The example flown to NZ via Singapore and Australia was first flown in 1986 and made made public 3 years later so it was quite a coup for the aircraft to visit downunder just a short time later. This aircraft was specifically designed for anti-submarine warfare however other variants were designed for use as water bombers.

The off shoot of the A40 is the BE200, specifically designed for fire fighting, and 5 of these aircraft are in service with the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. They also have 2 more on order and during the wildfires announced their intentions to purchase another 8.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_A-40
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beriev_Be-200
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB7cEOMHqVs


Carrying out its display at Auckland 21Nov92

And the following of it parked at Whenuapai 19Nov92, all photos Mike Condon



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