Soviet shuttle transport plane

The Americans used a 747 to transport their shuttles. They chose the 747 over the C-5 because the Air Force controlled the C-5 fleet and NASA wanted to own the shuttle transport plane outright. The Soviets had no such considerations. They used their Antonov An-225 heavy lift cargo plane to transport their shuttles. 

The pictures are from the Retronaut post USSR Shuttle Transporter Plane, Antonov An-225, 1980s. There are 3 other pictures after the jump, and of course many more at the Retronaut link.

How could they possibly exhibit this junk?

The Buran's painted side

In an earlier post, Houston gets robbed, I mentioned the sorry state of disrepair the Russian shuttle fleet had fallen into. EnglishRussia, in their post The Greatest Failure of MAKS-2011 reports that the Buran had been put on display at some sort of air show.

It was not a success. The Buran was not restored, rather a coat of paint was slapped on it, with even missing tiles and scorch marks simply painted over. Worse, as the photo below shows, they only painted one side of the Buran, leaving the other in its dilapidated state. Oh, and the plywood rudder is a nice touch.

Spectators were not impressed, with one quoted as saying, "How could they possibly exhibit this junk?" At the EnglishRussia link above there is more commentary, as well as many more pictures -- including shots of the stripped cabin, the missing windows and nose assemblage, the decaying wings and many other details.

The other side of the Buran

The plywood rudder