New podcast episode: restoring a Soviet airliner, with Maria Karmanova

Maria Karmanova in the cockpit of the restored Tupolev Tu-104. Picture by Gustavo Zyryanov

In this episode of The Allplane Podcast, Maria Karmanova, a mathematician from Siberia, tells us the story of a fascinating aviation heritage project to which she has devoted over a decade: the restoration of an old Soviet-made Tupolev Tu-104 aircraft that she found at a local airport near Novosibirsk back in 2009.

Maria, together with a group of volunteers, has been since researching this aircraft in all detail, sourcing the missing parts and components all over the world and, bit by bit, restoring the aircraft to its original state.

As the project advances, Maria shares here, in our podcast, some details and stories about this Tu-104 restoration project, which has been featured by major media channels in Russia and was also the topic of an article I wrote some years ago for CNN.

Listen to this amazing story of perseverance and passion for aviation on this episode of the podcast!