Aeroflot Soviet Airlines Vintage 1960s and 1970s – Aircraft Photo History
By Henry Tenby, some photos by Dr. John Blatherwick

During the 1960s and 1970s Aeroflot, the Soviet Union’s State airline, operated aircraft that were manufactured entirely within the Soviet Union, by the great Soviet Design Bureau’s including Tupolev, Antonov, and Ilyushin.

Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-104 CCCP-42416 at Leningrad April 1974. (Photo by Dr. John Blatherwick)

During this period, colour photos of Aeroflot aircraft taken within the Soviet Union were extremely rare because very few foreign tourists were able to visit the country, and the Cold War mentality placed terrific security concerns at airports making photography difficult at best. Therefore, Aeroflot aircraft had to be photographed when visiting airports outside of the Soviet Union, usually in Western Europe. Dr. Blatherwick passed through Moscow in April of 1974, and paid a visit to the observation deck where he was able to sneak a very quick images of the proceedings at hand, and I am pleased present them in this small photo presentation.

I am looking to purchase 35mm Kodachrome aircraft slide collections. Please contact me: henrytenby at gmail dot com

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