Gorky Park and VDNKh model

Airframe no.: 0.11, 0.05, 2.03 (mix)

Gorky Park/VDNKh model The fuselage of test article 0.11 was used for static tests at the Tushino Machine-building Plant to support the construction of second series Buran orbiters. The article remained in TMZ’s static testing hall until 1993, when a need arose to free up space for static tests of Myasishchev’s M-55 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

0.11 in the static test hall and next to it an M-55–like airframe. Image: NPO Molniya Apparently even NPO Molniya’s Gleb Lozino-Lozinsky wanted to scrap the fuselage, but Mikhail Osin, Deputy Chief Designer responsible for the automated design and manufacturing of Buran’s silica tiles, convinced him to use the test article to “promote the country’s achievements in space exploration.” OAO Kosmos-Zemlya was founded by NPO Molniya, the TMZ, the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, and a “number of individuals” and the work to prepare the orbiter got underway. For static load tests of 0.11, hundreds of canvas straps had been glued to the skin which would then be pulled on by a system of frames and pulleys; for the orbiter to resemble a “normal” Buran, the straps had to be painstakingly removed.

Test article 0.11 with hundreds of canvas straps for static testing at the Tushino Machine-building Plant (TMZ). Images: TASS To complete the airframe (0.11 was built as just the fuselage and tailfin), the left wing from article 0.05 and right wing from the cancelled flight article 2.03 (5K) were installed, together with standard Buran landing gear, mock-up ODU thruster blocks and engines, and a mock-up parachute compartment. [7]

The 0.11–0.05–2.03 hybrid was then towed to a pier on the Khimki Reservoir and pushed onto a special barge equipped with ballast tanks, which allowed it to change its draft. An agreement was reached with Moscow city officials to locally lower the water level on the river Moskva to let the barge complete the journey to Gorky Park at one draft level. Days before the barge set off for Gorky Park in early October 1993, the Russian constitutional crisis culminated in tanks shelling the upper floors of the House of Soviets of Russia (also known as the White House) on Yeltsin’s orders. Coincidentally, the White House is situated at the second to last bend of the Moskva river before Gorky Park and footage exists of a barge with a bare Buran orbiter towed along the river with Hotel Ukraina and the burned façade of the White House in the background. [6, 12]

Press enter or click to view image in full size

The Gorky Park model being loaded onto the barge in October 1993 via “Buran over the world”, Zvezda (left). On the river Moskva with the burned White House in the background via buran-energia.com (right). And here’s the orbiter in front of Hotel Ukraina, one of the Seven Sisters, a series of Stalinist skyscrapers in Moscow.

The Gorky Park model in front of Hotel Ukraina. Photo: Boca Raton News, 23 February 1994, p.3 After the parts were assembled into a complete airframe, the model was painted and displayed at Gorky Park in Moscow from 1993 to 2014, where it served as an attraction and small restaurant. On 5 July 2014, it was moved to the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy (VDNKh) and was assembled by 21 July. The orbiter was refurbished and is now part of an interactive exhibition.

The model can be a bit underwhelming compared to the American orbiters and test articles on display, but it is built with real Buran hardware. And because of its patchwork nature, technically one can visit three orbiters at the same time.