@ Budapest, Hungary
March 2022
On my fourth trip to Budapest I was finally able to visit the Aeropark museum located adjacent to Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. This is a very cool collection of Soviet-era airliners used by MALÉV Hungarian Airlines the flag carrier of Hungary (1946-2012). This Il-18 was delivered in 1960 and later upgraded to the Il-18V variant. Seating capacity was increased from 89 seats to 105. Its last flight as a passenger plane was from Prague to Budapest on April 1, 1977, exactly 17 years after its arrival in the fleet. Afterwards she was converted into a cargo aircraft, withdrawn from service in 1987, and given to the museum in 1991 as one of the first three planes in the collection. MALÉV operated eight of these turboprop airliners in their fleet. First flown in 1957, this aircraft was in production from 1957-1985 with 678 delivered and is one of the best known and most durable Soviet aircraft of its era. Some are still in service in North Korea. Fuji X-Pro2 w/18-135mm.