Online retailer Part of a Plane has partnered with Ukrainian company Fuselage Creations to offer aviation enthusiast the opportunity of owning a piece of a downed Russian plane, supporting Ukraine’s war efforts at the same time.
“The Sukhoi Su-34 tags are helping us support vital demands in equipment such as cars and tactical gear, for what is set to be a very eventful year! We need all the support we can get”, said Marko Gudz from Fuselage Creations. “We use the money to purchase vehicles (pick-up trucks, Nissan Navara, Mitsubishi L200, or equivalent) and ship them to Ukraine. Additionally, we try to help and cover requests for clothes and military kit, which can be purchased at surplus stores in the UK. We also work with other Ukrainian aid groups – for example, Support Ukraine London – to try to help them too. We only take 10% of the value of the tag to cover production costs.”
1. Sukhoi SU-34
Fuselage Creations made 1034 luggage tags from the fuselage of the Russian Sukhoi SU-34 downed by the Ukrainian Air Force, found in the graveyard of the destroyed Russian military equipment in the Ukrainian city of Liman, Donetsk Region, in October 2022.
The Sukhoi SU-34 is a Soviet era designed and Russian produced, supersonic fighter-bomber/strike aircraft. Having become the pride of the Russian military aviation, it is capable of conducting missions in all-weather conditions and is considered to be a ‘4++’ generation medium range strike aircraft.
This particular SU-34 belonged to the ’09 Red’ registered as RF-81852. Based on the information given to the Fuselage Creation team, The ’09 Red’ was largely involved in the Syrian offensive and took part in at least 24 missions there, which resulted in the amount of the acquired stars, located on the outer skin of the engine intake. It is unclear when and where the aircraft was downed by the Ukrainian Air Force.
2. Sukhoi SU-25SM
The Sukhoi SU-25SM was shot down on 9 March 2022 and Fuselage Creations were able to recover some metal parts to make a limited series of aviation tags.
The Sukhoi SU-25 is a subsonic, single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft developed in the Soviet Union. It was designed to provide close air support for Soviet Ground Forces. The first prototype made its maiden flight on 22 February 1975. After testing, the aircraft went into series production in 1978 in Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Early variants included the SU-25UB two-seat trainer, the SU-25BM for target-towing and the SU-25K for export customers. Some aircraft were upgraded to the SU-25SM standard in 2012.
