Photos of Note: The past and present of Russian aerospace

Last week brought an odd re-occurring pattern of sorts: Different people, from very different places pointed me toward two different photographers who both captured the past and present of Russian aerospace in a series of extraordinarily detailed and artistically poignant photo essays. This page in the past has explored the immediate post-Soviet era in commercial air transport, though photographers Lana Sator and Sergey Dolya each have taken another step in telling that story, illustrating both the decay and fledgling rebirth of the country’s aerospace industry.

Sator strolled effortlessly into a former Soviet Roscosmos missile factory and what appears to be a facility once used by Illuyshin for static testing, while Dolya explores – in extraordinary  detail – the process of fabricating and assembling the new Sukhoi Superjet in at the company’s facilities in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Dolya, with the apparent permission of Sukhoi, brings to life the first metal cut for each aircraft all the way through final assembly to the flight line in what must be bordering on proprietary detail. In lieu of a moving Movie Monday, the 200 photos should occupy the eye for quite a while.