The legendary aircraft C-47 DL «Douglas» (USSR L-1204) «Tyurikov's Board», evacuated in 2016-2017 by the expedition of the Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society to Krasnoyarsk from the Taimyr tundra, went to Novosibirsk for restoration.

«Residents of the Krasnoyarsk Region are following the events related to the Tyurikov Board and the fate of Molokov Island in Krasnoyarsk very closely. The plan for Douglas is for it to become one of the exhibits of the future Park-Museum of the development of the North on the historic island. Many thanks for the active participation of the Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Region, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society, Alexander Uss, and the Rosneft company for financial support in the restoration of the aircraft,» – said Igor Spiridenko, Chairman of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Branch of the Russian Geographical Society.

The project «Tyurikov's Board. Return» is a large-scale international expedition to evacuate the unique Douglas S-47 aircraft from the Taimyr tundra, which was delivered to the USSR from the United States during the Great Patriotic War under the ALSIB Lend-Lease programme. In 1947, the Douglas made an emergency landing in the north of the Krasnoyarsk Region, 180 kilometres north of the Volochanka village. The crew commander Maksim Tyurikov managed to save everyone on board. Maksim Tyurikov and part of the crew went in search of help and died tragically, and the remaining people were left for 3 weeks in the harsh conditions of the Far North and managed to survive long enough for help to arrive.

There are no analogues of such an operation in Russia yet. It was led by Igor Spiridenko, Chairman of the Krasnoyarsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society. As a result of the well-coordinated work of the expedition members, the plane itself was evacuated to Krasnoyarsk in 2016, and its wings were evacuated in 2017. Unique materials about the heroic history of rescue were collected, found were the relatives of the crew and passengers along with them.

The Regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society carried out a number of works in Krasnoyarsk: preservation, conservation and security of the Douglas aircraft and its elements; cleaning, decontamination, disassembly and sorting of wreckage, drawing up a defective statement for all major aircraft components, organising a complete inventory of all aircraft parts, purchasing original technical documentation, as well as the development of technical specifications and a plan for the restoration of the aircraft.

The team managed to restore the radio equipment unit (an electric machine voltage converter providing high voltage to the radio compass unit), two wheels of the main landing gear of the aircraft and the tail wheel fork, which was broken in half during an emergency landing.

However, for a complete restoration to the state of a museum exhibit, the help of specialists was required. The aircraft will be restored by specialists from the Gelicopter company (Novosibirsk), who have professional experience in restoring rare aircraft. The Douglas restoration period, according to experts, will be about one and a half to two years. After that, the plane will return to Krasnoyarsk, where, as planned, it will become one of the key exhibits of the future park-museum for the development of the North.