World's Most Bizarre Airline - North Korea's Air Koryo

The condition they keep their airplanes in is seriously impressive.

Russian here. My grandfather Dmitry Vilde was building the engines for the TU in 50s. It was near Kuibyshev (now Samara), a small work town called Upravlenchesky. Some captured Germans from ww2 worked there in luxury (measuring by that time) conditions - high salary, meat and milk supply etc, they were engineers who helped our engineers to work. I have published some of his personal letters and pictures of that time. Incredibly interesting, Sam. Thank you for your videos and for your interest in Soviet aviation. This job actually saved my grandfather from ww2, during which he stayed in Moscow and was making engines for war planes in Moscow suburbs. Peace to all❤

I admire your balance of acknowledging the odd realities of North Korea without making the video all about criticizing those things.

Boeing needs to take notes on how the North Korean Plane Mechanics maintain their old vintage fleet

Probably safer than a Boeing

Thank you for making this documentary about my airline. I hope you enjoyed our services. I have ordered new planes from uncle Vlad to improve our reputation ❤ — Chairman Kim

That looked like a much better meal than on all of my last 20 flights.

Fascinating video, Sam! Air Koryo truly is a glimpse into a different world of aviation. Your deep dive into the airline's unique features, from its vintage Soviet-era aircraft to its peculiar in-flight services, was both informative and intriguing. It's amazing how Air Koryo reflects North Korea's broader isolation and distinct culture. Your thorough research and engaging presentation made for an eye-opening experience. Keep up the great work in bringing such rare aviation stories to light!

And the engine sounds makes my day. All the birds looks so good.

I lived in the GDR, near Berlin Schönefeld. The IL-62 was really incredibly loud on take-off and landing. It's amazing that you were able to fly it

The flight attendants are gorgeous

I'm confused. They confiscate your phone, but they let you take unlimited video with your camera?

Summer of 1990, I flew Aeroflot from NY to Moscow. Hearing the jet's engines in your video brings it all back. Not sure if they've since fixed it or if your audio just didn't pick it up, but in addition to being incredibly loud, the engines were slightly out of tune with each other. The end result being that on top of being the loudest jet I've ever flown on, there was a fluctuating ?warble? ?harmonic? between the engines that I hope to never experience again. Ever. Good times. edit to add: all the seats on the plane reclined fully onto the seats behind them. We were told it was so that the planes could be quickly converted to cargo planes for the military. For 60+ high school students, it was better than 1st class. We reclined all of our chairs and the back half of the plane became a huge sleeping area. We were also allowed to take a small set of stairs down into the cargo hold (where we played cards until the cold got to us).

You guys are so brave to take those old airplanes , even their leader only takes train 😂

Great video Sam! This one was a special video. I tuned in to see what NK looks like.

Love this video! Thanks for sharing, Sam!

That one star airline food I saw in this video is better than all the airlines I flew

Hi Sam, just winter to say thank you for the topics and bringing us around all these differents topics with an unparalelled passion.This vidéo on Norah Korea reflects my gratitude

That is straight up cool. Seeing those old aircraft in pristine condition. Thank you for sharing that story. Way cool.

thank you!!!! those sounds of TU-154 and IL-62 are really music to ears!!! I was flying on them since my childhood and really miss those beautiful aircrafts!