Poland to spend millions on digitizing Smoleńsk plane

The Polish defense ministry plans to develop a system able to digitally scan large planes. The cost of the project is estimated at PLN 3.5 million. The ministry plans to use it, among other things, to digitally recreate the Tu-154 plane, that crashed in Smoleńsk killing President Lech Kaczyński and 95 top Polish officials. The technology will be able to “captures the external geometry and the internal structure of a large aircraft,” RMF FM radio said. The scan will be used to create a virtual model which could be then tested in a variety of ways. Since, the wreckage of the plane is still in Russia, with low possibility of it being handed back anytime soon. Poland wants to scan the identical machine, stationed in Mińsk Mazowiecki. “It's easy to get the Tu-154 operational blueprints, but construction ones are hard to come by,” sources told RMF FM. The system will also be used to refurbish and prolong service of older machines such as Su-22 and MIG-29 which are used by Polish airforce.