On the very outskirts of the city of Hargeisa lies a decaying airplane, manufactured in Moscow in 1962. No longer in flying condition, it sits propped up on concrete pillars behind a wall topped with barbed wire. While the breakaway republic of Somaliland seems like a strange final resting place for a mid-century Soviet aircraft, even less likely is the fact that it’s now a cafe. This is Guluf Airline Restaurant, a Somali “airline” whose only plane will never fly again, and you’re welcome to come inside for a meal or a cup of tea.
The Ilyushin Il-18V airplane was produced between 1959 and 1965, and was widely exported to USSR-friendly countries. This particular Il-18V was used for 29 years from 1962 to 1991 by TAROM, Romania’s government-owned airline, outliving Romania’s communist regime by a year and a half. It was retired and kept in storage for 7 years, until it returned to the sky in May 1998 for a new life of crime. Infamous Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, AKA the Merchant of Death, purchased it and relocated it to Africa, where he almost surely used it to transport weapons to western African nations in violation of international arms embargoes.
From there, the plane eventually changed hands a couple more times, and was still flying as late as 2007. After 45 years, it was finally retired for good after an incident where the landing gear initially refused to extend on descent. Stored near the Hargeisa airport for the better part of a decade, it wasn’t until 2016 that a local entrepreneur bought it and turned it into a place to eat Somali cuisine. You can now enjoy roast goat while sitting in brand new chairs under a creatively painted airplane ceiling. Just don’t plan on eating in the cockpit, where the original pilot chairs have partially disintegrated. Guluf Airlines also offers a hotel, although the rooms are in an adjacent building (not enough space left over inside the plane).
Out of the 335 Il-18V airplanes ever manufactured, only one is a restaurant, and none are still flying. However, as of the 2020s, one still remains in storage owned by Air Koryo of North Korea, which happens to be the last commercial airline in the world flying an Il-18D sister model from the late 1960s. Although the Guluf Airline plane has surely flown for the last time, an Il-18V just might fly again someday, should North Korea call on it.
