No doubt, it is a very interesting topic to explore into. I purposely put this picture here, because it shows the work of building a famous biplane, Polikarpov-2 (Po-2), that was a feature in one of my posts lately.
I’ve just inquired a gentleman who sent me these pictures a while ago, for an update on a status of this project.
It is another Po-2, which seems to pass some ‘critical faze’ of construction, - I mean, there’s ‘enough meat’ on this ‘would-be a plane’ - it already got such a reassuring look, - which, probably, warms up a team of builders with encouragement and hope to see the project be accomplished one day. I.e., they had already started to believe this day would eventually come up in ‘their life time’ 
Exactly how it was with the Yak-1 replica project my friends Butch and Ron have worked on since 2001. Large parts of the plane were gradually taking shape at their workshop in a Ron’s garage.
It was how it looked in September of 2004, when I had a chance to see a ‘construction site’ for the first time. And you’ve seen a video on a post (dated August 15) showing Butch starting up its engine last year.
Yeah, maybe those two projects are located half a world apart (Samara, Russia - Calgary, Canada), but still, they share so much in common.
Two given enthusiasts of homebuilt aircraft from each side will perfectly understand each other. ‘Time vs Budget’ dilemma for example, is universal for this kind of ‘tinkerers’ in all over the world.
I also wrote a short ‘memo’ on Oleg Liakishev, and his ‘baby’ - the Li-2, a plane that was literally pulled out from the scrapyard, totally overhauled, and brought back to airworthiness in 1991.
It was quite a story. A Russian ‘cosmonaut’ was piloting the plane on the first test flight after they got clearance following the final stage of the restoration.
It is indeed a noteworthy theme..
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