1:5 MIR Submersible Model to Return to Rosenlew Museum in Pori

A 1:5 scale model of the MIR submersible is on display at Tampere’s Emil Aaltosen Museum until Sunday 18 October 2026. It will move to Pori on 20 October 2026, where it will be installed in the Syvällä / pinnalla – maritime engineering from Mäntyluoto exhibition.

The small model has been on loan to the Emil Aaltosen Museum and remains there until 18 October; the move back to Pori will place it among displays on Mäntyluoto’s maritime technology.

The full-size MIR submersibles were built by Rauma-Repola’s Lokomo works and delivered to the Soviet Academy of Sciences in December 1987. The sale became entangled in Cold War diplomacy. Senior Rauma-Repola executives negotiated in the United States, and the company was ultimately allowed to deliver two vessels, but production ended afterwards.

The model was used to test design and handling before the full-scale vessels were built. The operational MIR research subs measured almost eight metres, while the scale model is roughly 1.5 metres long. Trial runs set out from Pori’s Mäntyluoto in November 1987 and included deep-sea tests in the North Atlantic near Cape Verde.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union the submersibles found uses beyond pure research. Filmmaker James Cameron operated a MIR craft while filming the Titanic and Bismarck wrecks, and a MIR appears in the opening of the 1997 Titanic film.

Rosenlew Museum’s Syvällä / pinnalla exhibition runs in Pori until 31 October 2027, and a related lecture on the MIR vessels is available on YouTube.

The return follows the twin April opening of marine engineering exhibitions in Pori and Tampere that showcased Lokomo’s MIR submersibles the Rosenlew and Emil Aaltosen exhibitions.