The Tu-144 supersonic passenger airliner was created in the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. It was put into production and was used for commercial passenger transportation for some time. The USSR had great hopes for the Tu-144 - it was supposed to first unite all regions of the huge country, and then go beyond its borders. Unfortunately, this never happened. Today we will look at the history of the creation and characteristics of the Tu-144, why this machine was taken out of service, and its differences from its competitors.

Summary

Undoubtedly, the Tu-144 is a legendary and unique aircraft. It became the first passenger aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. Simultaneously with the Tu-144, the characteristics of which we will consider below, engineers from England and France jointly created another jet supersonic passenger airliner - the legendary Concorde. It's no secret that the development of these machines was just another Cold War competition. From a technical point of view, the project of Soviet designers was not inferior to the project of their competitors, but it lost economically.

The flight was expensive, and there were few people in the Soviet Union who could afford it, so the tickets did not cover all the costs of fuel and maintenance of the jet. The Western passenger was willing to pay for the speed of the flight and a high level of comfort, so the Concordes were considered a successful project, which cannot be said about the Tu-144. Why was this plane taken out of service? One of the most important reasons was economic inexpediency.

The Tu-144 was used as a passenger airliner for less than a year. Then it began to be used for testing and transporting urgent cargo over long distances. During its operation, the aircraft managed to transport only 3,284 passengers. Its main competitor carried a total of 2.4 million passengers. A total of 16 copies of the aircraft were produced. It is worth noting that only 4 more Concordes were produced. In 1999, the last flight of the Tu-144 aircraft took place. Despite its dubious reputation, it managed to set 13 world records.

Background

The 1950-1960s of the twentieth century were marked by the rapid development of jet aviation. It all started with the fact that in 1947, the experimental American aircraft Bell X-1 overcame In the mid-sixties, America began serial production of supersonic fighters. And by the mid-seventies, the technology for creating such machines had already been tested, and engineers were seriously thinking about the prospect of creating supersonic passenger aircraft. At that time it was the call of the times. The use of such machines was beneficial for airlines for at least two reasons: reduction of flight time, no need for intermediate landings for refueling.

Creating passenger supersonic airliners was not so easy. After carefully weighing everything, American designers abandoned this idea, recognizing it as inappropriate. The Europeans nevertheless decided to test the prospects of supersonic passenger technology in practice. The development of such an aircraft was undertaken simultaneously by the French and the British. In 1962 they joined forces. This is how the Concorde aircraft project came about. The Soviet Union was also interested in this idea. And the fact that the Europeans did not hide their developments and actively demonstrated them at international air shows allowed domestic designers to eliminate a number of wrong decisions even before the start of the project.

In the Soviet Union, the creation of a supersonic passenger aircraft was entrusted to the Tupolev Design Bureau. The specialists of this organization were the most experienced in creating. In addition, it was the employees of the Tupolev Design Bureau who were the first in the USSR to create a supersonic aircraft - the Tu-22 bomber.

Development

In 1963, the history of the creation of the Tu-144 began. A resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR prescribed the development of a passenger airliner with the following parameters:

1. Flight range - 4000-4500 km.
2. Cruising speed - 2300-2700 km/h.
3. Passenger capacity - 80-100 people.

The very next year, 1964, the development of a new aircraft began. A year later, a model of the car was presented at the international exhibition in Le Bourget. According to Tupolev, the plane was supposed to take to the skies two months earlier than Concorde. Ultimately, this is what happened.

While working on a fundamentally new aircraft, the designers encountered a number of problems, in particular, the unusual aerodynamics of the body and the heating of its body, followed by deformation at high speeds. The development of a wing of a suitable design took a particularly long time, during which about two hundred options were tested in the wind tunnel.

During the development of Tupolev's aircraft, the MiG-21 became the current model. However, its design was somewhat modified: the horizontal tail was removed, the length of the fuselage was shortened, and the wing span was increased. On December 31, 1968, the Tu-144 took off for the first time. This happened just two months before the first flight of Concorde. The following year, the plane reached the speed of sound, and a year later, it exceeded it twice.

When a supersonic passenger plane appeared in the USSR, the whole world started talking about it. In 1971, the airliner made several test flights, visiting Moscow, Sofia, Berlin and Paris. During the same period, Aeroflot began experimental operation of the Tu-144. Serial production of the car was launched at the Voronezh plant.

Design

The Tu-144 is an all-metal monoplane, which is characterized by a low wing arrangement and is the embodiment of the “tailless” design scheme. Its fuselage is made in the form of a semi-monocoque, the skin of which is supported by stringers and frames. The aircraft is equipped with a tricycle landing gear and a nose gear.

The power plant of the airliner is represented by four engines of the TRD NK-114A or RD-36-51A model, which are arranged in pairs. Each of the engines is equipped with its own air intake. The engine nozzles protrude beyond the edge of the wing.

The fuselage of the aircraft is conventionally divided into nose, central and tail sections. The nose section houses the cockpit, the canopy of which fits into the nose fairing and fuselage contours. The central part is represented by passenger cabins, which form one whole with the bow. In the tail section there is a tank caisson for fuel, and at its tip there is a container for a braking parachute.

The aircraft's wing received a variable sweep. At the root of the wing it was 76 degrees, and at its ends - 57 degrees. The wing received skin made from a special alloy based on aluminum. The elevons located on the rear of the wing are made of titanium alloy.

To improve visibility during takeoff and landing, it could be lowered. Its raising and lowering was carried out thanks to a hydraulic drive. 18 fuel tanks were located in the wings of the aircraft. In addition, a special balancing tank was installed at the rear of the fuselage. It received fuel when the aircraft transitioned from subsonic to supersonic flight. The aircraft's front landing gear had two wheels, and the two main landing gear had four twin bogies.

The aircraft was controlled using an on-board electronic computer. The landing approach could be made at any time of the day, in any meteorological conditions. The automation diagnosed the operation of all on-board systems, which became a real novelty for the domestic aircraft industry. There were three people. Depending on the version of the aircraft, its passenger capacity could vary from 98 to 150 people.

The front horizontal retractable tail surface has become an interesting feature of the Tu-144 aircraft, distinguishing it from other aircraft. It is located immediately behind the cockpit, in the front. Thanks to this tail, the aircraft received increased maneuverability and additional lift. In addition, the horizontal tail allowed the vehicle to reduce speed more quickly during landing and use shorter runways.

First disaster

The most significant and tragic day in the history of the Tu-144 aircraft was June 3, 1973, when the first Tu-144 crashed during a demonstration flight in Le Bourget. About 350 thousand spectators contemplated the tragedy. As a result of the crash, five crew members and residents of the town of Goussainville (France), near which the air show was taking place, were killed. In addition, almost three dozen people were injured.

The crew of the Soviet plane wanted to fly over the runway and gain altitude again. The day before, this maneuver was demonstrated by the Anglo-French Concorde. But it was not possible to implement the plan. Suddenly the plane began to dive, and having dropped to a height of 120 meters, it simply began to fly apart. First, the wing was torn off from the body, and then the tail section. In a matter of seconds, all that was left of the plane was a pile of metal.

The causes of the terrible disaster are still unclear. According to one version, the Tu-144 crew was forced to maneuver sharply in order to avoid colliding with a fighter that was photographing air show participants from the air. There is another version, according to which the airliner’s control system failed. Many years after the tragedy, one of the representatives of the Tupolev Design Bureau told reporters that that version of the Tu-144 had a number of untested blocks. Another version suggests that while performing the maneuver, one of the pilots dropped a movie camera, which blocked the steering column, but the flight recorders did not confirm this.

The official report states that the crash could have been caused by a crew member falling in the cockpit, but no material evidence was found. Ultimately, the cause of the disaster was described as undetermined. The dead crew members were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Exploitation

Despite the terrible crash of the Tu-144, Le Bourget saw it twice more, in 1975 and 1977. When Brezhnev went on an official visit to France in 1977, he was shown the latest Concorde. At that time, the Anglo-French aircraft operated international and intercontinental flights. Returning to the USSR, Brezhnev ordered the Tu-144 to be put into commercial operation as quickly as possible.

A little earlier, work began to increase the flight range of the airliner. The Tu-144 was equipped with new, more economical engines of the RD-36-51A model. This modification was named Tu-144D. On December 26, 1975, the passenger Tu-144 made its first flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata. To begin with, he was tasked with transporting mail. The flight was successful, and at the end of 1977, passenger transportation on the Tu-144 began. Control of a supersonic airliner was trusted only to the most experienced pilots. Previously, they underwent special training. In addition, the most beautiful flight attendants were chosen on the Tu-144.

Two aircraft equipped with NK-144A engines flew on the Moscow-Almaty route. Such a power plant allowed the aircraft to fly no more than three thousand kilometers. The fuel supply was barely enough for the aircraft to reach its final destination. If in the event of any emergency the plane could not land at the Almaty airfield or the alternate runway in Tashkent, there would be nowhere to land it. Thus, each flight became a real test of strength for the pilots and their superiors. A ticket for a Tu-144 cost 80 rubles, which is 18 rubles more expensive than a ticket for a regular plane.

The Soviet leadership had a serious plan for the Tu-144. They wanted to launch the Tu-144D version on the Moscow - Khabarovsk route, and then open international flights for it. However, the plan never came true.

Another Tu-144 crash

On May 23, 1978, an experimental Tu-144D aircraft crashed. This time the cause of the accident was the fire of the third engine and smoke in the cabin caused by the destruction of the fuel line. When the malfunction made itself felt, the crew resorted to an emergency landing. After landing, the pilots hurried to leave the plane, but the two flight engineers did not have time to do this.

At the end of July 1980, another accident occurred with the Tu-144D aircraft, which almost led to tragedy. One of the engines collapsed at supersonic speed. The professional crew managed to land the plane, and the engines were sent for modification. During subsequent tests they performed problematically. When Brezhnev died, the supersonic airliner project was left to chance, as the new government was skeptical about it. Ultimately, the country's leadership decided to close it and continue passenger transportation with simple and economical subsonic aircraft.

For some time, the supersonic Tu-144 was used for test flights and the delivery of urgent cargo. Pilots participating in the Soviet shuttle program Buran trained on it. Soon everyone began to forget about the Tu-144.

Why was the plane taken out of service?

Even for the USSR, where they did not like to count money, the operation of a supersonic airliner became too expensive and, most importantly, pointless. Therefore, the main reason for stopping the development of the project was not the Tu-144 disaster or technical problems, but the lack of economic profitability.

With old power plants, the aircraft's flight range did not exceed 3 thousand kilometers. Considering that the airliner is a supersonic aircraft, this is negligible. To carry out long trips, the aircraft needed to make intermediate landings for refueling, which negated all its strengths. The goal of the project was to carry out fast flights between remote cities without transfers or refueling. The Concorde's flight range, for example, reached 6,500 km. The RD-36-51A engine could allow the Tu-144 to fly over distances of about 5,300 km, but all the problems associated with it were never solved.

In addition, the price of tickets for the Tu-144 was far from the amount necessary to recoup all the costs of flying and maintaining the aircraft. The leadership of the USSR did not want to take more money from citizens for a ticket, and it is unlikely that ordinary people would overpay for flight speed. Therefore, the supersonic passenger airliner went down in history as nothing more than proof of the high level of Soviet aircraft designers. However, the Tu-144 disasters somewhat undermined their reputation.

Research laboratory

In the mid-2000s, the Tu-144 aircraft, the characteristics of which we have already examined, took part in a research program conducted by the Tupolev design bureau together with American aircraft designers. As part of the program, NASA explored the prospects for creating a new generation of supersonic airliners.

The Tu-144LL model, which is a modernized version of the Tu-144D aircraft, took part in the program. The main difference between the updated aircraft and its predecessor was the new power plant of the NK-32-1 model, which replaced the outdated RD-36-51D engine.

American engineers were mainly interested in issues related to flight at supersonic speeds: the temperature of metal parts and skins, engine operation, friction coefficients, aircraft controllability and stability in different flight modes, and much more. In addition, the customer studied such issues as the level of exposure to cosmic radiation on passengers and crew, the characteristics of the atmosphere at high altitudes, as well as methods for soundproofing the cabins and cabins.

Comparison with Concorde

Many unsophisticated aviation enthusiasts note the similarities between the Tu-144 and Concorde aircraft. A comparison of the technical characteristics and appearance of the aircraft shows that there are many differences between them. And certainly, the Soviet airliner does not copy the British-French one. Concorde is less powerful and heavy compared to the Tu-144. The interior of the Tupolev car accommodates more passengers. In addition, from a technical point of view, it has a number of interesting features, for example, the front horizontal tail, which allows the airliner to land on shorter runways. But what the Concorde excelled at was its flight range.

The history of the British-French supersonic airliner was not much longer than the Tu-144. Why was the Concorde taken out of service? For about the same reasons as the Soviet plane. The last straw was the terrible Concorde crash in France in 2000. After the accident it was taken out of production. Thus, passenger transportation on supersonic airliners went down in history as a progressive but dangerous experiment. Most likely, humanity will return to this idea, but it will be at a new stage of scientific and technological development. Today, only a few countries in the world are working on this area.

Tu-144 is a supersonic passenger aircraft created in the USSR in the late 60s. It was put into production and was used for some time for commercial passenger transportation. In the USSR, very high hopes were placed on the Tu-144 - this machine was supposed to connect the regions of a huge country, and later enter international routes. However, this did not happen.

The Tu-144 is undoubtedly a legendary and unique aircraft. This is the first passenger aircraft in the world with supersonic speed. At the same time, another supersonic jet passenger aircraft was being created - the legendary Anglo-French Concorde. In essence, the development of these two aircraft was just another Cold War-era competition. Soviet designers were in no way inferior to their Western counterparts, but the project of the Soviet supersonic aircraft lost to Concorde economically.

Flights on supersonic planes were very expensive, and in the USSR, as you know, there were no rich people. The tickets covered only a small part of the cost of fuel and maintenance of these aircraft. The Western passenger was ready to pay for comfort and speed, which is why the Concordes became a successful commercial project, and the Tu-144 soon sank into oblivion. For comparison, we can give two figures: during the entire period of operation, the Tupolev aircraft carried 3,284 passengers, and the Concorde - more than 2.5 million.

The Tu-144 was used as a passenger airliner for less than a year; later the aircraft were used for other purposes, they were used for testing or transporting urgent cargo over long distances. A total of sixteen aircraft were produced (twenty Concordes were made), the last flight of the Tu-144 took place in 1999.

Tu-144 set 13 world records.

History of creation

The 50s and 60s of the last century became an era of rapid development of jet aviation. In 1947, the American experimental aircraft Bell X-1 was able to break the sound barrier. In the mid-50s, the USSR and the USA began to create serial fighters with supersonic speed.

In the mid-60s, the technologies for creating such machines had already been tested and designers were seriously thinking about creating passenger aircraft with supersonic speed. Then it was truly the call of the times. In addition, the use of such machines promised significant advantages to airlines: flight time was reduced, and there was no need to make intermediate landings to refuel the aircraft.

Creating a supersonic passenger airliner turned out to be a very difficult technical task. The Americans, having weighed all the pros and cons, abandoned this idea, recognizing it as inappropriate. In Europe, the development of such a passenger aircraft was carried out by the British (Bristol 223 project) and the French (Super-Caravelle project). In 1962, they decided to join forces, and the joint project of a supersonic airliner was named “Concord” (“Concord”). The Soviet Union also became interested in such an aircraft, especially since the Europeans made no secret of their developments - mock-ups of future airliners were exhibited at international aerospace shows.

In the USSR, the creation of a supersonic passenger airliner was entrusted to the Tupolev design bureau, whose specialists had the richest experience in building jet passenger aircraft. In addition, it was the Tupolevites who created the Tu-22 bomber, which had supersonic speed.

In 1963, a resolution of the Council of Ministers appeared, which ordered the creation of a passenger airliner with a flight range of 4000-4500 km, a cruising speed of 2300-2700 km/h and a passenger capacity of 80-100 people.

The appearance of a supersonic passenger airliner in the USSR became a real world sensation. In 1971, the Tu-144 performed several test flights between Moscow, Sofia, Berlin and Paris. During this period, experimental operation of this aircraft began at Aeroflot.

Serial production of the vehicle was launched at the Voronezh Aircraft Plant.

Description of design

The Tu-144 is an all-metal monoplane with a low wing, manufactured according to the “tailless” design. The fuselage is semi-monocoque, with skin supported by stringers and frames. The landing gear is tricycle, there is a nose strut.

The aircraft's power plant included four turbojet engines NK-144A or RD-36-51A, which were arranged in pairs. Each engine had its own air intake. The engine nozzles protruded beyond the edge of the wing.

The fuselage of the aircraft was conventionally divided into three parts: nose, central and tail. The nose section housed the cockpit, its canopy was integrated into the contours of the fuselage and the nose fairing, which could be raised and lowered. In the central part of the liner there were passenger cabins, which, together with the bow, formed a single whole. In the tail section of the Tu-144 there was a fuel tank-caisson, and at its tip there was a container for a braking parachute.

The aircraft's wing had a variable sweep angle, it was 76° at the root and 57° at its ends. The wing skin is made of special aluminum alloy plates. At the trailing edge of the wing there are elevons made of titanium alloy.

The cabin of the aircraft was made lowering to improve visibility during takeoff and landing. The cabin was raised and lowered using a hydraulic drive.

The fuel was located in 18 fuel tanks located in the wings of the airliner. The Tu-144 also had a special balancing tank installed at the rear of the fuselage. It took in fuel as the aircraft transitioned from subsonic to supersonic flight.

The Tu-144 was controlled using an on-board computer; the landing approach was automatic in any weather and at any time of the day. The automation also monitored the status and operation of all on-board systems, which was new for the Soviet aircraft industry.

The aircraft's landing gear consisted of a nose strut with two wheels and two main struts with four twin bogies.

An interesting feature of the Tu-144 was the front retractable horizontal tail unit (FH), which was located in the front part of the fuselage, immediately behind the cockpit. The PGO created additional lift and increased the maneuverability of the aircraft. Also, with the help of the horizontal tail, it was possible to reduce speed more quickly when landing, which allowed the Tu-144 to use shorter runways.

The crew of the Tu-144 consisted of three people. Passenger capacity ranged from 98 to 150 people, depending on the modification of the liner.

Aircraft operation

One of the most important (and most tragic) days in the history of the Tu-144 was June 3, 1973. On this day, the first Tu-144 crashed during a demonstration flight in Le Bourget. The tragedy happened in front of 350 thousand spectators.

The disaster occurred near the French town of Goussainville. Five crew members, seven local residents were killed, and almost thirty people were injured.

The Soviet airliner was trying to demonstrate the maneuver that the Concorde had performed the day before - flying over the runway and then gaining altitude again. However, it did not work out as planned: the plane began to dive sharply, and at an altitude of 120 meters it began to fall apart. First one wing fell off, then the tail section. Then the structure of the liner collapsed completely.

The causes of the disaster have not been fully clarified to this day. There is a version that the crew was forced to make a sharp maneuver to avoid a collision with the Mirage fighter, which was photographing the Tu-144 in flight.

According to another hypothesis, the aircraft's control system failed during the maneuver. Many years later, one of the leaders of the Tupolev Design Bureau admitted in an interview with journalists that there were some untested blocks on the plane.

There is also a version that during the maneuver one of the crew members’ camera fell out of his hands, blocking the steering column, but this is not confirmed by the flight recorder records.

The official conclusion indicates that the disaster could have been caused by a person falling in the cabin of the airliner, but it is emphasized that no material evidence of this was ever found.

As a result, the causes of the disaster were said to be unknown, and the pilots were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Despite the 1973 crash, the Tu-144 was shown at the Le Bourget air show in both 1975 and 1977.

During Secretary General Brezhnev's visit to France in 1977, he was shown the Concorde, which by that time was operating international and intercontinental flights (Rio de Janeiro and Bahrain). After arriving home, Brezhnev ordered the start of commercial operation of the Tu-144 in the USSR.

Even earlier, work began on increasing the flight range of the aircraft. The Tu-144 was equipped with new, more economical RD-36-51A engines. The modification of the aircraft was named Tu-144D. On December 26, 1975, the liner made its first flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata, carrying mail. At the end of 1977, passenger transportation began.

The most experienced pilots were selected to pilot the aircraft; they had previously undergone special training. They also hired the most beautiful flight attendants to work on the Tu-144.

Two planes flew on the route Moscow - Almaty, they were equipped with NK-144A engines, which allowed the Tu-144 to fly no more than 3 thousand km. The cost of a ticket for a Tu-144 was 80 rubles, while the price of a ticket for a regular plane was 62 rubles.

The fuel supply was barely enough to reach the destination; the pilots had no reserves. If for some reason the plane was denied landing in Almaty (and at the reserve airport in Tashkent), then there would be nowhere to land the plane. Each flight of the Tu-144 turned into a real test for both the pilots and the aviation authorities.

The Soviet leadership had serious plans for the Tu-144. They wanted to launch the Tu-144D modification on the Moscow-Khabarovsk routes, and then launch it on international flights. However, this was not destined to come true.

On May 23, 1978, an experimental Tu-144D aircraft crashed. Due to the destruction of the fuel line, the third engine caught fire and smoke filled the cabin. The crew made an emergency landing. As a result of this incident, two flight engineers were killed; they were unable to leave the plane after landing.

On July 31, 1980, another emergency situation occurred with the Tu-144D, which almost ended tragically. At supersonic speed, one of the engines was destroyed. The crew managed to land the car, and the engines were sent for modification. During testing they again showed unsatisfactory performance. In addition, there was a change of power in the country - Brezhnev died, and the new government leadership was skeptical about the new aircraft project. In the end, it was decided to continue carrying out transportation with simpler and cheaper subsonic aircraft, and the Tu-144 project was closed.

For some time, the airliners were used to deliver urgent cargo and conduct test flights. Pilots involved in the program of the first (and last) Soviet shuttle, Buran, even trained on the Tu-144.

The main reason for the termination of the Tu-144 project was not technical problems or even disasters, but its economic unprofitability. Even for the Soviet Union, where they were not too fond of counting money, the operation of this airliner was too expensive and pointless.

With old engines, its flight range was about 3 thousand km, which was very short for a high-speed supersonic aircraft. On long-distance routes, the airliner had to make landings to refuel - this negated all its advantages. After all, the essence of creating such a machine was to make fast non-stop flights between remote settlements. For comparison: the Concorde's flight range exceeded 6,400 km. But the RD-36-51A engine, which provided a flight range of up to 5300 km, could not be brought to fruition.

In addition, the cost of tickets for the Tu-144 did not even slightly cover the costs of flights and maintenance of the aircraft. The country's leadership did not want to take more money from Soviet citizens (and they didn't have any), so the airliner became just an expensive toy, another proof of the achievements of Soviet designers.

Tu-144 – research laboratory

In the mid-90s, the passenger airliner took part in a research program that the Tupolev Design Bureau conducted jointly with the Americans. NASA has been studying the possibility of creating a new generation of supersonic airliner.

For research, the Tu-144LL aircraft was used, which was a highly modernized version of the Tu-144D. It was equipped with new NK-32-1 engines to replace the RD-36-51A, which had long been out of production.

The Americans were interested in many issues related to flying at high speeds: studying the temperature of the skin and the structure of the airliner, the operation of the power plant, assessing the stability and controllability of the aircraft in different flight modes, friction coefficients and much more. In addition, customers studied the characteristics of the atmosphere at high altitudes, the degree of exposure of the crew and passengers to cosmic radiation, and ways to protect the cabin and interiors from the noise of on-board systems.

It is often said that the Soviet Tu-144 aircraft is a clone or copy of the Concorde. It is not true. These machines are very different both structurally and even externally. The Tupolev aircraft is much more powerful, it has a greater take-off weight and is capable of carrying more passengers. The Tu-144 has a number of interesting technical features (for example, PGO). This allowed the Soviet airliner to use shorter runways.

However, at the same time, the Tu-144 was inferior to its competitor in the most important characteristic - flight range.

After the 2000 disaster, Concorde was also taken out of service. The era of passenger supersonic aircraft is suspended. However, we can confidently say that humanity will return to the idea of ​​ultra-fast passenger flights, but this will happen at another stage of scientific and technological progress. Today, work in this direction is being carried out in several countries around the world.

Characteristics

If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them

Modification
Weight, kg
empty plane	91800
normal takeoff	150000
maximum takeoff	195000
engine's type	4 NK-144A turbofan engines
Max. speed, km/h	2500 (M=2.35)
Cruising speed, km/h	2200
Practical ceiling, m	18000-20000

A supersonic passenger masterpiece of the Soviet aircraft industry of the late 60s of the twentieth century. Graceful appearance and incredible power. An incredible speed for a civilian model, twice the sound barrier.

Invaluable experience of innovative and aerodynamic technologies of the last century. The tragic fate of the airliner, crew members and innocent people. All of the above became part of a dramatic story, the hero of which was a stunningly beautiful aircraft - the Tu-144.

History of creation

The first post-war decade of the 1950s ended with the rapid development of jet aviation. In addition to military developments, aircraft designers paid attention to passenger aircraft models. By this time, technologies to overcome the sound barrier had been mastered.

The first controlled aircraft to break the speed of sound was the American prototype Bell X-1 in 1947. Production of supersonic fighters F-100 and MiG-19 began almost simultaneously in the USA and USSR with a difference of one year.

Increased air transportation of passengers around the world has raised the question of the possibility of providing air carriers with supersonic aircraft to designers in the West and Europe. This type of new aircraft, according to the European leadership of the aviation industry, could provide a number of advantages, including:

• reduction of flight time;
• no intermediate landings;
• new level of comfort;
• world prestige.

The end of the 50s was marked in the international aircraft industry by the beginning of the incredibly ambitious “Supersonic” projects. The plane of the future was supposed to carry one hundred passengers at a speed of 2500 km/h. Great Britain began developing the Bristol-223, and France the Super-Caravelle.

However, the task turned out to be so complex and expensive that England and France decided to join forces in the joint Concorde project, signing an intergovernmental agreement in 1962.

The United States also joined the race under the “Supersonic” program, according to which their XB-70 Valkyrie aircraft was supposed to surpass the European model in passenger capacity by 3 times and fly at a speed of 3000 km/h. But the super-ambitious project will be closed in the future.

Soviet designers knew about the secret European project, and even tested the Concorde model in the TsAGI wind tunnel to study the parameters of the wing and fuselage. In addition, mock-ups of the latest supersonic aircraft have been repeatedly exhibited at international air shows.

Khrushchev did not want to give the initiative to the capitalists, and in July 1963 a resolution was issued by the CPSU Central Committee and the Council of Ministers on the creation of the Tu-144 supersonic passenger aircraft at the Tupolev Design Bureau.

According to the assigned task, the aircraft was supposed to transport 100 passengers at a speed of 2,700 km/h over a distance of 4,500 km. Subsequently, the range was planned to be increased to 6,500 km.

Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev appointed his son, a successful and ambitious engineer, as the chief designer of the project.

Alexey Tupolev had experience in creating an unmanned supersonic reconnaissance aircraft Tu-123 "Yastreb". The parameters of the military Tu-123 were similar to the new Tu-144 project.

Start of work on the project

The young team, led by Alexei Tupolev, set to work with enthusiasm. It was necessary to solve a huge number of technical problems in a short time. The design bureau had extensive experience in creating supersonic bombers.

By this time it was already in mass production. But the design of the passenger model had to start almost from scratch.
The first task arose in choosing the design of the new airliner.

To lighten the weight, it was decided to remove the tail unit. Next, the issue of the power plant was resolved. Economical engines, as in Europe and the West, did not exist in the Soviet Union.

It was decided to use a reliable, powerful engine developed under the leadership of Nikolai Kuznetsov at the Kuibyshev Motor Plant for the first stage of testing in all modes.

However, Kuznetsov's aircraft engine had a significant drawback. In order for the Tu-144 to fly at supersonic speeds, the power plant had to constantly operate in extreme afterburner mode.

The maximum mode consumed a huge amount of fuel, reducing the flight range. But the designers had to hurry and by any means lift the car into the sky and get ahead of the West.

To test various Tu-144 systems, several dozen stands were built. Hundreds of experiments were conducted on them. Tupolev Design Bureau has never had such a number of preliminary studies.

One of the main design stages was a full-size mockup of the aircraft. Prototyping made it possible to optimally place the equipment, arrange the cabin and passenger compartment.

First flight

The first experimental machine was assembled in the workshops of the Moscow machine-building plant “Experience,” which was the name of Tupolev’s company at that time. The aircraft was built in broad cooperation. Thousands of enterprises in the country were involved in the work.

Rudders, elevons and the main landing gear were manufactured in Kuibyshev. In Voronezh they made the detachable part of the wing and the nose landing gear. A Mi-10 helicopter crane was used to transport large-sized structures to Moscow.

The main part of the fuselage and the keel were produced at a branch plant in the village of Tomilino near Moscow. Then they were transported to Moscow, where installation of all parts of the aircraft took place.

At the beginning of 1968, the plane was delivered to the city of Zhukovsky. Transporting such a large cargo was a difficult task. The Tu-144 was transported between factory buildings with pinpoint precision.

Final assembly took place on the territory of the Zhukovsky flight test and development base. The work was carried out around the clock on a three-shift schedule; this was required by pressing deadlines.

The territory of the base was regularly visited by high authorities for personal control of the final stage of work. On December 31, 1968, at 13:25, air traffic controllers gave the go-ahead for the first takeoff of the Tu-144. The flight lasted 38 minutes and the plane showed excellent results.

In the West, the news of the first flight of the Tu-144 caused a wide resonance. In the Supersonic race, the Soviet aircraft beat the Concorde by two months. The press attributed industrial espionage to the Soviets, but few people know about the fact of cooperation between the USSR, France and Great Britain in the development of this type of aircraft.

Design

The Tu-144 is made according to the aerodynamic design of a tailless supersonic aircraft. The fuselage body is in the form of an elongated semi-monocoque tube with stringers and frames.

The outside of the body is sheathed with a thin and at the same time very durable material (based on titanium alloys), which was not used in conventional aircraft construction.

This innovative measure is caused by high temperature loads, reaching +130 degrees Celsius or more at supersonic speeds of Mach 2.

Glider

The fuselage body can be considered in the form of three blocks. The first block consisted of a cockpit and a nose cone, which was lowered during takeoff and landing to improve visibility.

Behind the canopy there was a retractable front horizontal tail for efficient takeoff and landing (TOL). The second block is the central part, which housed a passenger compartment that could accommodate from 90 to 150 people.

The third block is the rear part of the fuselage, which housed the fuel tank, where fuel was pumped after takeoff to switch to supersonic mode, a block container with a braking parachute and the keel of the aircraft.

The front part of the airliner wing had two angles in relation to the fuselage. The line started from the body at an angle of 76° and reached 57° by the end of the wing. The wing design uses an integration scheme of ailerons and elevator, which creates controls - elevons.

Avionics

The aircraft was equipped with an on-board electronic computer center, which was directly involved in controlling the aircraft. However, its characteristics lagged behind the similar Concorde automatic, but was not as capricious as in the European version.

The plane made an automatic landing, and the time of day did not matter.

Also included in the design was a PIN - a projection navigation indicator, which was similar to a modern GPS system. For that time, these were the most advanced scientific and technical developments.

Aircraft engines

The power plant consisted of four aircraft engines from the Kuibyshev plant - the NK-144A turbojet engine on the first experimental model and the RD-36-51A aircraft engines from the Rybinsk plant on production models.

The latter version was specially developed for the Tu-144, and was the world's first gas turbine aircraft engine for long-term operation at supersonic speed without the use of an afterburner.

The engines were placed in pairs to reduce the aggressive impact of the flame on the tail section. The nozzles extended beyond the wing section. Each aircraft engine had an individual air intake.

Additionally, an auxiliary aircraft engine was installed, which could be started in flight or used during diagnostics of systems in the parking lot or air conditioning, supplying the aircraft with electricity.

The decision to place the engines under the center section was somewhat controversial. The air intakes were located quite close to the nose landing gear. There was a possibility of increased dust and dirt getting into the engines and, as an option, their failure.

Chassis

In the design of the Tu-144 aircraft, a tricycle landing gear with a nose strut was used. The main supports had eight wheels with brake drums and were retracted into the wheel well between the air intakes using hydraulic cylinders.

The front landing gear was equipped with two wheels, a steering rod and was retracted into an unpressurized niche of the fuselage along the axis of the aircraft using hydraulic cylinders.

Fuel system

Fuel tanks (18 pcs) were located in the wings. Before the aircraft entered supersonic mode, fuel was pumped into the central fuel tank located at the rear of the fuselage.

It should be noted that the fuel system was equipped with duplicated safety and fire extinguishing systems, at a level superior to passenger aircraft of that time.

Specifications

As of today, the flights of SPS airliners have taken a pause, which will last for an unknown amount of time. Almost 15 years ago, Concorde's last flight took place on November 26, 2003 between Heathrow and Filton airports in the UK.

The European Supersonic served 24 years longer than its only competitor, the Tu-144. However, the Soviet aircraft had a number of advantages over its European counterpart.

Speed

The planes of competing countries reached staggering speeds, exceeding twice the speed of sound. The parameters were similar. However, the Soviet airliner Tu-144 surpassed the Concorde in cruising speed, developing 2300 km/h against the European’s 2150 km/h.

Cruising speed is the main speed of the aircraft, at which the optimal ratio of fuel consumption and distance traveled over a period of time is optimal.

Interesting fact! Flying at supersonic speed from the UK to the US transported passengers back in time, as Concorde arrived in New York two hours earlier than it departed from London. This result was achieved by quickly overcoming time zones.

Capacity

The Soviet airliner accommodated 150 passengers in a fairly spacious cabin with a five-row arrangement of seats. The European model could accommodate about 100 air passengers, the cabin was narrower and the seats were placed in four rows.

The foreign liner had a modification capable of accommodating more than 140 people, but this model did not find practical application. However, in defense of the Concorde, it is worth noting that its interior decoration is much more luxurious and ergonomic than the Soviet airliner. This also applies to the cockpit.

Service ceiling

The Tu-144 aircraft could rise to a maximum altitude of 20,000 m, while the Concorde reached a maximum altitude of 18,300 m.

Engines

All power plants on the experimental and production Tu models (004, 144-D, 144-LL, 144-S) surpassed in thrust the Olympus-593 power plant, an international development of the British company RollsRoyce and the French airline SNECMA.

The thrust of the foreign aircraft engine was 170.0 kN, against the weakest Soviet aircraft engine NK-144 with 171.6 kN and the most powerful aircraft engine NK-32-1 with 245.0 kN.

It is worth noting that, in contrast to Soviet developments, significant restrictions on fuel consumption, noise levels and environmental friendliness were introduced for foreign engines. This largely determined such a lag in power.

Development time

This advantage is hardly worth taking into account, since it is not entirely evaluative. However, the fact of a shorter program from the start of design to the debut flight remains with the Soviet Union.

The Tu-144 was the first to take off and six months later became the first passenger airliner in the world to overcome the speed of sound. Both competing aircraft had shortcomings that took a long time to correct.

For example, until the mid-1980s, Concorde generated losses that were covered by the governments of Great Britain and France. Only after serious modifications did Supersonic reach a profitable level.

Parameters/Models	Tu-144S	Concord
Length, m	65,70	61,66
Height, m	12,50	12,20
Wingspan, m	28,80	25,60
Wing area, m/sq	507	358,6
Maximum weight, kg	195 000	185 000
15 000	13 400
Fuel mass, kg	95 000	95 700
Maximum speed, km/h	2500	2300
Cruising supersonic speed, km/h	2200	2150
Maximum flight range with load, km	3080	6470
Landing speed, km/h	270	295
Fuel consumption, kg/h	26 000	20 500
Crew, people	4	3

History of operation and inglorious end

Four years after the first flight of the Soviet SPS, the Tu-144 was presented at the international air show in Le Bourget. The first day of flights of the Soviet aircraft was successful.

However, a competitor, the Concorde airliner, was present at the air show; during the demonstration, the plane showed a rather interesting performance: it entered the runway and touched it with its landing gear wheels, the airliner went off like a candle into the sky. The Soviet delegation instructed Soviet pilots on the Tu-144 to repeat the “European” maneuver.

The management's decision confused the crew, but the order was not discussed. The next day, June 3, 1973, after working out the main program, the Tu-144 aircraft entered the third circle with the goal of repeating Concorde’s sharp climb the day before.

After passing over the GDP with the mechanization and landing gear extended, the Tu-144 sharply began to gain altitude, but upon reaching 1200 meters, the plane went into an uncontrolled dive.

The pilots tried to bring the plane out of the dive, but due to the resulting overloads, the hull of the airliner collapsed in the air and fell on nearby residential buildings. The tragedy killed the entire crew of six people and eight residents of the town of Goussainville.

The cause of the plane crash has not been reliably established. A French Mirage flew near the Tu-144, which took photographs of the Soviet machine. One version has the interpretation that the crew of the airliner was avoiding a collision with a French plane and lost control.

The second version was associated with a crew member who was filming at the request of French television reporters and during a sharp maneuver dropped the camera, which blocked the control of the helm. Both sides of the ATP manufacturers decided to agree on the human factor, since technical problems would cast a shadow on the future fate of the project.

Route operation

Europe began operating Concorde on international routes to Rio de Janeiro and Bahrain in 1976. Having visited France on a working visit in the summer of 1977, L.I. Brezhnev was aware of this fact and demanded that USSR Aviation Minister Bugaev begin operating the Tu-144 on passenger lines.

But there were no supersonic aircraft capable of covering a distance of 5-6 thousand kilometers without intermediate landings. Modified Tu-144D long-range airliners have just begun to be created.

The first commercial flight on the route Moscow-Alma-Ata-Moscow, Tupolev Tu-144 made on October 26, 1975. The transported cargo consisted of postal property. Two years later, passenger transportation began in the same direction. The ticket price was not much different from the subsonic flight, 62 rubles versus 80 rubles.

This flight operated once a week on Thursdays. There were plenty of passengers willing to board it. But they were unaware that each flight was accompanied by terrible stress for both the pilots (since there was no fuel reserve to go to an alternate airfield) and for the dispatchers who continuously monitored weather conditions.

Seven months later, on June 1, 1978, Aeroflot stopped regular SPS passenger routes, this was due to a new plane crash of an experienced Tu-144D, which occurred on May 23, 1978, which claimed the lives of two crew members.

In addition, the commercial factor played a negative role. Tickets were inexpensive and could not cover even part of Aeroflot's operating costs. Increasing the cost of a ticket for a supersonic flight was not considered, since the standard of living of socialist citizens could not be compared with the well-being of residents of capitalist countries.

Modified versions of the Tu-144D, capable of covering a distance of 5,000 km, also led to the unprofitability of using the Soviet SPS. However, the construction of new aircraft continued until the mid-1980s.

Over the entire history of commercial operation, the Tu-144 aircraft carried 3,284 passengers, while the Concorde was able to transport 2.5 million people over the entire period of operation. Subsequently, efficient Soviet SPS were used to set world records or for test flights.

American history

In 1996, representatives of the NASA agency approached the Russian government with a request to provide them with a modified Tu-144LL with laboratory equipment for research in the development of high-speed passenger aircraft.

The Russian government accommodated Western researchers and facilitated the rental of the “Flying Laboratory”.

This aircraft has been converted from a Tu-144D into a research aircraft since 1995. The Russian airliner served the Americans with dignity from 1996 to 1999.

Modifications and surviving examples

Over the 17 years of the existence of the Soviet supersonic passenger aircraft project since 1967, 17 aircraft were built, including the first “zero” aircraft and the last plane, which did not find an “owner” and stood for a long time on the territory of the plant, and then was disposed of.

Two airliners (aircraft No. 77102 and aircraft No. 77111) were lost in plane crashes in 1973 and 1978. Modifications of manufactured aircraft:

• Tu-144 (044) – pioneer of the project, built in 1968,
• Tu-144 (004) – pre-production aircraft with the NK-144 power plant, produced in 1968,
• Tu-144 (004D) – pre-production aircraft with the RD-36-51A power plant, manufactured in 1974,
• Tu-144 DA is a long-range aviation aircraft with a “61” power plant,
• Tu-144 K - on board an aircraft missile complex,
• Tu-144 KP - board of a long-range aviation missile complex,
• Tu-144 LL - a flying laboratory with an NK-32-1 power plant, manufactured in 1996,
• Tu-144 P – jammer board,
• Tu-144 PR - reconnaissance jammer board,
• Tu-144 S - serial aircraft with the NK-144A power plant, manufactured in 1971,
• Tu144-DP2 is a long-range aviation interceptor.

Some of the aircraft are currently in storage, eight aircraft have been scrapped. Three Tu-144s can take off after repairs.

Tu-144 in the culture of the USSR and Russia

The plane was very much loved by the citizens of the Soviet Union as a powerful and beautiful airliner. His image has been applied to USSR postal blocks since 1969. Subsequently, the image of the Tu-144 was captured on a postage stamp of Kazakhstan by 2002, since this year marked exactly 25 years of passenger flights Moscow-Alma-Ata-Moscow. The Russian Mint issued a commemorative coin “Tu-144” with a face value of 1 silver ruble.

The cinema could not ignore such a beautiful appearance of the Tu-144 and it can be seen in the film “Mimino”, where the main character managed to make flights to the ATP in Delhi and San Francisco, although in reality the Tu-144 did not go on international routes.

The plane was also featured in Soviet films: “A Drop in the Ocean”, “The Tale of the Human Heart”, “Ilf and Petrov Rode on a Tram”, “Poem about Wings” and “Responsible for Everything”.

Computer game developers also could not resist using the Soviet SPS model, and presented it in the flight simulator “Microsoft FlightSimulator 9”. The design of the Tu-144D aircraft (tail number 77115) was taken as a basis.

Control of the digital model accurately replicates the instrument panel and real actions: switching toggle switches, following the flight plan, controlling the pre-stage, nose cone and switching to supersonic.

For connoisseurs of the Iron Curtain period, there is the opportunity to watch documentaries about the Tu-144 aircraft. At the moment, films are widely represented on the YouTube video hosting site.

Video

By the end of the 1950s, the problem of passenger airline congestion was brewing in developed countries. It was especially relevant for transatlantic flights connecting Europe with America. It was necessary to increase the capacity of aircraft several times or increase their turnover, reducing flight time. Today, when huge airliners carry hundreds of passengers, we know in which direction aircraft manufacturing has gone. But then the choice did not seem so obvious - especially against the brilliant background of military aviation, which by that time was already confidently bypassing sound. The prototype of the long-range supersonic bomber Tu-22 took to the skies in 1958, the prototype of the M-50 missile carrier a year later.

Designers of those years were accustomed to the fact that civil aircraft were designed on the basis of combat aircraft, which helped to “test” almost all basic solutions and systems. Therefore, the creation of supersonic passenger aircraft (SPS) seemed an accessible task, and concepts and projects multiplied like mushrooms after rain. Since 1962, engineers from the French Sud Aviation (Super Caravelle project) joined forces with the British from the Bristol company (Type 223 project) and, having secured support at the state level, began work on a joint ATP - Concorde.

By that time, the USSR was also trying to turn its supersonic military vehicles into passenger vehicles. Myasishchev's OKB-23 relied on the promising missile carriers M-50 and M-52; a similar project by Sukhoi's OKB-155 was based on the T-4 attack aircraft. But in 1962, when the Anglo-French agreement forced everyone to sharply pick up the pace of work, Tupolev's OKB-156 project turned out to be the most promising. Here they tried to develop the supersonic Tu-22 in two directions at once: towards the new heavy supersonic bomber Tu-135 - and towards their passenger version Tu-135P. In the summer of 1963, a government decree was issued in which Tupolev was entrusted with work on a new SPS capable of developing up to 2300-2700 km/h and carrying 80-100 people over 4000-4500 km or 39-50 people over 6000-6500 km. But already in the fall it became clear: the problem could not be solved at once and a military supersonic aircraft could not be converted into a civilian one.

Tasks

“The Americans also deeply studied the concepts of the ATP,” Vladimir Rigmant, director of the Tupolev Museum, told us. — There were even quite exotic projects based on Convair B-58 bombers and experimental XB-70 Valkyries. However, their calculations also showed that the usual approach does not work here.” In fact, supersonic flight with passengers is not at all the same as with bombs and missiles. A combat aircraft spends almost all its time in normal, subsonic flight and only in certain areas (during takeoff with an increased load, during maneuvers or breaking through enemy air defenses) does it turn on the afterburner. At the same time, the thrust of the power plant sharply increases, and the aircraft switches to supersonic flight mode - but for the engine itself this is work “on the verge of a heart attack”. The SPS, whose goal is to quickly and safely transport passengers over long distances, must remain at supersonic speed and in cruising flight for hours. This places completely different demands on the layout, engines, stability and controllability of the airframe at low and high speeds.

External surfaces heat up to 100−120 °C, creating the need for particularly heat-resistant materials, and at the same time a powerful air conditioning system, which must maintain the temperature inside the cabin at a comfortable level. Finally, there is the problem of sonic boom, which inevitably accompanies such high-speed flights: a bomber, passing a couple of hundred meters above the ground at supersonic speed, can cause concussion. The military is not too concerned about these issues, but for a civilian aircraft that flies over populated areas, a roar that can break windows and injure people is a serious drawback.

The British-French consortium avoided many of these problems at once. Concorde was designed for flights over the ocean, where its sound did not particularly threaten anyone, which allowed it to remain at a decent, but rather moderate altitude of 16-18 km. The Tu-144, for which a variety of routes were planned, needed to take the bar higher - up to 20 km, which created new difficulties for the operation of engines, air intakes and the entire structure. With each new nuance, the task of creating an SPS became more complicated and entailed a search in many areas at once, from engine building and service systems to materials science and aerodynamics.

	Tu-144D	Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde		Tu-144D	Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde
	Flight			Airplane
Number of passengers	150	108	Wing area, m2	507	425
15	12.7	Wingspan, m	28.8	25.6
Flight range, km, with a reduced number of passengers	6300: Moscow-Khabarovsk	6300: Paris-Washington	Aircraft length, m	64.5	62.1
Cruising speed, km/h	2300	2200	Fuselage diameter, m	3.3	2.9
Local noise, dB	112.6	119.5	Engines	NK-144, RD-36−51A	Olympus 593
Aerodynamic quality	7.6	7.2		Salon and trunks
	Takeoff and landing		Cabin length, m	36.6	35.2
Lift-off speed, km/h	360	300	Max. cabin width, m	3.0	2.6
Run length, m	1160	1620	Number of places	150	108−128
Maximum take-off weight, t	195	176.6−180	Trunk volume, m 3	18.0	20.0
Fuel mass, t	97	94	Kitchen space volume	8.8	4.6
			Number of toilets	4	3

Solutions

None of the experts take the hype around the similarity of the Tu-144 and Concorde seriously. To the eye of the average passenger, the subsonic planes of Tupolev, Ilyushin, Antonov, Boeing and Airbus are also suspiciously similar. Only small “nuances” that are inaccessible to the view of a non-specialist - elongation, sweep, profiling of the "twist" of the wing - provide varying technical perfection of aircraft.

Of course, the father and son Tupolevs, who led the work on the ATP, used the available information from their European colleagues who started earlier. However, the USSR worked on its glider quite independently, having carried out a huge amount of calculations and “blowing” dozens of models in TsAGI wind tunnels before finding the optimal “tailless” design. A wing with a variable sweep angle, consisting of two trapezoids (as on the Concorde), made it possible to give the aircraft stability both at subsonic speed and at supersonic speed, and in the transition mode, balancing was ensured by temporarily pumping fuel into a tank located at the rear of the aircraft.

Doctor of Technical Sciences Anatoly Koshcheev, who was directly involved in the creation of the “lines” of the Tu-144, explains: “In the field of Aerodynamics, several solutions were developed and implemented that ensured the superior aerodynamic perfection of the Tu-144 over the Concorde.” For example, for the first time, a wing with an asymmetrical profile was used, which had previously been considered ineffective for supersonic flight. As a result, the aerodynamic efficiency of the Tu-144 wing was 5% higher than that of the Concorde.”

Machines built according to the classical design use wing mechanization, flaps and slats to reduce the takeoff and landing distance (TLD) of an airfield. The negative diving moment they create (the tendency of the aircraft to “peck” its nose) is countered by the deflection of the tail horizontal empennage. But the “tailless” Tu-144 does not have such plumage. Therefore, Tupolev designers found a unique mechanism for retractable “wings” in the nose of the aircraft, which helped reduce the air pressure. Due to its lower weight and longer range, the Concorde did without complex front empennage mechanisms, but in the end the Tu-144 took off earlier. The first flight took place on New Year's Eve 1969. After more than a week of completely unflyable weather, the plane flew in thick fog, and eyewitnesses recalled how excitedly everyone (including Tupolev himself) listened to its roar - until, after landing, it froze on the runway of the airfield in Zhukovsky.

Compromises

Subsequent copies of the Tu-144 were modified, receiving new systems and even engines. Unlike the British Olympus 593 installed on the Concorde, the dual-circuit NK-144 developed for the Tu-144 operated in afterburner mode almost the entire flight. This made it possible to reduce the combustion temperature in the chamber, making the engine lighter and more reliable: part of the fuel was generated outside it. But this also forced the engines to be spaced along the wings away from the fuselage, which overheated from the too powerful release of hot gases. And most importantly, the afterburner led to fuel consumption that was absurd for a civilian vehicle: for every hour of operation, four engines took 10 tons from the tanks in the wings of the airliner.

Concorde was also not very economical, so its flights, despite significant demand, had to be constantly “sponsored” at the state level. But for the Tu-144, such fuel consumption also meant a serious limitation in range. Therefore, with all the grandiose plans for organizing supersonic non-stop flights from Moscow to Khabarovsk, to the Far East and beyond, during the short period of operation the Tu-144 transported passengers only to Almaty and back. Even the appearance of the RD-36−51A turbojet, which did not require afterburner (installed on later modifications of the Tu-144D), did not change the situation. A lot of unresolved problems, the shocking death of the aircraft during demonstration flights at the Le Bourget air show, as well as the economic crisis in the USSR - all this led to the final closure of the program in 1983. Some produced copies still continued to deliver urgent cargo, and in 1995-1999, one Tu-144 was modified by order of NASA and was used as a flying laboratory; several cars ended up in museums. Well, in civil aviation, simpler and more reliable subsonic giant passenger aircraft, designed for the “leisurely”, but safe and economical transportation of hundreds of passengers over distances of up to 10,000 km or more, have finally established themselves.

Heritage

It must be said that the problems of airline congestion in the USSR appeared later than in the West, and were associated not so much with a shortage of aircraft fleet capacity, but with the underdevelopment of the airport network. This was clear in the 1960s, but considerations of political prestige then outweighed practice. “At one time, the Americans simply better calculated the economics of flights and abandoned similar programs as soon as it became clear that the creation of SPS, which could be assigned to the next generation, would be justified,” continues Vladimir Rigmant. “These are speeds of Mach two or more, but already at a distance of more than 7,500 km, and there are about 300 or more passengers on board... This is a task of a completely different level, for the future.”

At the same time, the Tu-144 program gave a powerful impetus to aviation. The Tu-144 turned out to be an order of magnitude more complex than anything that flew in the sky in those years. “If it weren’t for the 144th, it would have been harder for us to create combat aircraft, starting with the Tu-22M and up to the Tu-160,” says Vladimir Rigmant. When working on the ATP project, Soviet specialists had to study for the first time the environmental aspects of aircraft operation, introduce new control automation technologies, new standards for ground handling, control and runway maintenance. “In fact, the approaches and principles that we continue to implement today began to appear precisely then,” sums up Vladimir Rigmant.

The aircraft, which flew only about 4,000 hours, left an exceptionally bright mark on history and became a real “icon” for aviation enthusiasts. And when the time comes to create a new generation of supersonic passenger cars, Russian designers know where to start - with the ideas that appeared on the Tu-144.

Memory

At the Air Force Museum in Monino, the huge but graceful Tu-144 attracts the most attention from visitors. There are a lot of interesting things around - the legendary Il attack aircraft, strategic bombers, and even the secret MiG-105 spaceplane. But against their formidable background, the snow-white 144th stands out as a particularly bright spot. A group of volunteers from the Museum Assistance Fund has been working with the board for more than ten years. Thanks to their efforts, the plane, which suffered greatly at the hands of looters in the 1990s, is being restored to its former beautiful appearance.

“You should have seen the line lining up to look inside on Open Day,” Dmitry Sterligov, coordinator of the volunteer group, told PM. “We are on our feet from morning to night, conducting excursions.” Tu-144 04−1 became the seventh of 14 supersonic passenger airliners built in the USSR. It made its first flight in the spring of 1975 and was used for test flights, in which not only the systems of the aircraft itself were tested, but also the ground infrastructure necessary to organize regular flights from Moscow to Almaty.

Semyon Kleiman, volunteer, technician: “Fortunately, the plane is high, it’s not easy to get into it. But once the vandals succeeded. Almost everything possible was stripped from it, from the wiring and instruments in the cockpit to the upholstery of the seats and varnished tables in the luxury cabin.” Sergei Chechetkin, volunteer, aviation electronics engineer: “The Tu-144 at the Sinsheim Technology Museum looks great from the outside, but inside they gutted everything. They made an entrance for visitors in the rear cargo compartment, cleared the aisles of seats, and covered the cabin with glass. To be honest, this approach is not close to us.”

Once a week he made a flight, delivering mail and cargo - at 8:30 he flew out from Domodedovo, and at 14:00 he was already heading back. It is this aircraft, number USSR-77106, that is shown in the film “Mimino”, where, following the original plans of Tupolev’s designers, it makes supersonic and non-stop flights from Delhi to San Francisco. In fact, its last flight took place on February 29, 1980, when 04−1 arrived at its final stop at Monino.

USSR-77106 is one of eight Tu-144s more or less preserved today. One board was even sold to the private Museum of Technology in Sinsheim, Germany, where it stands next to its brother and competitor, the Concorde.

The work of the volunteers can be called a full-fledged aviation restoration: they intend to restore the plane in the form in which it flew and appeared on the silver screen. Little by little, the Tu-144 is returning to normal: today it sparkles with fresh paint, the operation of electric drives has been restored, raising the nose cone and revealing the famous front wings. Sterligov and his like-minded people established contacts with airlines and design bureaus, where miraculously preserved parts are found every now and then. We managed to find new wheels for the main landing gear to replace the old ones, some instruments and fragments of technical documentation that made it possible to restore the operation of the electrical system fell into the hands of volunteers...

To change wheels on a 100-ton vehicle, heavy-duty jacks had to be brought in, and “tire fitting” turned into a dangerous undertaking. But otherwise, the work of volunteers is a slow and painstaking task: piece by piece, they put together a huge puzzle - an entire aircraft, one of the most complex and amazing in the history of aviation.

The supersonic aircraft TU-144 appeared in 1960. It was developed in the “holy of holies” of the USSR aircraft industry - the Tupolev design bureau. An analogue of such technical excellence - Concorde - of French-English production - the only one in the world at that time that could compete with the TU-144. In the end, that’s what happened. Concorde and Tu-144 entered into a rivalry. The Tu-144 made its first flight on December 31, 1968. The tests were conducted by test pilot of the Experienced Design Bureau of A.N. Tupolev Eduard Elyan. We were ahead in the above-mentioned “competition” - this happened two months before Concorde. The Tu-144 is also the first passenger airliner in history to break the sound barrier, this happened in 1969, at an altitude of 11,000 meters. The aircraft combined a huge number of advanced developments and design solutions. For example, the front horizontal tail (FH) was retractable for the duration of the flight, which made it possible to significantly increase maneuverability and reduce speed during landing. The Tu-144 could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while the Concorde, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% higher, required a separate landing certificate for each airport. A tremendous amount of work was done during the design. On June 3, 1973, Tu-144 No. 77102 crashed. It crashed during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show. During the maneuver: a Soviet plane crashes onto a school building in the town of Goussenville located next to the airfield, killing eight people and the crew led by Mikhail Kozlov. According to the version that appeared after the crash, the cause of the disaster is considered to be too sharp a maneuver that the crew had to make in order to avoid a collision with the unexpectedly appeared French Mirage, whose pilot’s task was to photograph the Soviet Tu-144 in flight. There was a violation of the control system, or the maneuver that the crew attempted to perform was inadmissible for the aircraft airframe structures. The true causes of the disaster were kept secret. The commission specifically noted that no design flaws in the aircraft that could have caused the accident were identified. After the secrecy was lifted in the late 90s, some versions were voiced from the Russian side: according to the former deputy head of the Tupolev Design Bureau’s testing base, Edgar Krupyansky, a block of experimental automatic equipment was installed on that ill-fated board, which could have unexpectedly worked. A more prosaic reason was also expressed - they said that French journalists gave one of the Soviet crew members a movie camera, and while performing a complex figure, it slipped out of his hands and began to fly around the cockpit, depriving the pilots of the ability to control. However, the Tu-144 began to make regular flights. The first operational flight was made on December 26, 1975 on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route, where the plane transported mail and parcels, and on November 1, 1977, passenger transportation began on the same route. The flights were carried out by only two aircraft - No. 77109 and No. 77110. Aeroflot pilots flew as co-pilots, while the crew commanders were always test pilots from the Tupolev Design Bureau. A ticket for this plane cost 68 rubles, while a ticket to Alma-Ata for a regular subsonic plane cost 48 rubles. But the airliner, designed for ultra-long-distance flights, did not find its place on domestic routes, turning out to be unprofitable. Due to the high price of tickets, almost one and a half times higher than usual, the load on boards was very low, which led to the abandonment of operation on Aeroflot passenger lines. And just seven months after the start of commercial operation, the TU-144 stopped supersonic passenger flights forever. Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for cargo transportation between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the Tu-144 made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, of which 55 were passenger flights, carrying 3,194 passengers. Subsequently, the Tu-144 made only test flights and flights with the aim of setting world records. On May 23, 1978, the second crash of the Tu-144 prototype occurred. During a test flight of a modernized version of the aircraft, Tu-144D (No. 77111), a fire occurred. The crew made an emergency landing near the city of Yegoryevsk. After landing, only part of the crew was saved. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov were trapped in the workplace and died. Concordes were operated by British Airways and Air France for 27 years. On July 25, 2000, one plane was lost in a crash while taking off from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, killing 113 people, including 100 passengers and 9 crew members on board. This disaster, as well as the contraction of the air transportation market after September 11, 2001, were the main reasons for the cessation of Concorde service on commercial airlines. According to some experts, if the Concorde engines had been placed in the same way as the Tu-144, then the disaster on July 25, 2000 might not have happened. The Tu-144 engines are located closer to the fuselage and a burst landing gear tire could not damage them. In fact, none of these two supersonic giants “won.”