Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic aircraft developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. Along with the Concorde, it is one of only two supersonic airliners ever used by airlines for commercial travel.
In the 60s, in the aviation circles of the USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR, projects were actively discussed to create a passenger supersonic aircraft with a maximum speed of 2500-3000 km / h, a flight range of at least 6-8 thousand km. In November 1962, France and Great Britain signed an agreement to jointly develop and build the Concorde (Concord).
Supersonic aircraft creators
In the Soviet Union, the design bureau of academician Andrei Tupolev was engaged in the creation of a supersonic aircraft. At a preliminary meeting of the KB in January 1963, Tupolev said:
“Thinking about the future of air transportation of people from one continent to another, you come to an unambiguous conclusion: supersonic air liners are undoubtedly needed, and I have no doubt that they will come into life ...”
The academician's son, Aleksey Tupolev, was appointed the lead designer of the project. More than a thousand specialists from other organizations worked closely with his OKB. The creation was preceded by extensive theoretical and experimental work, which included numerous tests in wind tunnels and natural conditions during analog flights.
Concorde and Tu-144
The developers had to smash their brains to find the optimal machine layout. The speed of the projected liner is of fundamental importance - 2500 or 3000 km / h. The Americans, having learned that the Concorde is designed for 2500 km / h, announced that they would release their passenger Boeing-2707 made of steel and titanium just six months later. Only these materials could withstand heating of the structure without destructive consequences in contact with the air flow at speeds of 3000 km / h and higher. However, solid steel and titanium structures still have to undergo serious technological and operational testing. This will take a long time, and Tupolev decides to build a supersonic aircraft from duralumin, based on a speed of 2500 km / h. The American Boeing project was subsequently canceled altogether.
In June 1965, the model was shown at the annual Paris Air Show. The Concorde and the Tu-144 turned out to be strikingly similar to each other. Soviet designers said - nothing surprising: the general form is determined by the laws of aerodynamics and the requirements for a particular type of machine.
Supersonic aircraft wing shape
But what should be the shape of the wing? We settled on a thin triangular wing with the outline of the leading edge in the form of the letter "8". The tailless scheme - inevitable with such a design of the bearing plane - made the supersonic airliner stable and well controlled in all flight modes. Four engines were located under the fuselage, closer to the axis. The fuel is stored in wing coffered tanks. The balance tanks, located at the rear of the fuselage and wing overflow, are designed to change the position of the center of gravity during the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight speed. The nose was made sharp and smooth. But how, then, can the pilots get forward visibility? Found a way out - "bowing nose". The circular fuselage had a cockpit nose cone that tilted downward at an angle of 12 degrees during takeoff and 17 degrees during landing.
A supersonic plane takes to the sky
For the first time, a supersonic aircraft takes to the skies on the last day of 1968. The car was driven by test pilot E. Elyan. As a passenger aircraft, it was the first in the world to overcome the speed of sound in early June 1969, at an altitude of 11 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft took the second speed of sound (2M) in the middle of 1970, being at an altitude of 16.3 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft has incorporated many design and technical innovations. Here I would like to mention such a solution as the front horizontal tail. When using the PGO, the flight maneuverability was improved and the speed was suppressed during the landing approach. Domestic supersonic aircraft could be operated from two dozen airports, while the French-English Concorde, having a high landing speed, could only land at a certified airport. The designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau did a tremendous job. Take, for example, field testing of a wing. They took place at a flying laboratory - the MiG-21I, converted specifically for testing the design and equipment of the wing of the future supersonic aircraft.
Development and modification
Work on the development of the basic design of the "044" went in two directions: the creation of a new economical turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type and a significant improvement in the aerodynamics and design of a supersonic aircraft. The result was to meet the requirements for the range of supersonic flight. The decision of the Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the version of the supersonic aircraft with the RD-36-51 was adopted in 1969. At the same time, at the suggestion of the MAP - MGA, a decision is made, until the creation of the RD-36-51 and their installation on a supersonic aircraft, on the construction of six supersonic aircraft with NK-144A with reduced specific fuel consumption. The design of serial supersonic aircraft with the NK-144A was supposed to be significantly modernized, to make significant changes in aerodynamics, having received more than 8 Kmax at the supersonic cruising mode. series on RD-36-51.
Construction of a modernized supersonic aircraft
The construction of the pre-production modernized Tu-144 ("004)" began at the MMZ "Experience" in 1968. According to the calculated data with the NK-144 engines (Cp \u003d 2.01), the estimated supersonic range should have been 3275 km, and with the NK-144A (Cp \u003d 1.91), it should have exceeded 3500 km. In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics in cruise mode M \u003d 2.2, the wing shape was changed in plan (the sweep of the flowing part along the leading edge was reduced to 76 °, and the base part increased to 57 °), the wing shape became closer to the "Gothic" one. Compared with the "044", the wing area has increased, a more intensive conical twist of the wing end parts has been introduced. However, the most important innovation in wing aerodynamics was the change in the middle part of the wing, which ensured self-balancing in cruise mode with minimal loss of quality, taking into account optimization for flight deformations of the wing in this mode. The length of the fuselage was increased to accommodate 150 passengers, the shape of the bow was improved, which also had a positive effect on aerodynamics.
Unlike "044", each pair of engines in paired engine nacelles with air intakes was pushed apart, freeing the lower part of the fuselage from them, unloading it from increased temperature and vibration loads, while changing the lower wing surface in the place of the calculated flow compression region, increased the gap between the lower surface wing and the upper surface of the air intake - all this made it possible to use more intensively the effect of flow compression at the inlet to the air intakes on the Kmax than it was possible to get on the "044". The new layout of the engine nacelles required changes in the chassis: the main landing gear struts were placed under the engine nacelles, with their retraction inward between the engine air channels, they switched to an eight-wheeled bogie, and the nose landing gear retraction scheme was also changed. An important difference between "004" and "044" was the introduction of a front multi-section retractable in-flight destabilizer wing, which was extended from the fuselage in take-off and landing modes, and made it possible to provide the required balancing with deflected flaps elevons. Design improvements, an increase in payload and fuel reserve led to an increase in takeoff weight, which exceeded 190 tons (for "044" - 150 tons).
Pre-production Tu-144
The construction of the pre-production supersonic aircraft No. 01-1 (side No. 77101) was completed at the beginning of 1971, and on June 1, 1971 it made its first flight. Under the factory test program, the aircraft completed 231 flights, lasting 338 hours, of which 55 hours flew in supersonic mode. On this machine, complex issues of interaction of the power plant in various flight modes were worked out. On September 20, 1972, the car flew along the Moscow-Tashkent highway, while the route was completed in 1 hour 50 minutes, the cruising speed during the flight reached 2500 km / h. The pre-production machine became the basis for the deployment of serial production at the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VAZ), which was entrusted by the government's decision to develop a supersonic aircraft in a series.
The first flight of the serial Tu-144
The first flight of serial supersonic aircraft No. 01-2 (side No. 77102) powered by NK-144A engines took place on March 20, 1972. In the series, according to the results of tests of the pre-production machine, the aerodynamics of the wing was corrected and its area was slightly increased again. The takeoff weight in the series reached 195 tons. The specific fuel consumption of the NK-144A by the time of operational tests of serial machines was intended to be increased to 1.65-1.67 kg / kgf hour by optimizing the engine nozzle, and later to 1.57 kg / kgf hour, while the flight range should was to increase to 3855-4250 km and 4550 km, respectively. In fact, they were able to achieve by 1977 during the tests and refinements of the Tu-144 and NK-144A series Cp \u003d 1.81 kg / kgf hour at a cruising supersonic thrust mode 5000 kgf, Cp \u003d 1.65 kg / kgf hour at a takeoff afterburner thrust mode 20,000 kgf, Cp \u003d 0.92 kg / kgf hour at a subsonic cruising mode of thrust of 3000 kgf and at maximum afterburner mode in a transonic mode, they received 11,800 kgf. A fragment of a supersonic aircraft.
Flights and tests of a supersonic aircraft
First stage of testing
In a short period of time, in strict accordance with the program, 395 flights were performed with a total flight time of 739 hours, including more than 430 hours in supersonic modes.
Second stage of testing
At the second stage of operational tests, in accordance with the joint order of the Ministers of the Aviation Industry and Civil Aviation No. 149-223 dated September 13, 1977, a more active connection of civil aviation facilities and services took place. A new commission was formed to conduct tests, headed by Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation B.D. Rude. By the decision of the commission, then confirmed by a joint order dated September 30 - October 5, 1977, the crews were appointed to conduct operational tests:
- First crew: pilots B.F. Kuznetsov (Moscow Transport Department of Civil Aviation), S.T. Agapov (ZhLiDB), navigator S.P. Khramov (MTU GA), flight engineers Yu.N. Avayev (MTU GA), Yu.T. Seliverstov (ZhLiDB), leading engineer S.P. Avakimov (ZhLiDB).
- Second crew: pilots V.P. Voronin (Moscow State University GA), I.K. Vedernikov (ZhLiDB), navigator A.A. Senyuk (MTU GA), flight engineers E.A. Trebuntsov (MTU GA) and V.V. Solomatin (ZhLiDB), leading engineer V.V. Isaev (GosNIIGA).
- Third crew: pilots M.S. Kuznetsov (GosNIIGA), G.V. Voronchenko (ZhLiDB), navigator V.V. Vyazigin (GosNIIGA), flight engineers M.P. Isaev (MTU GA), V.V. Solomatin (ZhLiDB), leading engineer V.N. Poklad (ZhLiDB).
- The fourth crew: pilots N.I. Yurskov (GosNIIGA), V.A. Sevankaev (ZhLiDB), navigator Yu.A. Vasiliev (GosNIIGA), flight engineer V.L. Venediktov (GosNIIGA), leading engineer I.S. Mayboroda (GosNIIGA).
Before the start of the tests, a lot of work was done to review all the materials received in order to use them "for offset" to meet specific requirements. However, despite this, some civil aviation specialists insisted on the implementation of the "Program for operational tests of a supersonic aircraft" developed at GosNIIGA back in 1975 under the leadership of the leading engineer A.M. Teterukov. This program essentially required the repetition of previously performed flights in the amount of 750 flights (1200 flight hours) on the MGA routes.
The total volume of operational flights and tests for both phases will amount to 445 flights with 835 flight hours, of which 475 hours at supersonic modes. There were performed 128 pair flights on the route Moscow-Alma-Ata.
The final stage
The final test phase was not technically challenging. Rhythmic work on a schedule was ensured without major disruptions and major defects. The engineers and technicians were “having fun” assessing household equipment and preparing for passenger transportation. The flight attendants connected to the tests and the corresponding specialists of GosNIIGA began to conduct ground trainings to test the technology of servicing passengers in flight. The so-called. "Raffles" and two technical flights with passengers. The "raffle" was held on October 16, 1977 with a complete simulation of the cycle of ticket check-in, baggage clearance, passenger boarding, flight duration, passengers disembarkation, baggage check-in at the destination airport. From the “passengers” (the best employees of the OKB, ZhLiDB, GosNIIGA and other organizations) there was no end. The ration of food in the "flight" was at the highest level, since it was approved according to the first class menu, everyone enjoyed it. The raffle made it possible to clarify many important elements and details of passenger service. On October 20 and 21, 1977, two technical flights were performed along the Moscow-Alma-Ata highway with passengers. The first passengers were employees of many organizations who were directly involved in the creation and testing of a supersonic aircraft. Today it is even difficult to imagine the atmosphere on board: there was a feeling of joy and pride, a great hope for development against the background of first-class service, to which technical people are absolutely not accustomed. On the first flights, all the heads of the leading institutions and organizations were on board.
The road is open for passenger traffic
Technical flights passed without serious comments and showed the full readiness of the supersonic aircraft and all ground services for regular transportation. On October 25, 1977, the Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR B.P. Bugaev and Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR V.A. Kazakov approved the main document: "Act on the results of operational tests of a supersonic aircraft with NK-144 engines" with a positive conclusion and conclusions.
On the basis of the presented tables of compliance of the Tu-144 with the requirements of the Temporary Airworthiness Standards of the civil Tu-144 of the USSR, the full volume of the submitted evidentiary documentation, including acts on state and operational tests, on October 29, 1977, Chairman of the State Aviation Register of the USSR I.K. Mulkidzhanov approved the conclusion and signed the first in the USSR airworthiness certificate of type No. 03-144 for a supersonic aircraft with NK-144A engines.
The road was opened for passenger traffic.
The supersonic aircraft could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while the Concordu, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% higher, required a separate landing certificate for each airport. According to some experts, if the engines of the Concorde were located in the same way as that of the Tu-144, then the accident on July 25, 2000 would not have happened.
According to experts, the design of the Tu-144 airframe was perfect, while the flaws concerned engines and various systems.
The second production copy of a supersonic aircraft
In June 1973, the 30th International Paris Air Show took place in France. There was a huge interest aroused by the Soviet Tu-144, the world's first supersonic aircraft. On June 2, thousands of visitors to the air show in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget watched the second serial production of a supersonic aircraft hit the runway. The roar of four engines, a powerful take-off - and now the car is in the air. The sharp nose of the liner straightened and aimed at the sky. The supersonic Tu, led by Captain Kozlov, made its first demonstration flight over Paris: having gained the required altitude, the car went over the horizon, then returned and made a circle over the airfield. The flight took place in normal mode, no technical problems were noted.
The next day, the Soviet crew decided to show everything that the new one is capable of.
Disaster during the demonstration
The sunny morning of June 3 did not seem to bode well. At first, everything went according to plan - the audience, raising their heads, applauded in unison. The supersonic plane, having shown "superior class", went down. At that moment, the French Mirage fighter appeared in the air (as it turned out later, he was filming an air show). A collision seemed inevitable. In order not to crash into the airfield and spectators, the crew commander decided to climb higher and pulled the steering wheel towards himself. However, the height has already been lost, large loads have been created on the structure; as a result, the right wing cracked and fell off. A fire broke out there, and a few seconds later the blazing supersonic plane rushed to the ground. The terrible landing took place on one of the streets of the Parisian suburb of Gusenville. The gigantic car, destroying everything in its path, crashed to the ground and exploded. The entire crew - six people - and eight Frenchmen on the ground were killed. Gusenville also suffered - several buildings were destroyed. What led to the tragedy? According to most experts, the cause of the crash was an attempt by the crew of a supersonic aircraft to avoid a collision with the Mirage. During the landing approach, the Tu was caught in a wake from the French Mirage fighter.
Video: The crash of the Tu-144 in 1973: how it was
This version can be found in Gene Alexander's book, Russian Airplanes Since 1944, and in an article in the Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine for June 11, 1973, written on fresh tracks. The authors believe that pilot Mikhail Kozlov landed on the wrong runway - either by mistake of the flight director, or by the inattention of the pilots. The dispatcher noticed the error in time and warned the Soviet pilots. But instead of going around, Kozlov laid a sharp turn - and found himself right in front of the nose of the French Air Force fighter. At that time the co-pilot was filming with a movie camera a story about the Tu crew for French television and therefore was not wearing his seatbelt. During the maneuver, he fell onto the center console, and while returning to his place, he had already lost height. Kozlov abruptly pulled the steering wheel towards himself - overload: the right wing could not stand it. And here is another explanation for the terrible tragedy. Kozlov was ordered to squeeze the maximum out of the car. Even during takeoff, he took an almost vertical angle at low speed. For a liner with such a configuration, this is fraught with huge overloads. As a result, one of the external nodes could not stand it and fell off.
According to the employees of the Tupolev Design Bureau, the cause of the disaster was the connection of an unsettled analog block of the control system, which led to a destructive overload.
The spy version belongs to the writer James Olberg. In short, it is as follows. The Soviets tried to "beat" the Concorde. Group N. D. Kuznetsova created good engines, but they could not work at low temperatures, unlike the Concord ones. Then Soviet intelligence officers got involved in the case. Penkovsky, through his agent Grevil Wyne, obtained some of the Concorde's blueprints and shipped them to Moscow through an East German trade representative. British counterintelligence thus established the leak, but, instead of arresting the spy, decided to let disinformation into Moscow through his own channels. As a result, the Tu-144 was born, very similar to the Concorde. It is difficult to establish the truth, since the “black boxes” have not clarified anything. One was found in Bourges, at the crash site, but reportedly damaged. The second was never found. It is believed that the "black box" of a supersonic aircraft has become a point of contention between the KGB and the GRU.
According to the pilots, emergency situations occurred on almost every flight. On May 23, 1978, the second supersonic plane crash occurred. An improved experimental version of the airliner, Tu-144D (No. 77111), after fuel ignited in the nacelle area of \u200b\u200bthe 3rd power plant due to the destruction of the fuel line, smoke in the cockpit and the crew shutting off two engines, made an emergency landing on a field near the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, not far from the city Yegoryevsk.
After landing through the cockpit window, crew commander V.D.Popov, co-pilot E.V. Elyan and navigator V.V. Vyazigin left the airliner. Engineers V. M. Kulesh, V. A. Isaev, V. N. Stolpovsky who were in the cabin left the liner through the front entrance door. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov were trapped in the workplace by structures deformed during landing and died. (The deflected nose cone touched the ground first, worked like a bulldozer knife, picking up the ground, and turned under the stomach, entering the fuselage.) On June 1, 1978, Aeroflot permanently stopped supersonic passenger flights.
Improvement of the supersonic aircraft
Work on improving the supersonic aircraft continued for several more years. Five production aircraft were produced; five more were under construction. A new modification has been developed - Tu-144D (long-range). However, the choice of a new (more economical) engine, RD-36-51, required significant redesign of the aircraft, especially the power plant. Serious design gaps in this area led to a delay in the release of the new liner. Only in November 1974, the serial Tu-144D (tail number 77105) took off, and nine (!) Years after its first flight, on November 1, 1977, the supersonic aircraft received a certificate of airworthiness. Passenger flights were opened on the same day. During their short-lived operation, the liners carried 3194 passengers. On May 31, 1978, flights were terminated: a fire broke out on one of the serial Tu-144Ds, and the liner crashed during an emergency landing.
The disasters in Paris and Yegoryevsk led to the fact that the interest in the project from the state decreased. From 1977 to 1978, 600 problems were identified. As a result, it was decided to remove the supersonic aircraft already in the 80s, explaining this by "a bad effect on human health when crossing the sound barrier." Nevertheless, four of the five Tu-144Ds that were in production were nevertheless completed. Later they were based in Zhukovsky and took to the air as flying laboratories. A total of 16 supersonic aircraft were built (including long-range ones), which made a total of 2556 sorties. By the mid-90s, ten of them survived: four in museums (Monino, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk); one remained at the plant in Voronezh, where it was built; another one was in Zhukovsky along with four Tu-144Ds.
Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for freight traffic between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the supersonic aircraft made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, of which 55 were passenger (3,194 passengers were transported).
Later, supersonic aircraft made only test flights and several flights in order to establish world records.
On the Tu-144LL, the NK-32 engines were installed due to the lack of serviceable NK-144 or RD-36-51, similar to those used on the Tu-160, a variety of sensors and test control and recording equipment.
In total, 16 Tu-144 airliners were built, which made a total of 2,556 flights and flew 4,110 hours (most of them, 432 hours, flew 77,144). The construction of four more liners was never completed.
What happened to the planes
In total, 16 were built - boards 68001, 77101, 77102, 77105, 77106, 77107, 77108, 77109, 77110, 77111, 77112, 77113, 77114, 77115, 77116 and 77144.
Those remaining in flight status do not currently exist. The Tu-144LL No. 77114 and TU-144D No. 77115 boards are almost completely completed with parts and can be restored to flight condition.
TU-144LL No. 77114, which was used for NASA tests, is stored in a recoverable state at the Zhukovsky airfield.
TU-144D No. 77115 is also kept at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2007, both airliners were re-painted and exhibited for general visits at the MAKS-2007 air show.
Nos 77114 and 77115 will most likely be installed as monuments or exhibited at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2004-2005, some deals were made with them to sell them for scrap, but protests from the aviation community led to their preservation. The danger of selling them for scrap has not been completely eliminated. The questions of whose ownership they will be transferred to have not been finally resolved.
The photo shows the signature of the first cosmonaut to land on the moon, Neil Armstrong, pilot-cosmonaut Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy and all the dead crew members. Supersonic aircraft No. 77102 crashed during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show. All 6 crew members (honored test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov, test pilot V.M. Molchanov, navigator G.N. Bazhenov, deputy chief designer, engineer Major-General V.N. Benderov, leading engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I.Dralin) were killed.
From left to right. Six crew members on board supersonic aircraft # 77102: honored test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union MV Kozlov, test pilot VM Molchanov, navigator GN Bazhenov, deputy chief designer, engineer Major General VN Benderov, leading engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I.Dralin (who, unfortunately, did not specify how they stand in order). Further, pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major-General Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy, behind him on the left is Vladimir Alexandrovich Lavrov, then the first American cosmonaut who landed on the moon Neil Armstrong, then (behind the Nile) - Stepan Gavrilovich Korneev (head of the UVS from the Department of External Relations Presidium of the Academy of Sciences), in the center Tupolev Andrey Nikolaevich - Soviet aircraft designer, academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, colonel general, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero of Labor of the RSFSR, then Alexander Alexandrovich Arkhangelsky, chief designer of the plant, Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Scientist and equipment of the RSFSR, Hero of Socialist Labor. Far right Tupolev Alexey Andreevich (son of A.N. Tupolev) - Russian aircraft designer, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1984, Hero of Socialist Labor. The picture was taken in 1970. Captions on the photo of G.T.Beregovoy and Neil Armstrong.
Concorde
Concorde crash.
The liner is currently out of service due to the disaster on July 25, 2000. On April 10, 2003, British Airways and Air France announced their decision to cease commercial operations of their Concord fleet. The last flights took place on October 24. The last flight of the Concorde took place on November 26, 2003, the G-BOAF (the last airliner built) took off from Heathrow, flew over the Bay of Biscay, passed over Bristol, and landed at Filton Airport.
Why the supersonic aircraft is no longer in operation
Tupolev's supersonic aircraft is often called the “lost generation”. Intercontinental flights were recognized as uneconomical: per hour of flight, a supersonic aircraft burned eight times more fuel than a regular passenger. For the same reason, long-distance flights to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok did not justify themselves. It is inexpedient to use the supersonic Tu as a transport liner due to its low carrying capacity. True, passenger transportation on it nevertheless became a prestigious and profitable business for Aeroflot, although tickets were considered very expensive at that time. Even after the official closure of the project, in August 1984, the head of the Zhukovskaya flight test base Klimov, the head of the design department Pukhov and the deputy chief designer Popov, with the support of supersonic flight enthusiasts, restored and put into operation two liners, and in 1985 obtained permission to fly for setting world records. The crews of Aganov and Veremey have set more than 18 world records in the class of supersonic aircraft - in terms of speed, rate of climb and range with a load.
On March 16, 1996, a series of Tu-144LL research flights began in Zhukovsky, which marked the beginning of the development of the second generation of supersonic passenger airliners.
95-99 years. The supersonic aircraft with tail number 77114 was used by the American NASA as a flying laboratory. Received the name Tu-144LL. The main purpose - research and testing of American developments to create their own modern supersonic aircraft for passenger transportation.
Tu - 144, the world's first supersonic aircraft
The Tu-144 is the world's first supersonic aircraft to take off. There are 2 supersonic passenger aircraft in the history of world aviation: TU-144 and Concorde. Both aircraft are currently out of use and out of production.
The prototype first flew on December 31, 1968 near Moscow, two months before the first Concorde flight. The Tu-144 first broke the sound barrier on June 5, 1969, and on July 15, 1969 became the first commercial vehicle to top Machine 2.
The first flight of the TU-144 was made on December 31, 1968, 2 months earlier than the first flight of the Concorde. On June 5, 1969, the TU-144 broke the sound barrier, and on July 15, 1969, it became the world's first passenger and commercial aircraft to exceed the speed of M 2.
TU-144 and Concorde are outwardly similar, which became the subject of speculation and alleged industrial espionage of the USSR. However, there is no confirmation of this. There are also significant differences, so the main thing is the location of the engines. In the TU-144 they are located in 2 with a small distance between the pairs of engines, in the Concorde they are spaced to the sides - almost to the middle of the wing, there are other design features.
But the beginning of failure and possibly the reason for the termination of the development of the project was the disaster in 1973 at the air show in La Bourget. Video footage of the disaster has survived. There are a number of versions, official, not official, however, the video shows that the human factor has become a catastrophe. For show, the pilot undertook such a maneuver that the load on the aircraft became critical and the structure simply could not withstand the overloads.
In May 1978, a prototype TU-144D crashed; this aircraft, compared to the initial modification, had a longer flight range, lower fuel consumption and other changes that were made to reduce the cost of operating the aircraft.
The Tu-144 aircraft was operated on the Moscow - Alma-Ata route, due to the fact that the cost of tickets was 30% higher than for other aircraft, the flight was not loaded and was not economically viable. The aircraft has successfully completed 58 passenger flights throughout its history.
After that, the operation of the aircraft was terminated.
If we compare the TU-144 with the Concorde, then in appearance they are very similar, the differences were that the Concorde was superior to the TU-144 in efficiency, electronics, and a lower possible landing speed (329 km / h for the TU-144 and 300 km / hour at Concorde). The superiority of the Tu-144 over the Concorde was expressed in better aerodynamics.
In total, 16 operating aircraft and 1 unfinished one were produced in history.
It should be noted that initially the NK-144 turbojet engines were used on the TU-144, the disadvantage of these engines was that in order to achieve supersonic speed, it was necessary to turn on the afterburner, of course, this led to enormous fuel consumption.
On Tu-144 D aircraft, the RD-36-51A engines were already used, these are the world's first gas turbine engines that made it possible to reach supersonic speeds without using afterburner.
The use of this engine has reduced fuel consumption by almost 2 times.
The passenger cabin of the aircraft.
The problem of operating the aircraft was constant minor breakdowns, but they required study, that is, the time spent on deciding whether to launch the aircraft or not.
A very significant drawback was the huge noise in the aircraft cabin. The noise came from the engines and the air conditioning system. The fact is that at supersonic speeds, the aircraft skin had to be cooled from overheating, the cooling system created significant noise. So, in practice, the passengers sitting next to each other heard each other, only if they spoke with a shout, the noise in the back of the plane was unbearable.
Problems of supersonic passenger aviation.
Why are there no supersonic passenger aircraft currently?
First of all, due to the high cost of operating these types of aircraft. In addition to the fact that at a higher, and even more supersonic, fuel consumption is significantly higher than at a pre-sonic speed, there are still problems with the aircraft body.
At supersonic speeds, the aircraft body must be constantly cooled to avoid overheating, deformation and destruction. You can, of course, use titanium alloys, but this will automatically raise the cost of the aircraft and the cost of manufacturing it. At the moment, at the price of today's fuel, the commercial operation of supersonic passenger aircraft is simply not efficient.
Technical characteristics of the Tu-144 aircraft:
Crew: 3 people
Passenger capacity: 120-140 passengers
Length: 65.50 m
Wingspan: 28.80 m
Height: 10.50 m
Wing area: 438.0 m²
Empty weight: 85,000 kg
Takeoff weight: 120,000 kg
Maximum takeoff weight: 180,000 kg
Speed: M2.0 (2.142 km / h)
Service ceiling: 18,000 m
Thrust-to-weight ratio: 0.44
Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti columnist.
Forty years ago, near Paris. The car had not even entered the passenger routes at that time, it will enter them later, but it will not fly for long - until 1978. What happened to the Soviet "super-muff" and its transatlantic alter ego -? Where and why has humanity gone to its supersonic passenger aircraft?
June is not flying time
On the first days of June 2013, there are two dates at once that are important for the fate of the Tu-144. Both are associated with disasters that actually frame the fate of the Soviet supersonic airliner.
On June 3, 1973, during a demonstration flight in French Le Bourget, a Soviet supersonic aircraft fell - fourteen people died, including the head of the Tu-144 test program, Major General Vladimir Benderov.
The real reasons for that fall remained "hushed up". This was largely due to the lack of telemetry: no conversations were recorded in the cockpit, and many parameter recorders were destroyed in the fall. As a result, the disaster was attributed to a coincidence, transparently hinting at the crew's fault.
In the Soviet Union, unofficial attempts were made to hang all the dogs on the French Mirage fighter accompanying the liner, which allegedly inadvertently maneuvered near the Tu-144, forcing the crew to sharply evade, as a result of the resulting overloads aircraft fuselage broke.
Another, much more plausible version is also known: a crude, unfinished car went on a demonstration flight. Until the last moment, the onboard equipment was mounted and reconfigured on the liner, and the control system, according to a number of information, in the process of these "fine adjustments" was brought into an abnormal state.
One way or another, but the machine, which was supposed to demonstrate to the whole world the successes of "developed socialism", collapsed in a Parisian suburb. It’s unpleasant, but okay: this didn’t prevent the liners from being put into trial operation on passenger routes.
However, on May 23, 1978, a second disaster occurs: in a test flight, an experienced Tu-144D makes an emergency landing on a field near Yegoryevsk. The plane caught fire in the air, but they managed to land it. Killed two crew members who could not leave the burning car.
According to the results of June 1, 1978 (that is, 35 years ago - here it is, the second "anniversary"), the operation of the Tu-144 on passenger routes was temporarily stopped. As it turned out - forever.
Head jump
The Tu-144 was a very interesting, but completely raw machine.
Thus, the wing structure was made of large panels, which instantly created problems of excessive local stresses due to inhomogeneities, and in addition, allowed cracks to propagate over long distances. It was also found that the stress level in the airframe exceeds the calculated one.
The NK-144A engines were a huge problem. Their technology could not be debugged in any way - they simply burned out. Then it turned out that the efficiency of these engines is such that the range specified in the terms of reference of 4000-4500 km under the maximum payload of 15 tons is not a dream - the limit turned out to be 3000 km. ("Concorde" with its 13 tons squeezed over 6200 km.)
The length of the route on the base route Tu-144 "Moscow - Alma-Ata" was 3260 km, and this was close to the limit of the vehicle's capabilities with the same number of passengers carried. The RD-36-51A engines were tested on the Tu-144D, and it was assumed that they would solve the problem with the range, but this project was never completed in the end. There was practically nowhere to land a car in the USSR; alternate airfields of potential routes were especially difficult.
Summing up, we can say that the Tu-144 was killed by two weaknesses: a tense structure and technological flaws, on the one hand, and the underdevelopment of the infrastructure for basing and operation, on the other.
Any of these problems could be dealt with with some will. And not such monstrous machines were brought to acceptable serial reliability. And even Russia's first traditional problem (infrastructure) also lends itself to persistent ones: in the end, the airfield network was rebuilt for the first Tu-104 turbojet airliner - and how many problems were there with its basing at an early stage ...
But the combination of two such difficulties at once, in the absence of a clearly expressed imperative for the introduction of supersonic civil aviation on the part of the relevant ministry and the Central Committee, sent the Tu-144 to perpetual joke.
No luck
One can argue - after all, if done in a human way, it will fly. Look, the "Concorde" flew with people for how many years, and we are worse?
Yes, nothing worse, especially if you remember how this "Concorde" flew. Both vehicles, the Tu-144 and the Concorde, faced their own set of difficulties.
The Soviet liner could, to a certain extent, give a damn about fuel efficiency and, in general, all kinds of market factors that impede rapid market entry (this always happens when a fundamentally new technical system appears, the development of which collapses already existing niches). But its development was restrained by technical miscalculations in the design, insufficient manufacturability, and mainly by a very narrow scope of application.
The Soviet Union could not find a sufficient number of long-distance interesting routes within the country for the Tu-144. Nobody would have given a Soviet liner access to the transatlantic route from Paris or London to New York, just as Western companies with Boeing would not have given the internal Soviet air transportation market.
(Even at this moment, let me remind you, our country is full of Boeings, but foreigners are still not allowed on domestic flights.) It would be difficult to integrate the Tu-144 into the great continental route Europe-Russia-Japan.
"Concorde" was well developed technologically, received an acceptable basing system, took root on the transatlantic routes, but "market factors" ate it. As a result, he surrendered to cheap and massive subsonic laborers, remaining a sort of curiosity that, on occasion, for a lot of money, can be rented for a special charter (and this also did not allow him to pay off).
As a result, when the liner crashed near Paris in 2000, the operators just did not breathe a sigh of relief - well, they say, now they can write it off with a clear conscience.
Children of the wrong future
John Tolkien once said, "It's easy to come up with a green sun; it's much more difficult to create a world in which it looks natural." Paraphrasing this maxim in the context of interest to us, we can say: creating a supersonic airliner is not as difficult as creating a supersonic civil aviation and the industry of the corresponding air transportation.
Because aviation is not only and even planes. These are airfields, rules and personnel. This is the market, finally. Supersonic aircraft required "supersonic infrastructure" to win the skies.
But the triumphant alternative amid the fuel crisis of the mid-1970s was those who were able to squeeze out tedious interest rates without overhauling the entire airline industry. You know them very well - all these long-haul subsonic Boeing vehicles squeezed the Concorde even from its native transatlantic route.
It turned out that they easily and cheaply do the right thing in a tolerable time. And speed is expensive. And the closer to our era, the more obvious the high speed of movement in physical space began to give way to the speed, reliability and bandwidth of communication channels. The world of the 1950s-1960s, understood as a constant increase in human mobility in space, gave way to a world in which, in general, it is not always necessary to move for high mobility.
The world of supersonic civil aviation is not our world with you, let's already be aware of this. Our world may still be different, but in its current form the Tu-144 and the Concorde in it, in general, have nothing to do, even if we solve all the technical problems and flood half the planet with cheap kerosene.
However, the 1970s were painfully unfortunate in order to break the mold on the knee and rebuild civil aviation.
Did not work out. Let now these impetuous beauties stand in museums and remind us that the future is multivariate, and its shadows whimsically fight in the present for human souls. So that later the owners of these souls with an important air would broadcast that everything happened the way it happened, because "it could not have been otherwise."
Tu-144, which was named Charger by NATO codification, is a supersonic Soviet passenger aircraft developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau.
Created in the 1960s, it became the first supersonic airliner to be operated by airlines for commercial air travel.
History of Tu-144
The first flight of the prototype Tu-144 was performed on 31.12.1968. During the creation, work was carried out simultaneously in two directions. The first meant the creation of an afterburner economical turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type, the second was aimed at improving the aerodynamic characteristics of the Tu-144.
As a result, they planned to get the assignment to achieve supersonic flight. In 1969, by the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers commission, a variant of the aircraft configuration with the RD-36-51 power plant was adopted.
In parallel, the MGA organization is making a decision to build six Tu-144s with more efficient NK-144A engines. Modernization with new engines met the requirements for the range of the first stage supersonic flight (4-4.5 thousand km), production models were planned to be equipped with RD-36-51 motors.
The first pre-production modernized Tu-144 aircraft began to be built in 1968 at the MMZ "Experience". According to the calculated data, the NK-144 engines could provide a supersonic flight range of 3275 km, and the NK-144A - 3500 km.
To improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the car, the wing was reshaped. The sweep degree was changed: along the leading edge it was 76 °, and on the base edge - 57 °. Unlike "044", the wing area was increased, intensive conical twist of the wing end parts was introduced. But the main thing that improved the aerodynamics was the change in the central part of the wing, which provided self-balancing in cruising speed modes. The changes affected the length of the fuselage, which could accommodate up to 150 passengers. The improvement of aerodynamic data was facilitated by the redesign of the shape of the nose of the fuselage. The twin engines, along with the nacelles, were pushed apart, thereby freeing up space in the lower fuselage. This arrangement entailed changes in the chassis system: the main landing gear was placed under the nacelles, the retraction took place inward between the air channels of the motors.
As a result of design improvements, an increase in fuel capacity and payload, the takeoff weight of the aircraft increased to 190 tons (in the 044 project this figure was 150 tons).
The first pre-production copy of the Tu-144 was produced in early 1971, and the first flight took place on 06/01/1971. According to the factory test program, 231 flights were carried out, 55 flight hours were performed in supersonic mode.
09/20/1972 the plane made a flight on the route Moscow - Tashkent, which was covered in 1 hour 50 minutes. During the flight, the cruising speed of the car reached 2500 km / h.
Serial production of the Tu-144 airliner was launched at the Voronezh Aviation Plant.
The serial model, which was equipped with NK-144A engines, was first taken into the air on 03/20/1972. Unlike the pre-production vehicle, the wing area was somewhat added, which entailed an increase in take-off weight to 195 tons.
06/03/1973 the first production aircraft crashed in front of 350 thousand spectators. The crew wanted to repeat the feat of the "Concorde", which had performed the "fighter" maneuver the day before - to fly over the runway and take off again. However, this was not done. Starting from an altitude of 1200 m, the plane suddenly began to dive and, only reaching 120 m above the ground, began to slowly rise. The overload far exceeded the permissible level, as a result of which the left wing first fell off, and then the tail compartment. The aircraft structure collapsed completely. The crash occurred near the small French town of Goossenville. As a result of the disaster, the entire crew of the liner and 7 local residents died, 28 people were injured.
The first passenger flight with the participation of the Tu-144 took place on October 1, 1977. Until May 1978, the aircraft operated 55 passenger and 47 cargo flights.
A total of 17 Tu-144 supersonic airliners were produced, 14 of which were produced in Voronezh. Passenger compartment equipment was ordered from the GDR. At the present time, two Tu-144 aircraft are kept in the Monino and Ulyanovsk aviation museums.
Design
Tu-144 is an all-metal low-wing aircraft, which was made according to the "tailless" scheme. The fuselage of the aircraft is made according to the semi-monocoque type and has a smooth working skin with stringers and a set of frames. The Tu-144 has a tricycle chassis, there is a nose pillar.
The power plant includes four turbojet engines NK-144A, in the modification of Tu-144D - non-afterburning RD-36-51A. Each of the motors has its own air intake. The location of the air intakes is in pairs. The nose landing gear retracts into the space of the forward fuselage between the air intakes.
Variable sweep aircraft wing. The wing skin is made of aluminum alloy sheets. Titanium elevons are located on the trailing edge. Together with the rudders, they perform deflection due to irreversible boosters. The cockpit is made movable like a "duck" to provide a better view during takeoff and landing of the aircraft.
Most of the fuel is stored in 18 wing tanks. A balance tank was placed in the rear of the fuselage. It receives fuel at the stage of transition from a subsonic speed regime to a supersonic one. The landing could be carried out at any time of the day and in any weather conditions. A new technical solution was the debut application in the history of Soviet aircraft construction on this aircraft of an automated system for monitoring the performance of on-board systems. This, in turn, reduced the time and labor intensity of machine maintenance.
Tu-144 aircraft were used not only as airliners. They were used during research on solar eclipses, the ozone layer, and focused sonic boom. These planes became centers for training cosmonauts who trained under the Buran program. In 1983, test pilot S.T. Agapov set thirteen world aviation records on the Tu-144D, which have not been broken until now.
Tu-144 characteristics:
aircraft length without LDPE - 64.45 m;
wingspan - 28.8 m;
aircraft height - 12.5 m;
wing area with overflow - 506.35 m2;
maximum takeoff weight - 207,000 kg;
weight of empty equipped aircraft for the variant for 150 passengers - 99200 kg;
cruising supersonic flight speed - 2120 km / h;
practical flight range, with payload:
7 tons (70 passengers) - 6200 km;
11-13 tons (110-130 passengers) - 5500-5700 km;
15 tons (150 passengers) - 5330 km.
Tu-144 video
Exactly 35 years ago, the aircraft Tu-144, which became the pride of our aviation industry, was decommissioned. The world's first (there were only two of them together with the Concorde) supersonic passenger aircraft. Another battle between the USSR and the capitalist world has sunk.
It seems that the battle was completely lost. During its operation, the Tu-144 made 102 commercial flights, of which 55 were passenger. In total, the Tu-144 carried 3284 passengers, which is on the scale of civil aviation, on the scale of the USSR, on a world scale, in general, about nothing. For comparison: the main competitor of the Tu-144 - Concorde - has transported over 2.5 million people during its operation.
But in any story there are nuances. It's worth talking about them.
The late 60s - early 70s of the last century were marked by an unprecedented flourishing of air traffic and civil aviation throughout the world. At the same time, simultaneously in Europe and the USSR, the idea of \u200b\u200busing supersonic machines for long-distance flights arose. In the first case, high speeds were needed in order to shorten the time of crossing the Atlantic between Europe and the United States; in the second, the huge expanses of the Soviet country played a decisive role, which it was also desirable to overcome as quickly as possible.
As a result, Europe and the USSR almost simultaneously began to develop unique supersonic airliners, conceptually similar, but structurally noticeably different from each other: Concorde and Tu-144.
Experts to this day argue about whether there was a "borrowing" of ideas, technologies and design solutions when creating these two unique aircraft. The French at one time very furiously tried to prove that the Tu-144 was "ripped off" from the Concorde, but all attempts ended in nothing. The cars were really different.
Of course, aircraft developers, as they say, looked towards competitors, but primarily proceeded from their own technical and technological capabilities. And in the USSR, unlike the French, who created the "Concorde" from scratch, there was something to rely on.
It is generally accepted that all promising samples of Soviet (and Russian) civilian technology, from trucks to supersonic aircraft, are based on completed or failed military models. And Tu-144 is no exception here.
The creation of a supersonic passenger aircraft was a "multi-pass" process, their developments were presented here by the design bureaus of Tupolev, Sukhoi and Myasishchev, who already had at that time not only theoretical developments in the field of creating large supersonic aircraft. And in the Tu-144, if desired, it was possible to find separate units and schemes from the M-50, T-4 and Tu-135.
Most of all, of course, the Tu-144 took from the unrealized project of the Tu-135 bomber and its passenger version Tu-135P. But there was no real flying military analogue of the Tu-144.
One way or another, in the 1950s, supersonic aircraft, including heavy ones, were already created. Therefore, there were not too many exceptional ideas in the project. Tu-144 has incorporated a lot of what was invented by the military. And we knew how to invent and build military aircraft. Fact.
Takeoff of the first Tu-144 from the VASO airfield.
The wings appeared only on the third copy. The first two samples did not have them
The main problem for aircraft manufacturers was that the supersonic surface would be very hot. And this problem must be solved not in relation to a small aircraft or bomber with a small crew, but to a huge passenger liner. Which should not only fly at great speed over long distances, but also provide the necessary comfort for passengers.
Crew workplaces.
Since I live in the city where all Tu-144s were born, it was almost not difficult to find the person who took part in its assembly and flight. I managed to talk to Irina Fedorovna Vyakhireva, who in those years worked for VASO as an electrical engineer. And several times she participated in test flights, controlling tens of kilometers of wiring and hundreds of aircraft servomotors. Including when flying at supersonic.
So, according to the memoirs of Irina Fedorovna, the noise during the flight was simply terrible, especially in the tail section. I had to yell in each other's ear, without exaggeration. The noise from the engines in the rear of the aircraft in the middle was compensated by the howl of the motors of the hull cooling system. And these problems were solved, starting with the first flight of the Tu-144, and we can say that in the end they were solved.
Passenger compartment 2nd class
Passenger compartment 1st class
Kitchen block
There were also more serious issues of handling throughout the entire speed range, as well as balancing the liner. So on the Tu-144, front wings appeared, which were used in take-off and landing modes. A deflectable nose cone was implemented, which improved visibility from the cockpit during takeoff and landing. Many of the latest developments have been applied in the automated control system, which provides automation of basic procedures. In any case, the Tu-144 was an outstanding achievement for the USSR in terms of technology, materials, avionics, and control systems.
It's a pity, but the Tu-144 was not destined to become a real conqueror of distances. The reason for this was the eternal headache of our aircraft industry: the engine.
The first version of the Tu-144 with NK-144A engines absolutely did not satisfy Aeroflot in terms of flight range - it could be operated on lines up to 4000 km long.
Therefore, the Tu-144 was used only on one regular line: Moscow-Alma-Ata. But even here the plane only had enough fuel "from threshold to threshold." The trouble was that if the Alma-Ata airport for some reason could not accept the aircraft, Tashkent remained the only alternate airfield capable of receiving the Tu-144. In the event of a closure due to weather conditions and it was simply nowhere to land the plane with passengers. It is not surprising that the pilots themselves compared flights on the Tu-144 with a "kiss with a tiger." And each Tu-144 flight to Alma-Ata and back turned into one continuous stress for the crews, dispatch services and aviation officials.
The T-144 received its first blow on June 3, 1973, at the Le Bourget air show. A very strange and tragic flight, which has not been fully investigated.
After performing a demonstration flight at low altitude and low speed, with the landing gear extended and the front wing, the Tu-144 makes a landing.
What happens next does not fit into the canons of common sense: in some two hundred meters above the ground, a strained howl of forced engines is heard, and the plane soars up with a candle, retracting the landing gear and front fenders on the move. When the altitude reaches about 1200 meters, for a split second, he goes into horizontal flight and ... falls into a sharp dive. Four seconds later, at an altitude of 750 meters, the Tu-144 is trying to get out of the dive and even release its front wings.
As it turns out later, the overload at the moment has reached a value of 4-4.5 units. The attempt to level the car continued for another four seconds. On the 5th second after the start of the dive at an altitude of 280 meters at a speed of 780 km / h, the left front wing cannot withstand the load. The solid-sized structure separates from the fuselage and hits the main wing, piercing the fuel tank. The fatally wounded car spins to the left, colossal overloads begin to tear the plane apart right in the air.
Debris engulfed in flames collapsed on the neighboring village of Goossenville, completely destroying five buildings and killing eight people. Another 25 people from those on the ground were seriously injured.
The crew of the aircraft, consisting of Mikhail Kozlov (commander), Valery Molchanov (2nd pilot), Vladimir Benderov (test leader), Anatoly Dralin (flight engineer), Georgy Bazhenov (navigator), Boris Pervukhin (lead test engineer) died completely.
The investigation, conducted by a joint Soviet-French commission, lasted more than a year, but the exact cause of the disaster could not be determined. The commission found that all aircraft systems were working properly. The only reason for the disaster, according to the members of the commission, could have been an attempt by the crew to steer the plane away from the alleged collision with the French reconnaissance aircraft Mirage III R, from which the Tu-144 was photographed and filmed.
The trajectories of the Tu-144 and Mirage did not intersect. The planes moved in the same direction and at different heights. However, according to the conclusions of the commission, the Soviet crew, unable to visually assess the direction of flight of the Mirage, could undertake a sharp evasive maneuver. At the same time, the test leader, who was standing in the Tu-144 cockpit with a movie camera, without being strapped in, could fall and block the pilot's actions.
"Sharp maneuver" performed by a 200-ton machine ... Hmmm ...
Nevertheless, work on the Tu-144 continued. The new engine modification made it possible to increase the flight range of the liner. Tu-144D was practically ready for operation on long-haul lines.
However, on May 23, 1978, a new Tu-144D disaster occurred. And not a prototype, but an aircraft intended for transfer to the Moscow - Khabarovsk line. During the flight, due to the destruction of the fuel line, the fuel ignited in the zone of the 3rd engine. The crew was forced to make an emergency landing on a field near Yegoryevsk near Moscow. A fire started. The crew commander, co-pilot and navigator left the plane through the cockpit window. The two onboard engineers climbed out through the front exit door. Two of their colleagues were less fortunate - being trapped in their seats when the plane fell, they could not get out of the plane and died in the fire.
On July 31, 1980, during a regular test flight of an aircraft with tail number 77113 in supersonic mode at an altitude of 16,000 meters, one of the engines was destroyed. The crew, with great difficulty, managed to get the car out of the dive and land.
The country's leadership really wanted to start commercial operation of the Tu-144D, since the prestige of the USSR as an advanced aviation power was at stake. Especially in light of the fact that the Concorde is firmly established on flights across the Atlantic.
The last attempt to put the Tu-144D on the line was made at the end of 1981. The plane was supposed to start flights on the route Moscow-Krasnoyarsk. But ... Another destruction of engines during ground tests, and regular flights had to be postponed. Forever and ever.
And after Brezhnev's death, the attitude towards the Tu-144 changed dramatically. Aeroflot tried with all its might to get rid of the plane, from which it had nothing but a headache. As a result, the Tu-144D was removed from passenger flights with an official conclusion about "bad impact on human health when crossing the sound barrier."
And yet the Tu-144 was not finally "merged". On the stocks of VASO in Voronezh, 4 of 5 aircraft were completed. The further fate of these aircraft is peculiar, and will allow me to put a rather optimistic end at the end.
The Tu-144 base was the airfield in Zhukovsky, where the aircraft were not only based, but even periodically flew. Tu-144D were used for delivery of urgent cargo and correspondence, as well as flying laboratories.
A modified Tu-144D with tail number 77114 called Tu-144LL (Flying Laboratory) was involved in the joint program of Roscosmos and NASA. The main goal of the research was to develop a plan for creating a supersonic passenger aircraft of the XXI century. When NASA played enough, in 1999 the research was curtailed.
Today, all the remaining Tu-144 (8 units) are in storage, or as museum pieces. Only copies of the Zhukovsky Tu-144D No. 77115, which is exhibited at MAKS and Tu-144LL No. 77114, can be brought to flight status.
It would seem that everything, the story is over. And it ended not in favor of the Tu-144, which lost the battle with the Concorde, which flew longer and longer, and carried a significant number of passengers. Yes, commercially, Concorde won.
However, work on the improvement of the Tu-144, and, in particular, the Tu-144K and Tu-144KP projects, made it possible to do what we have today.
The same year 1981 became the turning point. The year when the not-ascended star Tu-144 rolled. But exactly this year, on December 18, the sample "70-01" made its first flight. Test pilot Boris Veremey lifted into the air the first sample of what later became the "White Swan", the Tu-160.
There is something in common, isn't it?
The Tu-160 was based on the Tu-144 and the work carried out in the entire history of this aircraft.
Yes, the Tu-144 was an innovative aircraft. Engineers were not ready for its appearance, there were many difficulties with the ground infrastructure. But the "Concorde", which won the commercial competition Tu-144, is now becoming history, and it is unlikely that it will have any continuation. But the Tu-160, which has absorbed a lot from the Tu-144, still carries out its service to protect our peace and safety. And it still has no analogues.
And for some reason, the developers and creators of the Concorde did not even try to repeat what the Tupolevites did, moving from the Tu-144KP to the Tu-160. Do not, because it will not bring benefits? Maybe.
In any case, the question of whether or not we have lost the battle for supersonic for large aircraft is not as straightforward as it seems at first glance. A glance at the numbers of passengers transported and money earned.
And really, who won? Large aircraft capable of flying at supersonic speeds are now left only in Russia ...
