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Tupolev Tu-144

Tu-144
Tu-144 prototype in flight on 1 February 1969
General information
TypeSupersonic airliner
National originSoviet Union
ManufacturerVoronezh Aircraft Production Association
DesignerTupolev OKB
StatusRetired from passenger service (1978)
Retired from commercial service (1983)
Retired (1999)
Primary usersAeroflot
Number built16
History
Manufactured1967–1983
Introduction date26 December 1975[1]: 76 
First flight31 December 1968[1]: 76 

The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev in operation from 1968 to 1999.[2]

The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft with its prototype's maiden flight from Zhukovsky Airport on 31 December 1968, two months before the British-French Concorde.[1]: 76 [3] The Tu-144 was a product of the Tupolev Design Bureau, an OKB headed by aeronautics pioneer Aleksey Tupolev, and 16 aircraft were manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh.[1][page needed] The Tu-144 conducted 102 commercial flights, of which only 55 carried passengers, at an average service altitude of 16,000 metres (52,000 ft) and cruised at a speed of around 2,200 kilometres per hour (1,400 mph) (Mach 2).[4][5] The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969, four months before Concorde, and on 26 May 1970 became the world's first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.[5]

Reliability and developmental issues restricted the viability of the Tu-144 for regular use; these factors, together with repercussions of the 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash, projections of high operating costs, and rising fuel prices and environmental concerns outside the Soviet Union, caused foreign customer interest to wane.[6] The Tu-144 was introduced into commercial service with Aeroflot between Moscow and Alma-Ata on 26 December 1975 and starting 1 November 1977 passenger flights began; it was withdrawn less than seven months later after a new Tu-144 variant crash-landed during a test flight on 23 May 1978. The Tu-144 remained in commercial service as a cargo aircraft until the cancellation of the Tu-144 program in 1983. The Tu-144 was later used by the Soviet space program to train pilots of the Buran spacecraft, and by NASA for supersonic research until 1999. The Tu-144 made its final flight on 26 June 1999 and surviving aircraft were put on display in Russia, the former Soviet Union and Germany, or into storage.

  1. ^ a b c d Gordon, Yefim; Rigmant, Vladimir (2005). Tupolev Tu-144. Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK: Midland. ISBN 978-1-85780-216-0.
  2. ^ Prisco, Jacopo (28 September 2017). "How the Soviet Concorde crashed and burned". CNN Style. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  3. ^ David Kaminski-Morrow (31 December 2018). "Retrospective: Tu-144 beats Concorde to first flight". FlightGlobal. Reed Business Information Limited. Archived from the original on 14 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  4. ^ Dowling, Stephen (18 October 2017). "The Soviet Union's flawed rival to Concorde". BBC. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 7 August 2019.
  5. ^ a b "Tu-144 – Туполев" [Tu-144 – Tupolev]. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  6. ^ Moon 1989, pp. 168–170.

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