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The 'Tupolev Tu-144' (NATO reporting name: Charger) was the first supersonic transport aircraft (SST), constructed under the direction of the Soviet Tupolev design bureau headed by Alexei Tupolev (1925–2001).
Western observers nicknamed the plane ''Concordski'' (sometimes ''Konkordski''), sounding like a Russian surname yet still very close to the Concorde, to which the Tu-144 was visually similar. A prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two months before Concorde.
The Tu-144 first broke the sound barrier on 5 June 1969, and on 15 July 1969 it became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2, and the fastest commercial airliner ever.

Contents

Design and development

Operational service

Production

Post-production uses

Civil operators

Specifications (Tu-144LL with Kuznetsov NK-321 engines)

References

External links

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Design and development

The Soviets published the concept of the Tu-144 in an article in the January 1962 issue of the magazine ''Technology of the Air Transport''. The air ministry started development of the Tu-144 on 26 July 1963, following approval by the Council of Ministers ten days earlier. The plan called for five flying prototypes to be built in four years. The first aircraft was to be ready in 1966.
Although the Tu-144 flew before Concorde, its development was alleged to be connected with industrial espionage against the French company Aérospatiale, which was developing Concorde. When Sergei Pavlov —officially acting as Aeroflot’s representative in Paris—was arrested in 1965, he was in possession of detailed plans of the braking system, the landing gear and the airframe of Concorde. Another agent named Sergei Fabiew, who was arrested in 1977, was believed to have obtained the entire plans of the prototype Concorde back in the mid-1960s. However, even if this were to be confirmed, the documents were early development plans and would not have permitted the USSR's engineers to come up with their own aircraft; the plans could only serve as a general indication of the work of the Concorde design team. Moreover, Soviet aircraft designers in the 1960s had significant experience building delta-shaped aircraft, which proved an efficient means of achieving Mach 2, and TsAGI, of which Andrei Tupolev was a graduate, had developed extensive data about such designs. Classic examples of the period include the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 tailed delta and the Sukhoi Su-15^[1]
Despite the similarity of the Tu-144 to the Franco-British supersonic aircraft, there were significant differences in the control, navigation and engine systems. The Tu-144 was in some ways a more technologically advanced aircraft, although in areas such as range, aerodynamic sophistication, braking and engine control, it lagged behind Concorde. While Concorde utilized an electronic engine control package from Lucas, Tupolev was not permitted to purchase it for the TU-144. The Concorde's designers used the aircraft's fuel as a coolant for air conditioning the cabin and hydraulics (see Concorde#Heating issues for details); Tupolev installed additional equipment on the Tu-144 to accomplish this, which increased the airliner's weight. One important consequence was that, while the Concorde could supercruise, that is, maintain supersonic flight without using afterburners, the TU-144 could not.
Tupolev continued to work on the airplane. Many substantial upgrades and changes were made on the Tu-144 prototype (serial number ''68001'').
Another significant difference between Concorde and the Tu-144 is that the Tu-144 wing did not have the complex curves found on that of Concorde. Lacking the sophisticated wing, Tupolev instead relied on a simple but practical device: a small retractable canard surface on either side of the aircraft, close to the nose, to manoeuvre at low speeds. This brought the Tu-144's landing speed down to 170-180 knots - though still faster than Concorde's.^[2]
At the Paris Air Show on 3 June 1973, the development programme suffered a severe blow when the first 'Tu-144S' production aircraft (reg 77102) crashed. While in the air, it undertook a violent downwards manoeuvre. Trying to pull out of the subsequent dive, the plane broke up and crashed, destroying 15 houses and killing all six on board and eight on the ground.
The causes of this incident remain controversial to this day. A popular theory was that the Tu-144 was forced to avoid a French Mirage chase plane which was attempting to photograph its canards, which were very advanced for the time, and that the French and Soviet governments colluded with each other to cover up such details. The flight of the Mirage was denied in the original French report of the incident, perhaps because it was engaged in industrial espionage. More recent reports have admitted the existence of the Mirage, though not its role in the crash.^[3]
Another theory claims that the black box was actually recovered by the Soviets and decoded. The cause of this accident is now thought to be due to changes made by the ground engineering team to the auto-stabilisation input controls prior to the second day of display flights. These changes were intended to allow the Tu-144 to outperform Concorde in the display circuit. Unfortunately, the changes also inadvertently connected some factory-test wiring which resulted in an excessive rate of climb, leading to the stall and subsequent crash.
A third theory relates to deliberate misinformation on the part of the Anglo-French team. The main thrust of this theory was that the Anglo-French team knew that the Soviet team were planning to steal the design plans of Concorde, and the Soviets were allegedly passed false blueprints with a flawed design. The case contributed to the imprisonment by the Soviets of Greville Wynne in 1963 for spying^[4][5].

Operational service

The Tu-144S went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977 and ran a semi-scheduled service until the first Tu-144D experienced an in-flight failure during a pre-delivery test flight, and crash-landed with crew fatalities on 23 May 1978. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.
A scheduled Aeroflot freight-only service recommenced using the new production variant 'Tu-144D' aircraft on 23 June 1979, including longer routes from Moscow to Khabarovsk made possible by the more efficient RD-36-51 engines used in the Tu-144D version. Including the 55 passenger flights, there were 102 scheduled Aeroflot flights before the cessation of commercial service.
It is known that Aeroflot still continued to fly the Tu-144D after the official end of service, with some additional non-scheduled flights through the 1980s. One report showed that it was used on a flight from the Crimea to Kiev in 1987.

Production

A total of 16 airworthy Tu-144s were built: the prototype Tu-144 reg ''68001'', a pre-production Tu-144S reg ''77101'', nine production Tu-144S reg ''77102–110'', and five Tu-144D reg ''77111–115''. A seventeenth Tu-144 (reg ''77116'') was never completed. There was also at least one ground test airframe for static testing in parallel with the prototype ''68001'' development.
The Tu-144S model had Kuznetsov NK-144 turbofan engines, whereas the later Tu-144D model featured more powerful Koliesov RD-36-51 engines with better fuel efficiency (particularly during supercruise, not requiring afterburner) and longer range. Along with early Tu-134s, it was one of the last commercial airplanes with a braking parachute.
Models equipped with the NK-144 turbofan engines could not cruise at Mach 2 without the afterburner on. A maximum cruising speed of Mach 1.6 was possible on "dry" power (afterburner off).

Post-production uses

Although its last commercial passenger flight was in 1978, production of the Tu-144 did not cease until six years later, in 1984, when construction of the partially complete Tu-144D reg ''77116'' airframe was stopped. During the 1980s the last two production aircraft to fly were used for airborne laboratory testing, including research into ozone depletion at high altitudes.
In the early 1990s, a wealthy businesswoman, Judith DePaul, and her company IBP Aerospace negotiated an agreement with Tupolev and NASA, (also Rockwell and later Boeing). They offered a Tu-144 as a testbed for its High Speed Commercial Research program, intended to design a second-generation supersonic jetliner. In 1995, Tu-144D [reg 77114] built in 1981 (but with only 82 hours and 40 minutes total flight time) was taken out of storage and after extensive modification at a total cost of US$350 million was designated the 'Tu-144LL' (where LL is an abbreviation for Flying Laboratory). It made a total of 27 flights in 1996 and 1997. In 1999, though regarded as a success, the project was cancelled for lack of funding.
The Tu-144LL was reportedly sold in June 2001 for $11 million via online auction, but the plane did not sell after all — Tejavia reported in September 2003 that the deal was not signed. The replacement Kuznetsov NK-321 engines (from the Tupolev Tu-160 bomber) are military items and the Russian government would not allow them to be exported.
At the 2005 - Moscow Air & Space Show TEJAVIA founder Randall Stephens found the Kuznetsov NK-321 engine on display, and the Tu-144LL rusting on Tupolev's test base at the Gromov Flight Test Center. In late 2003, with the retirement of Concorde, there was renewed interest from several wealthy individuals who wanted to use the Tu-144LL for a transatlantic record attempt; but Stephens advised them of the high cost of a flight readiness overhaul even if military authorities would authorize the use of NK-321 engines outside Russian Federation airspace.
The last two production aircraft remain at the Tupolev production plant in Zhukovsky, reg ''77114'' and ''77115''. In March 2006, it was announced that these airframes had been sold for scrap (Article from Aviapedia). Later that year, however, it was reported that both aircraft would instead be preserved.[1]. One of them could be erected to a pedestal near Zhukovsky City Council and TsAGI.
Currently, both aircraft are located on the open air parkings at LII aircraft testing facility, Zhukovsky. They are constantly used on MAKS Airshows.
The only Tu-144 on display outside the former Soviet Union was acquired by the Auto & Technikmuseum Sinsheim in Germany, where it was shipped — not flown — in 2001 and where it now stands, in its original Aeroflot livery, on display next to an Air France Concorde.

Civil operators

★ Aeroflot

Specifications (Tu-144LL with Kuznetsov NK-321 engines)

These are the specification for the Tu-144LL with military spec turbofan engines. These engines were non export items.

References

1. Moon 1989
2. Ground-Effect Characteristics of the Tu-144 Supersonic Transport Airplane
3. Nova, "Supersonic Spies," PBS Airdate: January 27, 1998.
4. Wynne 1983
5. Wright and Greenglass 1987


★ Gordon, Yefim. ''Tupolev Tu-144''. London: Midland, 2006. ISBN 1-85780-216-0.

★ Kandalov, Andrei and Duffy, Paul. ''Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft: The Man and His Aircraft''. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1996. ISBN 1-56091-899-3.

★ Moon, Howard. ''Soviet SST: The Technopolitics of the Tupolev-144''. Orion Books, 1989. ISBN 051756601X.

★ Wright, Peter and Greengrass, Paul. ''Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer''. London: Viking, 1987. ISBN 0-67082-055-5.

★ Wynne, Greville. ''The Man from Odessa''. Dublin: Warnock Books, 1983. ISBN 0-58605-709-9.

★ Taylor, John W.R. ''Jane's Pocket Book of Commercial Transport Aircraft'' New York: Macmillan, 1974. ISBN 12-080480-6.

External links

★ TU-144 SST index

★ Tupolev TU-144 page

★ TU-144 history overview

★ Auto + Technik Museum Sinsheim

★ List of Tu-144s with eventual fate

★ NASA video clip

★ Info on Paris crash

★ Video of Paris crash

★ Stats

★ Transcript of PBS NOVA episode "Supersonic Spies", aired January 27, 1998

★ Archive footage of Soviet Tupolev design bureau

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