Competition
In July 1963 the Russian government responded to Anglo-French plans for a supersonic airliner and commenced its own supersonic transport project. The British and French companies had undertaken many years of research and the Russian project needed quickly to gain lost ground. It is widely reported that Russian spies engaged in industrial espionage and obtained blueprints and information on the Anglo-French Concorde project from the offices of Aerospatiale in Paris. Indeed, the Russian SST was nicknamed Concordski in the popular press for her visual similarity to Concorde.
The Russian project was undertaken by the Russian aircraft manufacturer Tupolev, who designated the aircraft the Tu-144. The engines - designated NK-144 - were manufactured by the Kuznetsov Opytnoe Konstructorskoe Byuro or Experimental Design Bureau.
On 31st December 1968, the Tupolev Tu-144 made its maiden flight, a little over two months before the Anglo-French Concorde took to the skies. The Tu-144 first broke the sound barrier on 5th June 1969 some four months ahead of Concorde. On 15th July 1969 the Tu-144 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2, more than five months before Concorde achieved the same feat.
However, in being the first supersonic project to achieve flight the shorter gestation of the project meant the aircraft was unrefined and underpowered. The design of the Tu-144 saw her delta wing optimised for supersonic flight which meant at subsonic speeds, including landings and take-offs, that the aircraft was subject to instability. Her engines were not powerful enough to maintain supersonic flight without using afterburners (an afterburner injects fuel into the path of the hot exhaust gases to provide extra thrust, but prolonged use will decrease fuel efficiency).
There were three version designations of the aircraft. The first, the Tu-144 (No 68001), was the sole prototype aircraft. Introduced from 1971, some ten Tu-144s aircraft were produced in the second phase of the aircraft development. The design of these aircraft saw substantial revisions to the original design, including a longer fuselage and modified wing. The Tu-144 design saw the engines fitted in one housing positioned centrally beneath the fuselage; in the Tu-144s these were fitted in two separate housings beneath each wing. The engines of the Tu-144s were also more powerful than those on the Tu-144. To assist with lift and manoeuvrability at subsonic speeds, retractable canards were incorporated into the design; these would prove the Tu-144's trademark feature. The final version - the Tu-144d - was produced from 1974 onwards. Six Tu-144d aircraft were built, featuring a yet larger fuselage, further refinements to her aerodynamics and significantly more powerful engines which effectively doubled the flying range of the aircraft.
However, the commercial potential of the Tu-144 project was never realised due to a series of fatal accidents. In June 1973 both the Anglo-French Concorde and Russian Tu-144 were present at the Paris Air Show and each would perform during the show. On 3rd June CCCP-77102, a pre-production Tu-144s, took to the sky. The circumstances or the crash are still subject to conjecture and rumour to this date; in the event, for some reason 77102 entered a steep dive. Her crew were unable to regain control and the airframe broke up under the immense forces. The six members of her crew and eight people on the ground in the village of Goussainville died.
The Tu-144 would never recover from such a public failure. Seemingly undaunted, the project continued, the D-specification was introduced and Tu-144 aircraft were tested carrying mail and freight prior to commercial flight with the national airline, Aeroflot. The aircraft first flew with commercial passengers on 1st November 1977, flying between Moscow and Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan. However, on 23rd May 1978 the first production Tu-144d - 77111 - suffered a massive fuel leak and engine fire in-flight. In a failed emergency landing two crew members died in the resultant crash.
It was one more accident too many; the last commercial Tu-144 flight took place on 1st June 1978 after just 102 passenger flights. The final aircraft, 77116 remained incomplete at the Voronezh Aircraft Factory. The two proceeding aircraft, 77114 and 7715 were used for on-going developments and aircraft production technically continued until 1984.
Between November 1996 and February 1998 a modified Tu-144 flew twenty-seven research flights in a co-operation between the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Tupolev. Some fifteen years after 77114 had been built she once again saw service, flying with newly installed NK-321 engines. The aircraft was specially designated as a Tu-144LL (Letnoye Laboratoriya or airborne laboratory) and was used to assess the potential for a second-generation supersonic transport.
Ultimately the Tu-144 project was a commercial failure, dogged by politics, design problems and accidents and demonstrates the immense complexities of supersonic transport.
However, the achievements of the Tu-144 project should not be underestimated. In America, Boeing and Lockheed, submitted proposals to a government competition. The competition and financial assistance were won by Boeing but by 1971, with escalating costs, government funding for the project was withdrawn. A full-scale mock-up was constructed but no working prototype was built.
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