Ту-154: История советского авиалайнера

Airliner by Tupolev

The Tupolev Tu 154 (Tyполев Ту 154; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three engined, medium range, narrow body airliner designed in the mid 1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, it carried half of all passengers flown by Aeroflot and its subsidiaries (137.5 million/year or 243.8 billion passenger km in 1990), remaining the standard domestic route airliner of Russia and former Soviet states until the mid 2000s. It was exported to 17 non Russian airlines and used as a head of state transport by the air forces of several countries. The aircraft has a cruising speed of and a range of Capable of operating from unpaved and gravel airfields with only basic facilities, it was widely used in the extreme Arctic conditions of Russia's northern/eastern regions, where other airliners were unable to operate. Originally designed for a 45,000 hour service life (18,000 cycles), but capable of 80,000 hours with upgrades, it was expected to continue in service until 2016, although noise regulations have restricted flights to Western Europe and other regions.

The Tu 154 was developed to meet Aeroflot's requirement to replace the jet powered Tu 104 and the Antonov An 10 and Ilyushin Il 18 turboprops. The requirements called for either a payload capacity of with a range of while cruising at , or a payload of with a range of while cruising at A take off distance of at maximum takeoff weight was also stipulated as a requirement. Conceptually similar to the British Hawker Siddeley Trident, which first flew in 1962, and the American Boeing 727, which first flew in 1963, the medium range Tu 154 was marketed by Tupolev at the same time as Ilyushin was marketing its long range Ilyushin Il 62. The Soviet Ministry of Aircraft Industry chose the Tu 154, as it incorporated the latest in Soviet aircraft design and best met Aeroflot's anticipated requirements for the 1970s and 1980s. The first project chief was Егер, Сергей Михайлович; in 1964, Марков, Дмитрий Сергеевич (авиаконструктор) assumed that position. In 1975, the project lead role was turned over to Шенгардт, Александр Сергеевич. The Tu 154 first flew on 4 October 1968. The first deliveries to Aeroflot were in 1970 with freight (mail) services beginning in May 1971 and passenger services in February 1972. Limited production of the 154M model was still occurring as of January 2009, despite previous announcements of the end of production in 2006. In total, 1025 Tu 154s have been built, 214 of which were still in service as of 14 December 2009. The last serial Tu 154 was delivered to the Russian Defense Ministry on 19 February 2013 from the Aviakor factory, equipped with upgraded avionics, a VIP interior, and a communications suite. The factory has four unfinished airframes in its inventory, which can be completed if new orders are received.

The Tu 154 is powered by three rear mounted, low bypass turbofan engines arranged similarly to those of the Boeing 727, but it is slightly larger than its American counterpart. Both the 727 and the Tu 154 use an S duct for the middle (number two) engine. The original model was equipped with Kuznetsov NK 8 2 engines, which were replaced with Soloviev D 30KU 154s in the Tu 154M. All Tu 154 aircraft models have a relatively high thrust to weight ratio, giving the type excellent performance, though at the expense of lower fuel efficiency. This became an important factor in later decades as fuel costs grew. The cockpit is fitted with conventional dual yoke control columns. Flight control surfaces are hydraulically operated. The cabin of the Tu 154, although of the same six abreast seating layout, gives the impression of an oval interior, with a lower ceiling than is common on Boeing and Airbus airliners. The passenger cabin accommodates 128 passengers in a two class layout and 164 passengers in single class layout, and up to 180 passengers in high density layout. The layout can be modified to a winter version where some seats are taken out and a wardrobe is installed for passenger coats. The passenger doors are smaller than on its Boeing and Airbus counterparts. Luggage space in the overhead compartments is very limited. Like the Tupolev Tu 134, the Tu 154 has a wing swept back at 35° at the quarter chord line. The British Hawker Siddeley Trident has the same sweepback angle, while the Boeing 727 has a slightly smaller sweepback angle of 32°. The wing also has anhedral (downward sweep) which is a distinguishing feature of Russian low wing airliners designed during this era. Most Western low wing airliners such as the contemporary Boeing 727 have dihedral (upward sweep). The anhedral means that Russian airliners have poor lateral stability compared to their Western counterparts, but also are more resistant to Dutch roll tendencies. Considerably heavier than its predecessor Soviet built airliner, the Ilyushin Il 18, the Tu 154 was equipped with an oversized landing gear to reduce ground load, enabling it to operate from the same runways. The aircraft has two six wheel main bogies fitted with large, low pressure tires that retract into pods extending from the trailing edges of the wings (a common Tupolev feature), plus a two wheel nose gear unit. Soft oleo struts (shock absorbers) provide a much smoother ride on bumpy airfields than most airliners, which very rarely operate on such poor surfaces. The original requirement was to have a three person flight crew – captain, first officer, and flight engineer – as opposed to a four or five person crew, as on other Soviet airliners. A fourth crew member, a navigator, was soon found to be still needed, and a seat was added on production aircraft, although that workstation was compromised due to the limitations of the original design. Navigators are no longer trained, and this profession is becoming obsolete with the retirement of the oldest Soviet era planes. The latest variant (Tu 154M 100, introduced 1998) includes an NVU B3 Doppler navigation system, a triple autopilot, which provides an automatic ILS approach according to ICAO category II weather minima, an autothrottle, a Doppler drift and speed measure system, and a "Kurs MP" radio navigation suite. A stability and control augmentation system improves handling characteristics during manual flight. Modern upgrades normally include modernised TCAS, GPS, and other systems (mostly American or EU made). Early versions of the Tu 154 cannot be modified to meet the current Stage III noise regulations, so are no longer allowed to fly into airspace where such regulations are enforced, such as the European Union, but the Tu 154M's D 30 engines can be fitted with hush kits, allowing them to meet noise regulations.

In January 2010 Russian flag carrier Aeroflot announced the retirement of its Tu 154 fleet after 40 years, with the last scheduled flight being Aeroflot Flight 736 from Yekaterinburg to Moscow on 31 December 2009. In December 2010, Uzbekistan Airways also declared that it was retiring its Tu 154s. In February 2011, all remaining Iranian Tu 154s were grounded after two incidents. On 27 December 2016, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced that it had grounded all of its Tu 154s until the end of the investigation into the December 2016 crash of a 1983 Tupolev Tu 154. This was followed by the grounding of all Tu 154s in Russia. The Tu 154 had crashed into the Black Sea just after takeoff from Sochi, Russia, on 25 December 2016 killing all 92 people on board, including 64 members of the Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces.

MeasurementTu 154B 2Tu 154MCockpit crew 5(Tu 154B) 3(Tu 154M)Seating capacity 114–180Length Wingspan Wing area Height Cabin width MTOW Empty weight Maximum speed (Mach 0.86)Range fully loaded Range with max fuel Service ceiling Engine (x 3) Kuznetsov NK 8 2U Soloviev D 30KU 154Max. thrust (x 3) each eachMax. fuel capacity

Air Crew is the 1979 action film revolving around the exploits of a Soviet Tu 154 crew on an international flight, the first Soviet film in the disaster genre.