Ту-144: История советского сверхзвукового лайнера

Soviet supersonic passenger airliner

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The Tu 144 programme was cancelled by a Soviet government decree on 1 July 1983 that also provided for future use of the remaining Tu 144 aircraft as airborne laboratories. In 1985, Tu 144D were used to train pilots for the Soviet Buran space shuttle. In 1986–1988 Tu 144D No. 77114, built in 1981, was used for medical and biological research of high altitude atmosphere radiological conditions. Further research was planned but not completed, due to lack of funding. In 1995, Tu 144D No. 77114 (with only 82.5 hours of flight time) was taken out of storage and after extensive modification at a cost of US$350million, designated the Tu 144LL (where LL is a Russian abbreviation for Flying Laboratory, Летающая Лаборатория, Letayushchaya Laboratoriya). The aircraft made 27 flights in Russia during 1996 and 1997. In 2003, after the retirement of Concorde, there was renewed interest from several wealthy individuals who wanted to use the Tu 144LL for a transatlantic record attempt, despite the high cost of a flight readiness overhaul even if military authorities would authorize the use of NK 321 engines outside Russian Federation airspace.

Only one commercial route, Moscow to Alma Ata (now Almaty), was ever used and flights were limited to one a week, despite there being eight Tu 144S certified aircraft available and a number of other routes suitable for supersonic flights, suggesting that the Aeroflot decision makers had little confidence in the Tu 144 commercial viability when passenger service began in 1977. Soviet approaches were also reported in British mainstream press of the time, such as the Daily Mirror.

On 31 August 1980, Tu 144D (77113) suffered an uncontained compressor disc failure in supersonic flight which damaged part of the airframe structure and systems. The crew was able to perform an emergency landing at Engels 2 strategic bomber base. On 12 November 1981, a Tu 144D's RD 36 51 engine was destroyed during bench tests, leading to a temporary suspension of all Tu 144D flights.

Global trends facilitated the transition of jet transportation from a luxury available only to the elite, to a widespread form of mass transportation. Although the oil price surge of the 1970s did not directly impact decision making processes within the Soviet Union, the expansion of Soviet air travel in the late 1970s made the supply of aviation fuel a growth constraint. Subsequently, the Tupolev Tu 144 was replaced by the Ilyushin Il 86, an efficient jumbo jet that went on to become the flagship airliner of the Soviet Union. The rushed introduction to service of poorly tested aircraft happened previously with another Tupolev project that had high political visibility and prestige: the Tu 104 passenger jet liner was the first successful Soviet passenger jet in service. In a decision making similar to the Tu 144 story, the Soviet government introduced the Tu 104 into passenger service before satisfactory stability and controllability had been achieved. During high altitude and high speed flight the aircraft was prone to longitudinal instability, and also at high altitudes, it had a narrow range of angle of attack separating the aircraft from stalls known as coffin corner. These problems created the preconditions for spin dives, that happened twice before the Tu 104 was eventually properly tested and the problem was resolved.

Fridlyander points out that in addition to the Tu 144, Tupolev's bureau had to work on other projects, including the Tu 154 passenger aircraft and the Tu 22M bomber. Despite large and high priority resource investment in the Tu 144 development programme and the fact that a large part of the whole Soviet R&D infrastructure was subordinated to the Tu 144 project, parallel project development overwhelmed the bureau causing it to lose focus and make design errors. These records established an altitude of with a range of loads up to 30 tonnes, and a sustained speed of over a closed circuit of up to with similar loads. To put the numbers in perspective, Concorde's service ceiling under a typical Transatlantic flight payload of 10 tonnes is ,#tag:ref|The actual altitude of the regular Concorde flight depends on the state of troposphere, which in turn depends on latitude of the flight. Concorde flights across the tropical region is 60,000 ft, with flights across North Atlantic at only 56–58,000 ft to ensure the most economic service.

While several Tu 144s were donated to museums in Moscow Monino, Samara and Ulyanovsk, at least two Tu 144D remained in open storage in Moscow Zhukovsky. As of June 2010, two aircraft (tail numbers СССР 77114 and СССР 77115) are located outdoors at Gromov Flight Research Institute, Zhukovsky (at coordinates and ). Previously, they were displayed at MAKS Airshows. Tail number 77115 was bought in 2005 by the Heros Club of Zhukovsky and still on display at MAKS as of 2019. In 2019, tail number 77114 was repainted in Aeroflot livery and put on display in front of the Gromov Flight Research institute main gate. A Tu 144S, registration СССР 77106, is on display at Central Air Force Museum of Russia in Monino. Its maiden flight was on 4 March 1975, the final one on 29 February 1980. The aircraft was used to assess the effectiveness of the air conditioning systems and to solve some problems on the fuel system. It can be considered the first production aircraft, being the first to be equipped for commercial use and delivered to Aeroflot. The first operational flight was on 26 December 1975 between Moscow and Alma Ata carrying cargo and mail. Another Tu 144, tail number СССР 77107, is on open display in Kazan and located at The aircraft was constructed in 1975 and was a production model intended for passenger use. However, it was only used during test flights. On 29 March 1976 it made its last flight to Kazan. This aircraft was put on sale on eBay in 2017. TU 144S, tail number СССР 77108, is on display in the museum of Samara State Aerospace University It made its maiden flight on 12 December 1975, and its final flight on 27 August 1987. Development works on navigation system were made in this aircraft as well as flight director approach. TU 144S, tail number СССР 77110, is on display at the Museum of Civil Aviation in Ulyanovsk. Maiden flight occurred on 14 February 1977, the final Flight on 1 June 1984. This aircraft was the second of the two aircraft used for regular passengers' flights on Moscow – Alma Ata route. In 1977 it flew to Paris to take part in the XXXII Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport. This was the last appearance of a Tu 144 in West Europe. СССР 77110 was the last aircraft produced of the model Tu 144S, powered with Kuznetsov NK 144A engines. In the first half of 2008 the cabin was open for visits and between August and September was restored and painted in the original Aeroflot livery. The only Tu 144 on display outside the former Soviet Union, tail number СССР 77112, 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. As of 2017, the Technikmuseum Sinsheim remains the only museum in the world where the Tu 144 and Concorde are on display together.

At the Paris Air Show on 3 June 1973, the development program of the Tu 144 suffered severely when the first Tu 144S production airliner (reg 77102) crashed. At the end of the officially approved demonstration flight, which was an exact repeat of the previous day's display, instead of landing as expected the aircraft entered a very steep climb before making a violent downwards manoeuvre. On impact, the nose cone collapsed under the fuselage, penetrating the compartment in which two flight engineers were seated, killing both. It was later determined that, 27 minutes prior to the ignition, a fuel line had ruptured, causing eight tons of fuel to leak into several compartments on the right wing. The fuel readings were judged incorrect by the flight engineers and thus were not reported to the commander. In addition to the two flight engineers killed on impact, six other crewmembers were injured. The Tu 144 was withdrawn from passenger service soon afterward, though a 2019 post mortem by CNN reported that it was already "on its way out" before then.