Celebrating the world’s first commercial supersonic transport aircraft: the Tupolev Tu-144
Arvind Chandrasekhar
Aviation strategy & commercial expert | Head of Network & Fleet | Consulting | Leadership | Training | Lufthansa Consulting
There has been a lot of buzz about supersonic passenger transport in recent months, boosted by news of United Airlines’ order with Boom Supersonic for its Overture airliner . (The jury is still out on whether this represents a genuine investment in the future of aviation or merely good PR, given that United is in no way locked into any firm order of an aircraft type that has a LONG way to go in its development cycle.)
When we think of the field of supersonic transport (SST), the Concorde is, very understandably, what comes to mind. It captivated aviation enthusiasts and the general public at large over its period of scheduled passenger operations from 1976-2003, and remains the inspiration for future developments in the industry.
However, the Concorde wasn’t the first SST to launch commercial service. That honour goes to the Tupolev Tu-144, from the famed Russian aircraft manufacturer JSC Tupolev. Named, of course, for one of the pioneers in the country’s aeronautical history, Andrei Tupolev.
And this weekend – specifically, 26 June – marked the anniversary of the Tu-144’s last flight in 1999.
The beginning
As was the case with many spheres of technology in the Cold War era, the Soviet Union and the Western world (largely Europe and the USA) were racing to be the first to make supersonic transport a reality. The aviation industry had already seen rapid developments in aircraft capabilities after the Second World War, including increasingly higher speed; breaking the sound barrier was seen as one of the next major peaks to conquer.
In November 1962, France and Britain entered into an agreement to develop an SST – what would eventually become the Concorde program. That prompted a response within the Soviet establishment. The Soviets had already proven their capabilities in passenger jet transport with the introduction of the Tu-104 in the 1950s. Now, Andrei Tupolev appointed his son Alexei to oversee the development and production of their home-grown SST. Work proceeded at breakneck speed, with the best minds in the country redirected to this prestigious project. (Note, this was undertaken in parallel to the ongoing space race.)
At the Paris Air Show in 1965, the Soviet representatives announced that the test flight would take place in 1968 – timed to just beat the Concorde to the skies.
Interestingly, the design of the Tu-144 was so similar to the Concorde that the western press dubbed it the ‘Concordski.’ Rumours swirled about Soviet espionage to steal the Concord's design blueprints, but the Soviets refuted that, insisting that the similarities were due to the basic principles of the aerodynamics of supersonic flight.
After a six year development process, the aircraft was ready in mid-1968. On 31 December 1968, merely hours before the end of the announced timeline for the first flight, the Tu-144 took to the skies from Zhukovsky test base. Six months later, it flew at supersonic speed for the first time.
Crucially for the Soviet Government, the Tu-144 beat the Concorde on both counts – by about 60 days for the first flight, and four months for the first supersonic flight.
Aeroflot, the national carrier of the Soviet Union, signed on to operate passenger flights once approved, and the program looked set to triumph in the 1970s.
The launch
Unfortunately, the successes in 1968/69 were about as good as it got for the Tu-144 against its high profile Western competition, as both sought to bring their aircraft to the point of reliably flying passengers on commercial services.
At the Paris Air Show in 1973, the Concorde and the Tu-144 went head-to-head (figuratively) to wow the world. Unfortunately, during its routine, the Tu-144 broke up mid-air and crashed into a nearby village with 13 fatalities on board and on the ground. The crash is widely seen as a result of the pilots attempting manoeuvres that pushed the airframe beyond its stress limits, although there is a competing theory that the aircraft was forced to swerve to avoid a French Mirage aircraft filming the event. The crash in Paris was a major blow to the Tu-144 program, pushing back timelines for scheduled flights while modifications were made to the design. It also dampened Aeroflot’s enthusiasm for the aircraft, although production proceeded.
As development continued, it also became apparent that the fuel efficiency was as much as 40% worse than had initially been assumed, significantly impacting the range and viability of the aircraft.
The aircraft finally launched passenger services on 1 November 1977, 22 months after the Concorde. This was a highly muted affair; service was limited to the route between Moscow and Alma Ata (Almaty in modern day Kazakhstan). This was far eclipsed by the Concorde’s truly global destinations – London, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, Bahrain and Washington DC, soon to be followed by New York, Singapore and more.
The end of passenger flights
In reality, the Tu-144 passenger SST program never really achieved sustainable service. The aircraft proved to be highly unreliable from a maintenance perspective, with flights regularly cancelled due to technical concerns. Eventually, another fatal crash – this one, an emergency landing at Moscow due to an in-flight fire during a test flight of the (more stable) Tu-144D variant – hastened the end.
The aircraft was also found to be incredibly noisy, in part due to its use of afterburners throughout the supersonic phase of the flight; as an NYT contributor snarkily titled his report on the Tu-144 in 1977, “Soviet SST Takes Off in Moscow — And You Almost Hear It in Queens.”
Finally, the highly limited use of the aircraft on the Moscow – Alma Ata route due to technical, environmental/noise and political concerns never really allowed the program to achieve meaningful scale.
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The airline operated its final passenger service on 1 June 1978. In all, the aircraft only flew a dismal 55 round trips in total. With 133 seats in each aircraft (122 economy, 11 first-class), it only carried ~3200 passengers over its lifetime.
In the words of Andrei Kandalov, who worked in the Soviet Aviation Industry design bureau for fifty-four years, in his book about Tupolev, “…the reason the Tu-144 did not succeed had nothing to do with the aircraft or its teething problems. It was that political support for the SST had started to fade after the Paris accident. Aeroflot used the second accident as an excuse to stop services on an aircraft it had never actually operated.”
The final years
The end of passenger services in 1978 didn’t mark the end of the program itself. Tupolev continued to produce more Tu-144 airframes until 1982, and the program was officially cancelled by Government decree only in 1983.
However, the aircraft continued to be used on an irregular basis for research purposes, including training for space missions and high-altitude research.
The Tu-144 received a surprising new lease of life in the 1993. In November of that year, Tupolev signed an agreement with a group of multinational corporations and research institutes to make a Tu-144 airworthy in order to serve as a Flying Laboratory for the development of a future US supersonic transport. The partners included NASA, Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Rockwell and others.
Tupolev Tu-144LL Flying Laboratory | Source: NASA
Twenty seven research flights were conducted over a two year period, and the project was reported to be a great success and a model for cooperation between the USA and Russia in the field of advanced technologies. In its description of the project, NASA notes, “The grace and beauty of the airplane masked the very extensive amount of effort that was required by Tupolev to re-engine it for the research flights.” The program was cancelled in 1999 as it was determined that an economically viable SST could not be developed in the near future.
The Tupolev Tu-144, the bearer of the Soviet Union’s SST dreams, made its final flight on 26 June 1999.
The aircraft today
It appears eight (perhaps nine?) of the 16 completely produced Tu-144 aircraft produced still exist today. Most are on display in museums or public spaces in Russia - in Monino, Samara, Kazan, Ulyanovsk and the Zhukovsky Air Base.
The only Tu-144 outside Russia is at the Technik Museum Sinsheim in Germany. It is a particularly unique museum for fans of supersonic aviation, as it is the only location in the world to host both a Concorde and a Tupolev Tu-144.
Source: Technik Museum Sinsheim
The future
The Tu-144 program was clearly not a success, either technically or commercially. However, the aircraft remains a marvelous piece of technology and engineering, and a great example of the type of innovation and development that the Cold War drove. It is also an element of a key chapter in aviation history, as the Soviet Union and Britain/France pushed each other to expand the limits of high-speed passenger air travel and make supersonic travel a reality.
Will we see supersonic passenger transport again any time in the near future? Perhaps...
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3 年Thanks for sharing and reviving memories !