In the history of supersonic passenger flights, two aircraft stole all eyes. On the one hand, the mythical concord from Aérospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation (BAC); on the other, the Tu-144 from Tupolev. The latter’s history was rife with spices that, even today, continue to generate a lot of interest among aviation fans.
The Tupolev Tu-144 beat the Concorde on two points that are anecdotal today, but at the time they were seen as great victories for the USSR over the West. The Soviet prototype first flew two months before its Anglo-French rival, and was also the first of the two to fly at supersonic speeds. However, his successes in this career stopped there.
While the Concorde never reached the number of routes and airlines originally intended, it did have a much more distinguished service history than its Russian counterpart. The Tupolev Tu-144 served for just three years as a passenger aircraft—from 1975 to 1978—and then had a somewhat glamorous performance as a cargo aircraft until 1983.
Over the years, much has been said about the reasons for the failure of the “Soviet Concorde”, or concordski. The consensus among experts is that the aircraft never managed to be reliable. It is true that he suffered from very bad publicity after the famous 1973 Paris Air Show plane crash; but the technical problems of the Tu-144 were a permanent obstacle for Tupolev. And if the project was not discarded before it was simply for political reasons, not to show weakness before the United States and the rest of the world.
A clear example of this occurred at the beginning of 1978, when a Tupolev Tu-144 suffered multiple failures during a test flight in which journalists from different countries traveled. The problems started from the moment the engines were started; to the point that Alexander Larin, the pilot, asked his flight engineer to inform him of the inconveniences calmly, without shouting, so as not to attract the attention of the passengers.
According to his story, more than 20 systems failed on that flight, and until the last minute he didn’t know if the landing gear would deploy correctly. Years later he acknowledged that he had the power to cancel the takeoff, but he chose not to. “You can’t be ashamed in front of foreigners”was his explanation.
Knocking on the door of the Concorde makers for help
With an endless list of technical problems on your hands, Tupolev went out to seek help to save the Tu-144. First, he turned to Lucas Industries, the British company that supplied some of the computerized systems used in the Concorde. It was in 1977, when he tried to obtain some of the equipment for managing the engines of the Anglo-French supersonic aircraft. However, his request was not heard.
So things, the Soviet bureau went to knock on the door of the British Aircraft Corporation, one of the manufacturers of the Concorde. In principle, Tupolev intended to improve the design of the air intakes of the Tu-144, but the difficulties to be solved were, in reality, much more complex. The Russians also had to reinforce the fuselage, as well as prevent the icing of the leading edges of the air intakes. Other shortcomings were in the fuel tank drain valves, navigation systems and fire protection equipment, just to mention a few.
As you can imagine, Tupolev again received a refusal to his plea before his main competitor. UK government vetoed aid to the Soviets fearing that the technology that could be implemented on the Tu-144 would later be used in Tupolev military developments. Let’s not forget that, by then, the Russians were already working on the Tu-160, a supersonic heavy bomber with variable geometry wings and Concorde airs.
How different could the story have been if BAC helped Tupolev solve the Tu-144 problems? Would the fate of supersonic commercial aviation have been any different? Was the authorities’ fear of trusting the Soviets valid? They are all questions that today have no answer, clearly. But it is impossible not to raise them.
The Tupolev Tu-144 and the salvation that was not
Tupolev’s request for help from BAC did not go unnoticed by the international press. In fact, the prestigious magazine Aviation Week dedicated coverage to the event in its edition of December 4, 1978. “They request technical help for the Tu-144. Soviet candor was noted in discussions with Concorde experts after two fatal accidents and cancellation of service,” the Americans said. The second fatality referred to in the article It had happened in May of that year. and led to the aircraft no longer being used on passenger flights.
The British refusal of Tupolev’s request for assistance ended up being crucial to the ultimate fate of the Tu-144. The supersonic airliner program was canceled in 1983, unable to eradicate all of its reliability problems.. Despite this, the aircraft managed to remain active in subsequent years.
In the first instance, it was used to train the pilots of the Buran Shuttle, although the latter flew only once and without a crew. In the second half of the 1980s, meanwhile, it was transformed into a medical and biological laboratory for high-altitude research. But the truly curious thing was its use after the fall of the Soviet Union.
In the nineties, hand in hand with NASA, served as an experimental platform for the development of an American supersonic airliner. A project that the Americans had already undertaken with the failed Boeing 2707. However, the initiative came to naught and the Tupolev Tu-144 went into final retirement in 1999. A story with more shadows than lights, without a doubt, but that still Today it continues to arouse passions.
