Tupolev Tu-144

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-144

The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Ty????? ??-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a
retired jet airliner and commercial supersonic transport aircraft (SST). It is
one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being the
Anglo-French Concorde. The design was a product of the Tupolev design bureau,
headed by Alexei Tupolev, of the Soviet Union and manufactured by the Voronezh
Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh, Russia. It conducted 55 passenger
service flights, at an average service altitude of 16,000 metres (52,000 ft) and
cruised at a speed of around 2,000 kilometres per hour (1,200 mph) (Mach 1.6).

The prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two months before the
first flight of the Concorde. The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969,
and on 26 May 1970 became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2. A
Tu-144 crashed in 1973 at the Paris Air Show, delaying its further development.
The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost
two years after Concorde, because of budget restrictions. In May 1978, another
Tu-144 (an improved version, named Tu-144D) crashed on a test flight while being
delivered, and the passenger fleet was permanently grounded after only 55
scheduled flights. The aircraft remained in use as a cargo aircraft until 1983,
by which point a total of 102 commercial flights had been completed. The Tu-144
was later used by the Soviet space program to train pilots of the Buran
spacecraft, and by NASA for supersonic research.

Despite the close similarity in appearance of the Tu-144 to the Anglo-French
supersonic aircraft, there were significant differences in the control,
navigation and engine systems. The Tu-144 lagged behind Concorde in areas such
as braking and engine control. Concorde utilized an electronic engine control
package from Lucas, which Tupolev was not permitted to purchase for the Tu-144
as it could also be used on military aircraft. Concorde's designers used fuel as
coolant for the cabin air conditioning and for the hydraulic system (see
Concorde for details). Tupolev also used fuel/hydraulic heat exchangers but used
cooling turbines for the cabin air.

Along with early Tu-134s, the Tu-144 was one of the last commercial aircraft
with a braking parachute.

Sixteen airworthy Tu-144 airplanes were built:

the prototype Tu-144, registration number 68001

a pre-production Tu-144S, number 77101

nine production Tu-144S, numbers 77102 to 77110

five Tu-144D models, numbers 77111 to 77115.

The last production aircraft, Tu-144D number 77116, was not completed and was
left derelict for many years on Voronezh East airfield. There was at least one
ground test airframe for static testing in parallel with the development of
prototype 68001.

Although its last commercial passenger flight was in 1978, production of the
Tu-144 did not cease until 1983, when construction of the airframe was stopped
and left partially complete.



Role
Supersonic airliner

National origin
Soviet Union

Manufacturer
Voronezh Aircraft Production Association

Design group
Tupolev OKB

First flight
31 December 1968

Introduction
1 November 1977

Status
Retired

Primary users
Aeroflot
Ministry of Aviation Industry
NASA

Produced
1963–1983

Number built
16

The Tu-144S went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight
between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which
commenced on 1 November 1977. Type certificate was issued by the USSR
Gosaviaregister on 29 October 1977

The passenger service ran a semi-scheduled service until the first Tu-144D
experienced an in-flight failure during a pre-delivery test flight,
crash-landing on 23 May 1978 with two crew fatalities. The Tu-144's 55th and
last scheduled passenger flight occurred on 1 June 1978.

An Aeroflot freight-only service recommenced using the new production variant
Tu-144D ("D" for Dal'nyaya – "long range") aircraft on 23 June 1979, including
longer routes from Moscow to Khabarovsk made possible by the more efficient
Kolesov RD-36-51 turbojet engines, which also increased the maximum cruising
speed to Mach 2.15.

Including the 55 passenger flights, there were 102 scheduled flights before the
cessation of commercial service.

Paris Air Show crash

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 days display, instead of landing as expected the aircraft
entered a very steep climb before making a violent downwards manoeuvre.:228 As
it tried to recover the aircraft broke apart and crashed, destroying 15 houses
and killing all six people on board the Tu-144 and eight more on the ground.

Gordon et al. state that the flight crew had departed from the approved flight
profile for the display, a serious offense in itself. They were under
instructions to excel the Concorde display by all means. During the unapproved,
and therefore unrehearsed manoeuvres, the stability and control augmentation
system was not operating normally. If it had been it would have prevented the
loads that caused the port wing to fail.

Specifications (Tu-144D)

General characteristics
Crew: three
Capacity: 140 passengers (11 first class & 129 tourist class)
Length: 65.70 m (215.54 ft)
Wingspan: 28.80 m (with wingtips) (94.48 ft)
Height: 12.55 m (41.00 ft)
Wing area: 506.35 m² (5,450 ft²)
Empty weight: 99,200 kg (218,500 lb)
Loaded weight: 125,000 kg (275,330 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 207,000 kg (455,950 lb)
Powerplant: 4 × Kolesov RD-36-51 or Kuznetsov NK-144 turbojet, 240 kN (235 to
256 kN) (44,122 lbf) each

Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 2.15 (2300 km/h)
Cruise speed: Mach 2.00 (2,125 km/h (1,320 mph))
Range: 4000 mi (6,500 km)
Service ceiling: 20,000 m (65,600 ft)
Rate of climb: 3,000 m/min (9,840 ft/min)
Wing loading: 410.96 kg/m² (84.20 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 0.44




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