@legendary.sukhoi: The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service.[2] Tupolev Tu-144 An Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-144 taking off General informationTypeSupersonic airlinerNational originSoviet UnionManufacturerVoronezh Aircraft Production AssociationDesignerTupolev OKBStatusRetiredPrimary usersAeroflot Ministry of Aviation Industry NASA Number built16 (1 unfinished)HistoryManufactured1967–1983Introduction date26 December 1975[1]: 76 First flight31 December 1968[1]: 76 RetiredRetired from passenger service (1978) Retired from commercial service (1983) Retired (1999)VariantsTu-144LL Tupolev Tu-244Fate7 preserved in museums 8 scrapped and 2 destroyed The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft with its prototype's maiden flight from Zhukovsky Airport on 31 December 1968, two months before the British-French Concorde.[1]: 76 [3] The Tu-144 was a product of the Tupolev Design Bureau, an OKB headed by aeronautics pioneer Aleksey Tupolev, and 16 aircraft were manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh.[1][page needed] The Tu-144 conducted 102 commercial flights, of which only 55 carried passengers, at an average service altitude of 16,000 metres (52,000 ft) and cruised at a speed of around 2,200 kilometres per hour (1,400 mph) (Mach 2).[4][5] The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969, four months before Concorde, and on 26 May 1970 became the world's first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.[5] Reliability and developmental issues restricted the viability of the Tu-144 for regular use; these factors, together with repercussions of the 1973 Paris Air Show Tu-144 crash, projections of high operating costs, and rising fuel prices and environmental concerns outside the Soviet Union, caused foreign customer interest to wane.[6] The Tu-144 was introduced into commercial service with Aeroflot between Moscow and Alma-Ata on 26 December 1975 and starting 1 November 1977 passenger flights began; it was withdrawn less than seven months later after a new Tu-144 variant crash-landed during a test flight on 23 May 1978. The Tu-144 remained in commercial service as a cargo aircraft until the cancellation of the Tu-144 programme in 1983. The Tu-144 was later used by the Soviet space programme to train pilots of the Buran spacecraft, and by NASA for a supersonic research programme from June 1996 to April 1999. The Tu-144 made its final flight on 26 June 1999 and surviving aircraft were put on display in Russia, the former Soviet Union and Germany, or into storage.

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Saturday 18 July 2026 23:02:30 GMT