Pilots of Tu 144. Flights and tests of a supersonic aircraft. Improvement of the supersonic aircraft

Tu-144 - the beginning of the creation of supersonic passenger liners. Flights of military strategic aircraft aroused the interest of aviation designers, primarily speed, range and high payload.

The development of passenger supersonic ships began simultaneously in several highly developed countries. For Russia, this was the first post-war decade.

The history of the creation of a supersonic passenger liner

The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR laid the foundation for the creation passenger aircraft new generation.

It was supposed to design an aircraft with a passenger capacity of up to 150 people, a flight speed of at least 2,500 km per hour, a flight range, with an overload tolerance, of 6,500 kilometers. The design and development of the superplane was entrusted to the design department of Tupolev A.N.

Aleksey Andreevich, the son of A.N. Tupolev, was appointed head of the department responsible for the creation of a supersonic liner. The following specialists were included in this department:

• constructors;
• technologists, whose duties included preparing materials for the aircraft;
• strength engineers responsible for strength, stiffness and service life.

Tupolev Jr. stood before the creation of the aircraft of the future, the role of which was determined not simply in technological superiority over the West, but rather its political confrontation. Under the leadership of Yuri Popov, appointed by Tupolev, junior lead designer, the team of the design department of Tupolev A.N. completes work on the creation of a superplane.

Air supersonic liner took to the sky in last days 1968, ahead of the Western-style flight by two months. Two months later, a passenger plane of British and French designers "Concorde" was launched.

There were only two passenger supersonic aircraft in the world: TU=144 and Concorde. The crew of the supersonic passenger ship consisted of Aeroflot pilots, who were co-pilots, test pilots of the Tupolev design department were appointed commanders.

The design of the superplane Tu-144

The high speed of the aircraft invested some features in its design:

• the aircraft is made according to the "tailless" low-wing scheme, which corresponds to aerodynamic scheme, where only planes embedded on the trailing edge of the wing are excluded;
• ailerons, aerodynamic control elements of the aircraft, are a structure of four sections that occupy the trailing edge of the wing panels of the aircraft, ensure its reliable control;
• the fuselage is made with a downward deflecting cabin fairing, longitudinal side windows. This design provides full visibility in front of the vessel at the time of its takeoff, climb and flight at a constant speed;
• the forward part of the fuselage is equipped as a cockpit;
• in the central part there is a passenger compartment, which has a sealed structure together with the cockpit; has a hermetic design tail section fuselage, arranged as a caisson tank for fuel, at the end of this compartment there is a container for a braking element (parachute);
• three-post chassis with front strut wheels with a twin wheel design.

In the Soviet Union, the Tu-144 was the only supersonic passenger vehicle, the speed of which was twice the speed of sound. The plane covered the distance from Moscow to the Turkish capital in 40 minutes. At present, the operation of the supersonic apparatus has been discontinued.

Some structures were cut and scrapped. The surviving copies are the property of the Aviation Museums. The creation of a supersonic air passenger structure can be considered a prestige program that does not have the economic need to use this level of aviation services.

The Tu-144 supersonic passenger airliner was created in the Soviet Union in the late 1970s. It was launched into a series, and for some time was used for commercial passenger transportation. Great hopes were pinned on the Tu-144 in the USSR - it had to first unite all regions of a huge country, and then go beyond its borders. Unfortunately, this never happened. Today we will consider the history of the creation and characteristics of the Tu-144, why this machine was decommissioned, and its differences from competitors.

Summary

Undoubtedly, the Tu-144 is a legendary and unique aircraft. It became the first passenger aircraft to exceed the speed of sound. Simultaneously with the Tu-144, the characteristics of which we will consider below, the engineers of England and France jointly created another jet supersonic passenger airliner - the legendary Concorde. It's no secret that the development of these machines was another competition. cold war. The project of Soviet designers from a technical point of view was not inferior to the project of their competitors, but it lost economically.

The flight was not expensive, and there were few people in the Soviet Union who could afford it, so the tickets did not cover all the costs of fuel and jet maintenance. The Western passenger was ready to pay for the speed of the flight and the high level of comfort, so the Concordes were recognized as a successful project, which cannot be said about the Tu-144. Why was this aircraft taken out of service? One of the most important reasons was economic inexpediency.

The Tu-144 was used as a passenger airliner for less than a year. Then it began to be used for testing and transporting urgent goods over long distances. During the operation, the aircraft managed to carry only 3,284 passengers. Its main competitor carried a total of 2.4 million passengers. A total of 16 copies of the aircraft were produced. It is worth noting that only 4 more cars were produced for the Concorde. In 1999, the last flight of the Tu-144 aircraft took place. Despite the dubious reputation, managed to set 13 world records.

background

The 1950s-1960s of the twentieth century were marked by the rapid development jet aviation. It all started with the fact that in 1947 the experimental American aircraft Bell X-1 overcame. In the mid-sixties, America began mass production of supersonic fighters. And by the mid-seventies, the technology for creating such machines had already been tested, and engineers seriously thought about the prospect of creating supersonic passenger aircraft. At the time, it was the call of the times. The use of such machines was beneficial for airlines for at least two reasons: reduced flight time, no need for intermediate landings for refueling.

It was not so easy to create passenger supersonic airliners. Having carefully weighed everything, the American designers abandoned this idea, recognizing it as inappropriate. The Europeans nevertheless decided to test the prospects of supersonic passenger technology in practice. Development similar aircraft engaged simultaneously by the French and the British. In 1962 they joined forces. This is how the Concorde aircraft project appeared. The Soviet Union also became interested in this idea. And the fact that the Europeans did not hide their developments and actively demonstrated them at international air shows allowed domestic designers to cut off a number of wrong decisions even before the start of the project.

In the Soviet Union, the creation of a supersonic passenger aircraft was entrusted to the Tupolev Design Bureau. The specialists of this organization were the most experienced in creating. In addition, it was the employees of the Tupolev Design Bureau who were the first in the USSR to create a supersonic aircraft - the Tu-22 bomber.

Development

In 1963, the history of the creation of the Tu-144 began. The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR prescribed the development of a passenger liner with the following parameters:

1. Flight range - 4000-4500 km.
2. Cruising speed - 2300-2700 km / h.
3. Passenger capacity - 80-100 people.

Already in the next year, 1964, the development of a new aircraft was started. And a year later, the layout of the machine was presented at international exhibition at Le Bourget. According to Tupolev, the plane was supposed to take to the skies two months earlier than the Concorde. In the end, it did.

Working on a fundamentally new aircraft, the designers encountered a number of problems, in particular, with the unusual aerodynamics of the body and the heating of its body, followed by deformation at high speeds. The development of a wing of a suitable design was especially delayed, during which about two hundred options were tested in a wind tunnel.

During the development of the Tupolev aircraft, the MiG-21 became the current model. However, its design was somewhat modified: the horizontal tail was removed, the fuselage length was reduced, and the wingspan was increased. December 31, 1968 Tu-144 took to the air for the first time. This happened just two months before the first flight of the Concorde. The next year, the plane reached the speed of sound, and a year later it doubled.

When a supersonic passenger plane appeared in the USSR, the whole world started talking about it. In 1971, the airliner made several test flights, visiting Moscow, Sofia, Berlin and Paris. In the same period, Aeroflot began experimental operation of the Tu-144. Serial production of the machine was established at the Voronezh plant.

Design

The Tu-144 is an all-metal monoplane, which is characterized by a low wing arrangement and is the embodiment of the “tailless” design scheme. Its fuselage is made in the form of a semi-monocoque, the skin of which is supported by stringers and frames. The aircraft is equipped with a tricycle landing gear and a nose strut.

The power plant of the airliner is represented by four engines of the NK-114A or RD-36-51A turbojet engines, which are located in pairs. Each of the motors is equipped with its own air intake. Engine nozzles protrude beyond the edge of the wing.

The fuselage of the aircraft is conventionally divided into nose, central and tail parts. The cockpit is located in the bow, the canopy of which fits into the nose cone and fuselage contours. The central part is represented by passenger compartments, which form one whole with the bow. In the tail part there is a tank-caisson for fuel, and in its tip there is a container for a brake parachute.

The wing of the aircraft received a variable sweep. At the root of the wing, it was 76, and at its ends - 57 degrees. The wing received a sheathing made of a special alloy, which is based on aluminum. The elevons located on the back of the wing are made of titanium alloy.

To improve visibility during takeoff and landing, it could be lowered. Its raising and lowering was carried out thanks to a hydraulic drive. 18 fuel tanks were located in the wings of the aircraft. In addition, a special balancing tank was installed in the rear of the fuselage. He carried out the reception of fuel during the transition of the aircraft from subsonic flight to supersonic. The front landing gear of the aircraft had two wheels, and the two main landing gear had four twin bogies.

The aircraft was controlled by an onboard electronic computer. Landing approach could be made at any time of the day, in any meteorological conditions. Automation diagnosed the operation of all onboard systems, which was a real novelty for the domestic aircraft industry. It included three people. Depending on the version of the aircraft, its passenger capacity could vary from 98 to 150 people.

The front horizontal retractable tail became an interesting feature of the Tu-144 aircraft, which distinguishes it from other machines. It is located immediately behind the cockpit, in the front. Thanks to this plumage, the aircraft received increased maneuverability and additional lift. In addition, the horizontal tail allowed the car to slow down faster at the time of landing and use shorter runways.

First disaster

The most significant and tragic day in the history of the Tu-144 aircraft was June 3, 1973, when the first Tu-144 crashed during a demonstration flight at Le Bourget. The tragedy was contemplated by about 350 thousand spectators. As a result of the crash, five crew members and residents of the town of Goussainville (France), near which the air show was held, died. In addition, almost three dozen people were injured.

Crew Soviet aircraft wanted to fly over the runway and gain altitude again. The day before, this maneuver was demonstrated by the Anglo-French Concorde. But it was not possible to carry out the plan. Suddenly, the plane began to dive, and having descended to a height of 120 meters, it simply began to fly apart. First, the wing came off the body, and then the tail section. In a matter of seconds, only a pile of metal remained from the plane.

The causes of the terrible catastrophe are still unclear. According to one version, the crew of the Tu-144 was forced to sharply maneuver in order not to collide with a fighter that was photographing participants in the air show from the air. There is another version, according to which the airliner's control system failed. Many years after the tragedy, one of the representatives of the Tupolev Design Bureau told reporters that there were a number of untested blocks on that version of the Tu-144. Another version indicates that during the maneuver, one of the pilots dropped a movie camera, which blocked the steering column, but the flight recorders did not confirm this.

The official conclusion indicated that the crash could have been caused by the fall of a crew member in the cockpit, but material evidence of this was not found. Ultimately, the causes of the disaster were called unidentified. The dead crew members were buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Exploitation

Despite terrible crash Tu-144, Le Bourget saw him twice more, in 1975 and 1977. When Brezhnev went on an official visit to France in 1977, he was shown the latest Concorde. At that time, the Anglo-French aircraft operated international and intercontinental flights. Returning to the USSR, Brezhnev ordered the Tu-144 to be put into commercial service as soon as possible.

A little earlier, work was launched to increase the range of the airliner. The Tu-144 was equipped with new, more economical engines of the RD-36-51A model. This modification was called Tu-144D. December 26, 1975 passenger Tu-144 made its first flight from Moscow to Alma-Ata. To begin with, he was tasked with transporting mail. The flight was successful, and at the end of 1977 began Passenger Transportation on Tu-144. The control of a supersonic liner was trusted only by the most experienced pilots. Previously, they underwent special training. In addition, the most beautiful flight attendants were chosen on the Tu-144.

Two planes equipped with NK-144A engines flew on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route. Such a power plant allowed the aircraft to fly no more than three thousand kilometers. There was barely enough fuel left for the aircraft to reach destination. If, in the event of any emergency, the plane could not land at the Alma-Ata airfield or an alternate runway in Tashkent, there was nowhere to land it. Thus, each flight became a real test of strength for the pilots and their superiors. A ticket for a Tu-144 cost 80 rubles, which is 18 rubles more expensive than a ticket for a regular plane.

The Soviet leadership had a serious plan for the Tu-144. They wanted to launch the Tu-144D version along the Moscow - Khabarovsk route, and then open it for it international flights. However, the plan did not come true.

Another crash of the Tu-144

May 23, 1978 experimental aircraft Tu-144D crashed. This time, the cause of the accident was the ignition of the third engine and the smoke in the cabin caused by the destruction of the fuel line. When the malfunction made itself felt, the crew resorted to an emergency landing. After landing, the pilots hurried to leave the plane, but the two flight engineers did not have time to do so.

At the end of July 1980, another accident occurred with the Tu-144D aircraft, which almost led to tragedy. One of the engines was destroyed at supersonic speed. The professional crew managed to land the plane, and the engines were sent for revision. During subsequent tests, they worked problematic. When Brezhnev died, the supersonic liner project was left to chance, as the new government was skeptical about it. Ultimately, the country's leadership decided to close it and continue passenger transportation by simple and economical subsonic aircraft.

For some time, the supersonic Tu-144 was used for test flights and the delivery of urgent cargo. Pilots who participated in the program of the Soviet "shuttle" "Buran" trained on it. Soon everyone began to forget about the Tu-144.

Why was the plane taken out of service?

Even for the USSR, where they did not like to count money, the operation of a supersonic liner became too expensive and, most importantly, meaningless. Therefore, the main reason for the termination of the development of the project was not the Tu-144 crashes and technical problems, but the lack of economic profitability.

With old power plants, the flight range of the aircraft did not exceed 3 thousand kilometers. Considering the liner belongs to supersonic, this is negligible. For implementation long trips the aircraft needed to make intermediate landings for refueling, which negated all its strengths. The aim of the project was to carry out fast flights between distant cities without transfers and refueling. The flight range of the Concorde, for example, reached 6500 km. The RD-36-51A engine could have allowed the Tu-144 to fly over distances of about 5300 km, but all the problems associated with it have not been solved.

In addition, the price of tickets for the Tu-144 was far from the amount needed to recoup all the costs of flights and maintenance of the aircraft. The leadership of the USSR did not want to take more money from citizens for a ticket, and it is unlikely that ordinary people would overpay for flight speed. Therefore, the supersonic passenger airliner went down in history as nothing more than proof of the high level of Soviet aircraft designers. However, the crashes of the Tu-144 somewhat undermined their reputation.

research laboratory

In the mid-2000s, the Tu-144 aircraft, the characteristics of which we have already reviewed, took part in a research program conducted by the Tupolev design bureau together with American aircraft designers. As part of the program, the NASA agency explored the prospects for creating a new generation of supersonic liners.

The Tu-144LL model, which is a modernized version of the Tu-144D aircraft, took part in the program. The main difference between the updated aircraft and its predecessor was the new power plant of the NK-32-1 model, which replaced the outdated RD-36-51D engine.

American engineers were mainly interested in issues related to flying at supersonic speeds: the temperature of metal parts and skin, the operation of engines, friction coefficients, the controllability and stability of the aircraft in different flight modes, and much more. In addition, the customer studied such issues as the level of exposure to cosmic radiation on passengers and crew, the characteristics of the atmosphere at high altitudes, as well as ways to soundproof cabins and cabins.

Comparison with Concorde

Many unsophisticated aviation enthusiasts note the similarity of the Tu-144 and Concorde aircraft. A comparison of the technical characteristics and appearance of the aircraft shows that there are many differences between them. And certainly, the Soviet airliner does not copy the British-French. The Concorde is less powerful and heavier than the Tu-144. The interior of the Tupolev car accommodates more passengers. In addition, from a technical point of view, it has a number interesting features, for example, the front horizontal tail, allowing the liner to land on more short stripes. But what the Concorde succeeded in was in flight range.

The history of the British-French supersonic liner turned out to be not much longer than the Tu-144. Why was the Concord decommissioned? Approximately for the same reasons as the Soviet aircraft. The last straw was the terrible crash of the Concorde in France in 2000. After the accident, it was discontinued. Thus, passenger transportation on supersonic liners went down in history as a progressive but dangerous experiment. Most likely, humanity will return to this idea, but it will be at a new stage of scientific and technological development. To date, only a few countries of the world are working on this direction.

In the Soviet Union, the design bureau of Academician Andrey Tupolev was engaged in the creation of the Tu-144 supersonic aircraft. At a preliminary meeting of the design bureau in January 1963, Tupolev said: “Thinking about the future of air transportation of people from one continent to another, you come to an unambiguous conclusion: supersonic airliners are undoubtedly needed, and I have no doubt that they will come into life ...” He was appointed the lead designer of the project son of the academician - Alexei Tupolev. More than a thousand specialists from other organizations closely cooperated with his design bureau. The creation of the aircraft was preceded by extensive theoretical and experimental work, which included numerous tests in wind tunnels and natural conditions during flights of an analog aircraft.

The developers had to rack their brains to find the optimal machine layout. The speed of the designed liner is fundamentally important - 2500 or 3000 km / h. The Americans, having learned that the Concorde is designed for 2500 km / h, said that they would release their passenger Boeing 2707, made of steel and titanium, only six months later. Only these materials withstood the heating of the structure in contact with the air flow at speeds of 3000 km/h and above without destructive consequences. However, solid steel and titanium structures still have to undergo serious technological and operational testing. This will take a long time, and Tupolev decides to build the Tu-144 from duralumin, based on a speed of 2500 km / h. The American Boeing project was subsequently closed altogether.

In June 1965, the model was shown at the annual Paris Air Show. Concorde and Tu-144 turned out to be strikingly similar to each other. Soviet designers said - nothing surprising: the general shape of the aircraft is determined by the laws of aerodynamics and the requirements for a certain type of machine.

But what should be the shape of the aircraft wing? We settled on a thin triangular wing with an outline of the leading edge in the form of the letter "8". The tailless scheme - inevitable with such a design of the carrier plane - made the supersonic liner stable and well controlled in all flight modes. Four engines were located under the fuselage, closer to the axis of the aircraft. Fuel is placed in caisson wing tanks. Balance tanks located at the rear of the fuselage and wing bulges are designed to change the position of the aircraft's center of gravity during the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight speeds. The nose of the plane was made sharp and smooth. But how in this case to provide pilots with a forward view? They found a way out - "bowing nose". The circular section fuselage had a cockpit nose cone deflecting downward at an angle of 12 degrees during takeoff and 17 degrees during landing.

For the first time Tu-144 takes to the skies on the last day of 1968. The machine was driven by test pilot E. Yelyan. As a passenger aircraft TU-144, the world's first overcame the speed of sound in early June 1969, being at an altitude of 11 kilometers. The Tu-144 took the second speed of sound (2M) in the middle of 1970, being at an altitude of 16.3 kilometers. The Tu-144 incorporated many design and technical innovations. Here I would like to note such a decision as the front horizontal tail. When using the PGO, the flight maneuverability was improved and the speed was extinguished when the aircraft was landing. The domestic Tu-144 could be operated from two dozen airports, while the French-English Concorde, having a high landing speed, could land only at a certified airport. The designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau did a tremendous job. Take, for example, full-scale tests of the wing of a new aircraft. They took place on a flying laboratory - the MiG-21I aircraft, specially converted for testing the design and equipment of the wing of the future Tu-144.

Work on the development of the basic design of the "044" aircraft went in two directions: the creation of a new economical non-afterburning turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type and a significant improvement in the aerodynamics and design of the Tu-144. The result of this was to meet the requirements for the range of supersonic flight. The decision of the commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the Tu-144 version with RD-36-51 was adopted in 1969. At the same time, at the suggestion of the MAP - MGA, a decision is made, until the creation of the RD-36-51 and their installation on the Tu-144, to build six Tu-144s with NK-144A with reduced specific fuel consumption. The design of serial Tu-144s with NK-144A was supposed to be significantly modernized, to make significant changes in the aerodynamics of the aircraft, having received Kmax more than 8 in supersonic cruising mode. This modernization was supposed to ensure that the requirements of the first stage in terms of range (4000-4500 km), were later transition in the series to RD-36-51.

Clickable 2000 px

The construction of the pre-production modernized aircraft Tu-144 ("004") began at the MMZ "Experience" in 1968. According to the calculated data with the NK-144 engines (Cp = 2.01), the estimated supersonic range should have been 3275 km, and with the NK-144A (Ср=1.91) exceed 3500 km In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft in cruising mode M=2.2, the wing shape was changed in plan (the swept part along the leading edge was reduced to 76 °, and the base was increased to 57 °), the shape of the wing became closer to the "Gothic". Compared to the "044", the wing area increased, a more intense conical twist of the wing tips was introduced. However, the most important innovation in aerodynamics of the wing was the change in the middle part of the wing, which ensured self-balancing in cruising mode with minimal losses quality, taking into account optimization for flight deformations of the wing in this mode. The length of the fuselage was increased, taking into account the accommodation of 150 passengers, the shape of the nose was improved, which also had a positive effect on the aerodynamics of the aircraft.

Unlike the "044", each pair of engines in twin engine nacelles with air intakes was moved apart, freeing the lower part of the fuselage from them, unloading it from increased temperature and vibration loads, while changing the lower surface of the wing in the place of the calculated flow compression area, increasing the gap between the lower surface of the wing and the upper surface of the air intake - all this made it possible to more intensively use the effect of preloading the flow at the inlet to the air intakes at Kmax than it was possible to get on "044". The new layout of the engine nacelles required changes in the chassis: the main landing gear was placed under the engine nacelles, with their cleaning inside between the air channels of the engines, they switched to an eight-wheeled bogie, and the scheme for cleaning the nose landing gear also changed. An important difference between "004" and "044" was the introduction of a front multi-section destabilizer wing retractable in flight, which was extended from the fuselage in takeoff and landing modes, and made it possible to provide the required balancing of the aircraft with deflected elevons-flaps. Improvements in the design, an increase in the payload and fuel supply led to an increase in the take-off weight of the aircraft, which exceeded 190 tons (for "044" - 150 tons).

The construction of the pre-production Tu-144 No. 01-1 (tail number 77101) was completed at the beginning of 1971, on June 1, 1971 the aircraft made its first flight. According to the program of factory tests, the machine performed 231 flights, lasting 338 hours, of which 55 hours the aircraft flew at supersonic speed. On this machine, complex issues were worked out - issues of interaction between the power plant and the aircraft in various flight modes. On September 20, 1972, the car made a flight along the Moscow-Tashkent highway, while the route was completed in 1 hour 50 minutes, cruising speed during the flight reached 2500 km / h. The pre-production machine became the basis for the deployment of mass production at the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VAZ), which, by decision of the government, was entrusted with the development of the Tu-144 series.

The first flight of serial Tu-144 No. 01-2 (tail number 77102) with NK-144A engines took place on March 20, 1972. In the series, according to the results of tests of the pre-production machine, the aerodynamics of the wing was corrected and its area was slightly increased again. The take-off weight in the series reached 195 tons. The specific fuel consumption of NK-144A by the time of operational testing of serial machines was intended to be increased to 1.65-1.67 kg / kgf hour by optimizing the engine nozzle, and later up to 1.57 kg / kgf hour, while the flight range should was to increase to 3855-4250 km and 4550 km respectively. By 1977, during testing and refinement of the Tu-144 and NK-144A series, we were actually able to achieve Cp = 1.81 kg / kgf hour in the cruising supersonic thrust mode of 5000 kgf, Cp = 1.65 kg / kgf hour in the takeoff afterburner thrust mode 20000 kgf, Cp = 0.92 kg / kgf hour in cruising subsonic thrust mode 3000 kgf and in maximum afterburner mode in transonic mode received 11800 kgf. Tu-144 fragment

In a short period of time, in strict accordance with the program, 395 flights were performed with a total flight time of 739 hours, including more than 430 hours in supersonic modes.

In the second stage of operational testing in accordance with the joint ministerial order aviation industry and civil aviation dated September 13, 1977 No. 149-223, there was a more active connection of civil aviation facilities and services. A new testing commission was formed, headed by Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation B.D. Rough. By decision of the commission, then confirmed by a joint order of September 30 - October 5, 1977, crews were appointed to conduct operational tests:
First crew: pilots B.F. Kuznetsov (Moscow Transport Administration of the Civil Aviation), S.T. Agapov (ZhLIiDB), navigator S.P. Khramov (MTU GA), flight engineers Yu.N. Avaev (MTU GA), Yu.T. Seliverstov (ZhLIiDB), lead engineer S.P. Avakimov (ZhLIiDB).
The second crew: pilots V.P. Voronin (MGU GA), I.K. Vedernikov (ZhLIiDB), navigator A.A. Senyuk (MTU GA), flight engineers E.A. Trebuntsov (MTU GA) and V.V. Solomatin (ZhLIiDB), lead engineer V.V. Isaev (GosNIIGA).
The third crew: pilots M.S. Kuznetsov (GosNIIGA), G.V. Voronchenko (ZhLIiDB), navigator V.V. Vyazigin (GosNIIGA), flight engineers M.P. Isaev (MTU GA), V.V. Solomatin (ZhLIiDB), leading engineer V.N. Poklad (ZhLIiDB).
The fourth crew: pilots N.I. Yurskov (GosNIIGA), V.A. Sevankaev (ZhLIiDB), navigator Yu.A. Vasiliev (GosNIIGA), flight engineer V.L. Venediktov (GosNIIGA), leading engineer I.S. Mayboroda (GosNIIGA).

Before the start of the tests, it was carried out big job on consideration of all materials received in order to use them “for offsetting” the implementation specific requirements. However, despite this, some civil aviation experts insisted on the implementation of the Tu-144 Aircraft Operational Test Program, developed at GosNIIGA back in 1975 under the guidance of lead engineer A.M. Teteryukov. This program required, in fact, the repetition of previously completed flights in the amount of 750 flights (1200 flight hours) on the MGA routes.

The total volume of operational flights and tests for both stages will amount to 445 flights with 835 flight hours, of which 475 hours are in supersonic modes. 128 paired flights were performed on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route.

The final stage of testing was not strenuous from a technical point of view. Rhythmic work on schedule was provided without serious failures and major defects. The engineering and technical staff "had fun" assessing household equipment, preparing for passenger transportation. The flight attendants involved in the tests and the relevant specialists of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation began to conduct ground training to work out the technology of servicing passengers in flight. The so-called. "jokes" and two technical flights with passengers. The "Raffle" was held on October 16, 1977, with a complete simulation of the ticket check-in, baggage check-in, passenger boarding, flight of real duration, passenger disembarkation, baggage check-in at the destination airport. From the "passengers" (the best employees of the Design Bureau, ZhLIiDB, GosNIIGA and other organizations) there was no end. The diet during the "flight" was at the highest level, since it was approved by the first class menu, everyone enjoyed it very much. The "draw" made it possible to clarify many important elements and details of passenger service. On October 20 and 21, 1977, two technical flights were made along the Moscow-Alma-Ata route with passengers. The first passengers were employees of many organizations that were directly involved in the creation and testing of the Tu-144 aircraft. Today it is even difficult to imagine the atmosphere on board the aircraft: there was a sense of joy and pride, great hope for development against the backdrop of first-class service, to which technical people are absolutely not accustomed. In the first flights, all the heads of leading institutions and organizations were on board the aircraft.

Technical flights passed without serious remarks and showed the full readiness of the Tu-144 aircraft and all ground services for regular transportation. On October 25, 1977, the Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR B.P. Bugaev and Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR V.A. Kazakov approved the main document: "Act on the results of operational tests of the Tu-144 aircraft with NK-144 engines" with a positive conclusion and conclusions.

Based on the presented tables of compliance of the Tu-144 aircraft with the requirements of the Interim Airworthiness Standards civil aircraft USSR, the full volume of the submitted evidentiary documentation, including acts on state and operational tests, on October 29, 1977, the chairman of the State Aviation Register of the USSR I.K. Mulkidzhanov approved the conclusion and signed the USSR's first airworthiness certificate type No. 03-144 for the Tu-144 aircraft with NK-144A engines.

The road for passenger traffic was open.

The Tu-144 could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while the Concorde, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% faster, required a separate landing certificate for each airport. According to some experts, if the Concorde engines were placed in the same way as those of the Tu-144, then the accident on July 25, 2000 would not have happened.

According to experts, the design of the Tu-144 airframe was perfect, but the flaws concerned engines and various systems.

In June 1973, the 30th International Paris Air Show took place in France. The interest generated by the Soviet liner Tu-144, the world's first supersonic passenger jet, was enormous. On June 2, thousands of visitors to the air show in the Parisian suburb of Le Bourget watched the exit to runway the second serial copy of the Tu-144. The roar of four engines, a powerful run - and now the car is in the air. The sharp nose of the liner straightened and aimed at the sky. The supersonic Tu, piloted by Captain Kozlov, made its first demonstration flight over Paris: having gained the necessary height, the car went beyond the horizon, then returned and made a circle over the airfield. The flight took place in normal mode, no technical problems were noted.

The next day, the Soviet crew decided to show everything that the new aircraft is capable of.

The sunny morning of June 3 did not seem to portend trouble. At first, everything went according to plan - the audience, raising their heads, applauded in unison. Tu-144, showing the "highest class", went down. At that moment, a French Mirage fighter appeared in the air (as it turned out later, he was filming an air show). A collision seemed inevitable. In order not to crash into the airfield and the spectators, the crew commander decided to climb higher and pulled the steering wheel towards himself. However, the height was already lost, large loads were created on the structure; as a result, the right wing cracked and fell off. The plane started a fire, and a few seconds later the blazing Tu-144 rushed to the ground. A terrible landing occurred on one of the streets of the Parisian suburb of Goosenville. The giant machine, destroying everything in its path, crashed to the ground and exploded. The entire crew - six people - and eight Frenchmen on the ground were killed. Goosenville also suffered - several buildings were destroyed. What led to the tragedy? According to most experts, the cause of the disaster was an attempt by the Tu-144 crew to avoid a collision with the Mirage. When landing, the Tu got into a wake from the French Mirage fighter.

This version is given in Gene Alexander's book "Russian Aircraft since 1944" and in a June 11, 1973 article in Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine, written in fresh pursuit. The authors believe that pilot Mikhail Kozlov landed on the wrong runway - either by mistake of the flight director, or by the carelessness of the pilots. The controller noticed the mistake in time and warned the Soviet pilots. But instead of going to the second circle, Kozlov laid a sharp turn - and ended up right in front of the nose of the French Air Force fighter. The co-pilot at that time was filming a story about the crew of the Tu for French television with a movie camera and therefore was not wearing a seat belt. During the maneuver, he fell on the center console, and by the time he returned to his seat, the plane had already lost altitude. Kozlov sharply pulled the steering wheel towards himself - overload: the right wing could not stand it. Here is another explanation terrible tragedy. Kozlov was ordered to squeeze the maximum out of the car. Even during takeoff, at low speed, he took almost vertical angle. For an aircraft with this configuration, this is fraught with huge overloads. As a result, one of the external nodes could not stand it and fell off.

According to A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau employees, the cause of the disaster was the connection of a poorly tuned analog control system unit, which led to a destructive overload.

The spy version belongs to the writer James Ahlberg. In short, it is. The Soviets tried to "furnish" the Concorde. Group N.D. Kuznetsova created good engines, but they could not work at low temperatures, unlike the Concorde ones. Then the Soviet intelligence officers got involved. Penkovsky, through his agent Greville Wine, obtained some of the drawings for the Concorde and sent them to Moscow through an East German trade representative. British counterintelligence thus established the leak, but instead of arresting the spy, they decided to let misinformation into Moscow through his own channels. As a result, the Tu-144 was born, very similar to the Concorde. It is difficult to establish the truth, since the "black boxes" did not clarify anything. One was found in Bourges, at the crash site, however, judging by reports, damaged. The second was never found. There is an opinion that the "black box" Tu-144 has become the subject of contention between the KGB and the GRU.

According to the pilots, emergency situations happened on almost every flight. May 23, 1978 there was a second crash of the Tu-144. An improved experimental version of the aircraft, Tu-144D (No. 77111), after a fuel fire in the area of ​​​​the engine nacelle of the 3rd power plant due to the destruction of the fuel line, smoke in the cockpit and the shutdown of two engines by the crew, made forced landing on a field near the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, not far from the city of Yegoryevsk.

After landing, the crew commander V.D. Popov, co-pilot E.V. Elyan and navigator V.V. Vyazigin left the plane through the cockpit window. Engineers V. M. Kulesh, V. A. Isaev, V. N. Stolpovsky, who were in the cabin, left the plane through the front entrance door. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov were caught in the workplace by structures deformed during landing and died. (The deflected nose cone touched the ground first, worked like a bulldozer knife, gaining ground, and turned under the belly, entering the fuselage.) On June 1, 1978, Aeroflot permanently stopped supersonic passenger flights.

Work on improving the Tu-144 aircraft continued for several more years. Five serial aircraft produced; five more were under construction. A new modification has been developed - Tu-144D (long-range). However, the choice of a new engine (more economical), RD-36-51, required a significant redesign of the aircraft, especially the power plant. Serious design gaps in this area led to a delay in the release of the new liner. Only in November 1974, the serial Tu-144D ( side number 77105) took to the air, and nine (!) years after its first flight, on November 1, 1977, the Tu-144 received an airworthiness certificate. On the same day, passenger flights were opened. During their short operation, the Tu-144 liners carried 3,194 passengers. On May 31, 1978, flights were stopped: a fire broke out on one of the serial Tu-144Ds, and the plane crashed, crashing during an emergency landing.

The catastrophes in Paris and Yegorievsk led to the fact that the state's interest in the project decreased. From 1977 to 1978, 600 problems were identified. As a result, already in the 80s, it was decided to remove the Tu-144, explaining this by "a bad effect on people's health when crossing the sound barrier." Nevertheless, four of the five Tu-144Ds that were in production were nevertheless completed. Later they were based in Zhukovsky and took to the air as flying laboratories. A total of 16 Tu-144 aircraft were built (including long-range modifications), which made a total of 2556 sorties. By the mid-90s, ten of them had survived: four in museums (Monino, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk); one remained at the plant in Voronezh, where it was built; another was in Zhukovsky along with four Tu-144Ds.

Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for cargo transportation between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the Tu-144 made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, 55 of them were passenger flights (3,194 passengers were carried).

Later, Tu-144s only made test flights and a few flights with the aim of setting world records.

On the Tu-144LL engines NK-32 were installed due to the lack of serviceable NK-144 or RD-36-51, similar to those used on the Tu-160, various sensors and test control and recording equipment.
In total, 16 Tu-144 aircraft were built, which made a total of 2,556 sorties and flew 4,110 hours (among them, 432 hours, 77144 flew the most). The construction of four more aircraft was never completed.
What happened to the planes

A total of 16 aircraft were built - boards 68001, 77101, 77102, 77105, 77106, 77107, 77108, 77109, 77110, 77111, 77112, 77113, 77114, 77115, 77116 and 77144.
Those remaining in flying condition do not currently exist. The sides of Tu-144LL No. 77114 and Tu-144D No. 77115 are almost fully equipped with parts and can be restored to flight condition.

TU-144LL No. 77114, which was used for NASA tests, is stored in a recoverable state at the airfield in Zhukovsky.
TU-144D No. 77115 is also stored at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2007, both aircraft were repainted and put on public display at the MAKS-2007 air show.

Aircraft No. 77114 and No. 77115 will most likely be installed as monuments or exhibited at the airfield in Zhukovsky. In 2004-2005, some deals were made with them to sell them for scrap, but the protests of the aviation community led to their preservation. The danger of selling them for scrap has not been completely eliminated. Questions about whose ownership they will pass are not finally resolved.

Blogger igor113 studied the Tu-144 aircraft in the Ulyanovsk field in detail,

From left to right. Six members of the crew of the aircraft TU-144 No. 77102: Honored Test Pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov, Test Pilot V.M. Molchanov, Navigator G.N. Bazhenov, Deputy Chief Designer, Engineer Major General V. N. Benderov, lead engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I. Next, the pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy, behind him on the left Lavrov Vladimir Alexandrovich, then the first American cosmonaut to land on the moon Neil Armstrong, then (standing behind the Nile) - Stepan Gavrilovich Korneev (Head of the UVS from the Department of External Relations Presidium of the Academy of Sciences), in the center Tupolev Andrei Nikolaevich - Soviet aircraft designer, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Colonel General, three times Hero of Socialist Labor, Hero of Labor of the RSFSR, then Alexander Alexandrovich Arkhangelsky, chief designer of the plant, Soviet aircraft designer, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Scientist and technicians of the RSFSR, Hero of Socialist Labor. Tupolev Aleksey Andreyevich (son of A.N. Tupolev), far right, is a Russian aircraft designer, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences since 1984, Hero of Socialist Labor. The picture was taken in 1970. Signatures on the photo of G.T. Beregovoy and Neil Armstrong.

source neferjournal

Concord..

Concord accident.

The aircraft is currently out of service due to a crash on July 25, 2000. April 10, 2003 british airways and Air France announced a decision to cease commercial operation of their fleet of Conchords. Latest flights took place on 24 October. The last flight of the Concorde took place on November 26, 2003, the G-BOAF (the last aircraft built) took off from Heathrow, flew over the Bay of Biscay, made a pass over Bristol, and landed at Filton Airport.

Tupolev's supersonic aircraft is often referred to as the "lost generation". Intercontinental flights recognized as uneconomical: in an hour of flight, the Tu-144 burned eight times more fuel than a conventional passenger aircraft. For the same reason, long-distance flights to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok did not justify themselves. It is inappropriate to use the supersonic "Tu" as transport aircraft due to its small carrying capacity. True, passenger transportation on the Tu-144 nevertheless became a prestigious and profitable business for Aeroflot, although tickets were considered very expensive at that time. Even after the official closure of the project, in August 1984, the head of the Zhukovsky flight test base, Klimov, the head of the design department, Pukhov, and the deputy chief designer, Popov, with the support of supersonic flight enthusiasts, restored and commissioned two Tu-144Ds, and in 1985 obtained permission to carry out flights to set world records. The crews of Aganov and Veremey set more than 18 world records in the class of supersonic aircraft - in terms of speed, rate of climb and range with a load.

On March 16, 1996, a series of Tu-144LL research flights began in Zhukovsky, which marked the beginning of the development of the second generation of supersonic passenger liners.

95-99 years. Tu-144D tail number 77114 was used by the American NASA as a flying laboratory. Received the name Tu-144LL. The main purpose is research and testing of American developments to create our own modern supersonic aircraft for passenger transportation.

Here's a story...

sources
nnm.ru
aminpro.narod.ru
neferjournal.livejournal.com
testpilot.com
igor113.livejournal.com
alexandernaumov.ru
topwar.ru
www.airwar.ru
sergib.agava.ru

Description

On December 31, 1968, an experimental Tu-144 aircraft (tail number USSR-68001) made its first flight. The Tu-144 managed to take off 3 months earlier than the Concorde. But this first ATP in the world had a hard fate...

Work on the development of the basic design of the 044 aircraft went in two directions: the creation of a new economical non-afterburning turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type and a significant improvement in the aerodynamics and design of the Tu-144. The result of this was to meet the requirements for the range of supersonic flight. The decision of the commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the Tu-144 version with RD-36-51 was adopted in 1969. At the same time, at the suggestion of the MAP - MGA, a decision is made, until the creation of the RD-36-51 and their installation on the Tu-144, to build six Tu-144s with NK-144A with reduced specific fuel consumption. The design of serial Tu-144s with NK-144A was supposed to be significantly modernized, to make significant changes in the aerodynamics of the aircraft, having received Kmax more than 8 in supersonic cruising mode. This modernization was supposed to ensure that the requirements of the first stage in terms of range (4000-4500 km), were later transition in the series to RD-36-51.

Tu-144 [JPEG 1000x540 90]

The construction of the pre-production modernized aircraft Tu-144 ("004") began at the MMZ "Experience" in 1968. According to the calculated data with NK-144 engines (Cp = 2.01), the expected supersonic range should have been 3275 km, and with NK-144A (Cp = 1.91) it should have exceeded 3500 km. In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft in cruising mode M = 2.2, the wing shape was changed in plan (the swept part along the leading edge was reduced to 76 °, and the base one was increased to 57 °), the wing shape became closer to the "Gothic". Compared to the "044", the wing area has increased, a more intense conical twist of the wing end parts has been introduced. However, the most important innovation in aerodynamics of the wing was the change in the middle part of the wing, which provided self-balancing in cruise mode with minimal loss of quality, taking into account optimization for flight deformations of the wing in this mode. The length of the fuselage was increased, taking into account the accommodation of 150 passengers, the shape of the nose was improved, which also had a positive effect on the aerodynamics of the aircraft. Unlike the "044", each pair of engines in twin engine nacelles with air intakes was moved apart, freeing the lower part of the fuselage from them, unloading it from increased temperature and vibration loads, while changing the lower surface of the wing in the place of the calculated flow compression area, increasing the gap between the lower surface wing and the upper surface of the air intake - all this made it possible to more intensively use the effect of preloading the flow at the inlet to the air intakes at Kmax than it was possible to get on "044". The new layout of the engine nacelles required changes in the chassis: the main landing gear was placed under the engine nacelles, with their cleaning inside between the air channels of the engines, they switched to an eight-wheeled bogie, and the scheme for cleaning the nose landing gear also changed. An important difference between “004” and “044” was the introduction of a front multi-section destabilizer wing retractable in flight, which was extended from the fuselage in takeoff and landing modes, and made it possible to provide the required balancing of the aircraft with deflected elevons-flaps. Design improvements, an increase in the payload and fuel supply led to an increase in the take-off weight of the aircraft, which exceeded 190 tons (for "044" - 150 tons).

The construction of the pre-production Tu-144 No. 01-1 (tail number 77101) was completed at the beginning of 1971, on June 1, 1971 the aircraft made its first flight. According to the program of factory tests, the machine performed 231 flights, lasting 338 hours, of which 55 hours the aircraft flew at supersonic speed. On this machine, complex issues were worked out - issues of interaction between the power plant and the aircraft in various flight modes. On September 20, 1972, the car made a flight along the Moscow-Tashkent route, while the route was completed in 1 hour 50 minutes, cruising speed during the flight reached 2500 km / h. The pre-production machine became the basis for the deployment of mass production at the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VAZ), which, by decision of the government, was entrusted with the development of the Tu-144 series.

The first flight of serial Tu-144 No. 01-2 (tail number 77102) with NK-144A engines took place on March 20, 1972. In the series, according to the results of tests of the pre-production machine, the aerodynamics of the wing was corrected and its area was slightly increased again. The take-off weight in the series reached 195 tons. The specific fuel consumption of NK-144A by the time of operational testing of serial machines was intended to be increased to 1.65-1.67 kg / kgf hour by optimizing the engine nozzle, and later up to 1.57 kg / kgf hour, while the flight range should was to increase to 3855-4250 km and 4550 km respectively. By 1977, during testing and refinement of the Tu-144 and NK-144A series, we were actually able to achieve Cp = 1.81 kg / kgf hour in the cruising supersonic thrust mode of 5000 kgf, Cp = 1.65 kg / kgf hour in the takeoff afterburner thrust mode 20,000 kgf, Ср=0.92 kg/kgf hour in cruising subsonic thrust mode of 3000 kgf and in maximum afterburner mode in transonic mode received 11800 kgf.

Tu-144 No. 77102 [JPEG 1000x274 26]

On June 3, 1973, the first production car crashed during a demonstration flight at Le Bourget. She performed a demonstration flight after the Concorde. In an effort to "surpass" the competitor, pilot Mikhail Kozlov performed a low-speed overflight over the runway, which unexpectedly ended in a sharp dive. As a result of a significant excess of the permissible overload, the PGO detached, which crashed into fuel tank in the wing. The crew led by test pilot M.V. Kozlov died (in addition to M.V. Kozlov, co-pilot V.M. Molchanov, Deputy chief designer V.N. Benderov, flight engineer A.I. Dralin, navigator G. N. Bazhenov, engineer B.A. Pervukhin). To investigate the disaster, a commission was created, in which specialists from the USSR and France took part. Many reasons were given: this was also a provocative maneuver of the French Mirage fighter (the French filmed the flight, trying to prove that the Tu-144 was copied from the Concorde, and its PGO from the experienced Milan S fighter). According to the results of the investigation, the French noted that there was no failure in the technical part of the aircraft, and the cause of the disaster was: the presence of unfastened crew members in the cockpit, the sudden appearance of the Mirage aircraft in the field of view of the crew of the Tu-144 aircraft, the presence of a movie camera in the hands of flight engineer Benderov, which when falling, it could jam the steering wheel. Apparently, at that moment, such a conclusion suited everyone. Perhaps E.V. Elyan spoke most succinctly and accurately about the Tu-144 disaster in Le Bourget in the 90s: “This disaster is a bitter example of how a combination of small, at first glance, insignificant negligence, in this French flight control services, led to tragic consequences.

Tu-144 No. 77144 at Le Bourget "75 [JPEG 500x320 21]

It is more likely that the cause of the crash was the failure of the analog control unit for such a flight mode.

Production of Tu-144 with NK-144A continued in Voronezh until early 1977. On these machines, a large amount of flight tests were carried out and flights with passengers were started. On Tu-144 No. 02-1 (tail number 77103), the first flight was made on December 13, 1973, the NPK-144 flight and navigation complex, the power supply system were worked out, tests were carried out in rejected takeoff modes, technical flights were made around the cities of the USSR.

On the Tu-144 No. 02-2 (tail number 77144), first flight on June 14, 1974, studies were carried out on aerodynamics, strength, behavior at high angles of attack, the operation of aircraft systems and equipment was checked in abnormal flight situations, in 1975 the car flew at Le Bourget.

Tu-144 No. 03-1 (tail number 77105) was built in 1973 and immediately converted into Tu-144D with RD-36-51A engines.

Exploitation

Tu-144 No. 04-1 (tail number 77106), the first flight on March 4, 1975, was used to evaluate the efficiency of the ACS, it solved some problems with the fuel system. On December 26, 1975, the first operational flight on the route Moscow - Alma-Ata was performed on this aircraft. By this time, in addition to the MAP pilots, the MGA pilots had already begun to fly the Tu-144. The aircraft carried cargo, mail along the route, flights took place at altitudes of 18,000 m and at speeds of 2,200 km/h. Currently, Tu-144 No. 04-1 can be seen in the exposition of the Museum in Monino.

Tu-144 No. 04-2 (tail number 77108), first flight on December 12, 1975, finishing work was carried out on navigation equipment systems, on ABSU-144, on the director approach system, on the autothrottle.

Tu-144 No. 05-1 (tail number 77107), the first flight on August 20, 1975, after factory tests and tests under various programs, was presented in 1977 as a complex object for joint state tests. According to the results of these tests, it was noted that the aircraft performance characteristics, with the exception of the practical flight range with a given number of passengers, takeoff weight, meet the requirements set on the Tu-144 (during tests, we obtained a practical supersonic flight range with a take-off weight of 195 tons with a payload of 15 tons 3080 km, with 7 tons - 3600 km. It was emphasized that the flight range is 4000-4500 km, with a payload 14-15 tons on Tu-144 with NK-144A cannot be implemented and it was noted that obtaining the required range is possible with RD-36-51A engines.

Tu-144 in Monino [ JPEG 390x190 17]

After the completion of joint tests, the MAP - MGA decision is made to start passenger transportation on Tu-144 aircraft with NK-144A. Tu-144 No. 05-2 (tail number 77109), first flight on April 29, 1976, and Tu-144 No. 06-1 (tail number 77110), first flight on February 14, 1977, were used for regular passenger traffic on the Moscow - Alma-Ata. Tu-144 went on its first passenger flight on November 1, 1977. Flights over a distance of 3260 km at an altitude of 16000-17000 m at a speed of 2000 km / h were carried out once a week, the number of passengers on board did not exceed 80 people. The ticket price was only 30-40% more expensive than for the IL-62. Until the termination of regular operation with passengers in May 1978, Aeroflot crews on the Tu-144 performed 55 flights (102 including cargo), carrying 3284 passengers. Tu-144 with NK-144A became the first passenger aircraft in the USSR that received a national airworthiness certificate for the safety of passenger transportation, the rest of Aeroflot aircraft at that time did not have such a certificate (the exception was the Tu-134, which was certified in Poland according to English standards airworthiness).

Design

PGO Tu-144 [JPEG 400x193 15 Kb]

The Tu-144S is a tailless low-wing aircraft. The gothic wing with a downwardly deflected toe has a leading edge sweep angle of 76° in the near-fuselage parts and 57° throughout the rest. In production aircraft, the wing has been significantly changed (in addition to increasing the span and curvature of the profile, aerodynamic twist is used, and the end parts of the wing are deflected downward). The optimal flight shape of the aircraft (wing shape in plan, thickness distribution, midsurface deformation, twist) made it possible to achieve the highest aerodynamic quality (8.1 at М=2) in cruise mode. The aircraft wing (lengthening 1.63 and narrowing 7, multi-spar design) consists of the main and detachable parts and has a power-loaded skin in the form of monolithic milled panels. Production aircraft have retractable front wing mechanization for takeoff and landing. This multisection (TsAGI type) straight wing with a span of about 3 m and a negative transverse V is located in the forward fuselage behind the cockpit. Each of its consoles has a convex-concave profile and is equipped with four permanent slots. The retractable front wing is only used during takeoff and landing.

Scheme Tu-144 [JPEG 1000x650 42]

The circular fuselage has a cockpit nose fairing that deviates downward at an angle of 12° during takeoff and 17° during landing. The cockpit glazing of the prototype consists of two front and side windows. The nose cone is equipped with four longitudinal elongated side windows, providing forward visibility during its rise and in cruise flight. The fuselage, which in serial aircraft was intended to accommodate 150 passengers in three ventilation-type cabins, has undergone a significant modification. In first-class aircraft, the seats are arranged according to the 1 + 2 scheme at a distance of 102 cm, and in tourist 2 + 3 at a distance of 87 cm. Due to the increase in the length of the fuselage, additional third entrance doors and 32 (instead of 25) windows are provided on each side. Passenger cabin equipment was supplied from the GDR.

Chassis cleaning scheme [JPEG 400x225 21]

Chassis - tricycle. The front strut has twin wheels. In production aircraft, 8-wheeled carts were used, which are retracted into niches located in the engine nacelles. Each niche is closed with two front and two rear doors. When the landing gear is extended, the doors are open and protrude downward beyond the contours of the gondola. When cleaning the main racks, the carts are rotated in the transverse plane by 90 °, and the racks themselves are removed in the direction of flight. The main bogies are equipped with wheels with a diameter of 950 mm with a pneumatic pressure of 13.5 kg/cm2.

Production aircraft are equipped with 4 improved NK-144A engines designed by N. D. Kuznetsov. They are installed in pairs in two gondolas about 23 m long, placed under the center section. In production aircraft, the nacelles are removed from the longitudinal axis of the aircraft at a considerable distance and are separate structural units.

State

Tu-144s were built at the Voronezh Aircraft Plant almost piece by piece, two cars in a series. A total of 17 were built, of which the last 6 were Tu-144Ds. The Voronezh Aviation Plant produced 14 flying aircraft (the 15th remained unclaimed). Passenger cabin equipment was supplied from the GDR.

Two Tu-144s were transferred to aviation museums - in Monino and to the civil aviation museum in Ulyanovsk. Moreover, the Tu-144S (USSR-77106) arrived in Monino "under its own power", having landed on an unpaved airfield!

See also

• supersonic passenger aircraft

Links

• Tu-144 OKB im. A.N.TUPOLEVA / Aircraft of Russia and CIS countries /

Sources

• Under the signs "ANT" and "Tu" / V.Rigmant, "Aviation and Cosmonautics" 1/2000 /
• “That man and the plane” / L.L. Kerber /
• "Supersonic aircraft" / E. Tsikhos /
• "Encyclopedia of weapons" / "Cyril and Methodius", 1998 - CD-ROM /
• "Develop aircraft of the world" / R.I. Vinogradov, A.N. Ponomarev, 1991 /

Supersonic aircraft - TU-144 appeared in 1960. It was developed in the "holy of holies" of the aircraft industry of the USSR - design office Tupolev. An analogue of such technical perfection - "Concord" - French-English production - the only one in the world at that time could compete with the TU-144. In the end, it did. Concorde and Tu-144 entered into rivalry. The Tu-144 made its first flight on December 31, 1968. The tests were carried out by the test pilot of the Experimental Design Bureau A. N. Tupolev Eduard Elyan. We were ahead in the aforementioned "competition" - this happened two months ahead of "Concorde". The Tu-144 is also the first passenger airliner in history to break the sound barrier, this happened in 1969, at an altitude of 11,000 meters. The aircraft combined a huge number of advanced developments and design solutions. For example, the forward horizontal tail (PGO) retractable for the duration of the flight, which made it possible to significantly increase maneuverability and reduce landing speed. The Tu-144 could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while the Concorde, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% higher, required a separate landing certificate for each airport. A lot of work went into the design. On June 3, 1973, Tu-144 No. 77102 crashed. It crashed during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show. When performing a maneuver: a Soviet aircraft crashes on a school building in the town of Goosenville, located next to the airfield, killing eight people and the crew, led by Mikhail Kozlov. According to the version that appeared after the crash, the cause of the disaster is considered to be too sharp a maneuver that the crew had to make in order to avoid a collision with the unexpectedly appeared French Mirage, whose pilot's task was to photograph the Soviet Tu-144 in flight. There was a violation of the control system, or the inadmissibility for the structures of the airframe of the aircraft maneuver, which the crew tried to perform. The true causes of the disaster were kept secret. The Commission specifically noted that no flaws in the design of the aircraft that could have caused the accident were identified. After the classification was removed, in the late 90s, some versions were voiced from the Russian side: according to Edgar Krupyansky, the former deputy head of the test base of the Tupolev Design Bureau, Edgar Krupyansky, a block of experimental automatic equipment was installed on that ill-fated board, which could unexpectedly work. A more prosaic reason was also expressed - they said that French journalists gave one of the members of the Soviet crew a movie camera in their hands, and when performing a complex figure, it slipped out of his hands and began to fly around the cockpit, depriving the pilots of the ability to control. However, the Tu-144 began to make regular flights. The first working flight was made on December 26, 1975 on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route, where the aircraft carried mail and parcels, and from November 1, 1977, passenger traffic began in the same direction. Flights were performed by only two aircraft - No. 77109 and No. 77110. Aeroflot pilots flew as co-pilots, while the crew commanders were always test pilots from the Tupolev Design Bureau. A ticket for this plane cost 68 rubles, while a ticket to Alma-Ata for a regular subsonic plane cost 48 rubles. But, the liner, designed for ultra-long flights, did not find its place on domestic lines, proving to be unprofitable. Because of high price for tickets, almost one and a half times higher than usual, the loading of the boards was very low, which led to the refusal to operate on Aeroflot passenger lines. And just seven months after the start commercial exploitation, TU-144 permanently stopped supersonic passenger flights. Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for cargo transportation between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the Tu-144 made 102 flights under the flag of Aeroflot, 55 of them were passenger flights, 3194 passengers were transported. In the future, the Tu-144 made only test flights and flights with the aim of setting world records. On May 23, 1978, the second crash of the Tu-144 prototype took place. During a test flight of an upgraded version of the aircraft, Tu-144D (No. 77111), a fire occurred. The crew made an emergency landing near the city of Yegorievsk. After landing, only part of the crew escaped. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov were trapped in the workplace and died. The Concordes were operated by British Airways and Air France for 27 years. On July 25, 2000, one plane was lost in a crash while taking off from the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, 113 people died, of which 100 passengers and 9 crew members were on board. This disaster, as well as the contraction of the air travel market after September 11, 2001, were the main reasons for the termination of the Concorde operation on commercial airlines. According to some experts, if the Concorde engines were placed in the same way as the Tu-144, then the disaster on July 25, 2000 might not have happened. The Tu-144 engines are located closer to the fuselage and the burst tire of the landing gear could not damage them. In fact, none of these two supersonic giants "won".