The Russian-built Tupolev Tu-144 was the world's only other supersonic airliner besides the Anglo-French Concorde. It first flew on Dec. 31, 1968, beating the Concorde into the sky by two months. During the Cold War it was a notable achievement for the then-Soviet Union.
A closeup of the Tu-144's droop nose, with another Tu-144 behind with the nose retracted. Even more interesting is what's behind that: A Tu-95 Bear bomber. In the far distance is a trio of Il-76s.
The Tu-144LL flying laboratory outside its hanger at the Zhukovsky Air Development Center (now the Gromov Flight Research Institute) at the start of its new life as a research aircraft.
The Kolesov RD-36-51 engines were beasts, capable of 45,000 pounds (246 kN) of thrust each. The Tu-144 could fly higher and faster (Mach 2.15 vs Mach 2.04) than the Concorde.
The Tu-144 had plenty of faults -- it was difficult to handle, and noisy in the cabin during flight -- but given the limited resources and more rudimentary technology, it's impressive it worked at all.
Having been long been fascinated by this plane, getting to go inside was a big thrill for Geoff, who toured the museum for CNET. The angle was quite steep and it's hot inside, so it's quite a climb up to the cockpit.
These are easily the smallest windows Geoff had ever seen on a passenger aircraft. Smaller even than those on the Concorde, which are already pretty small. A paperback book would cover them.
The 144 was enough wider than the Concorde to have a three-two seating layout, accommodating up to 140 passengers (20 more than the Concorde). Most of the seats have been removed to make it easier for visitors to move around.
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Discuss: Tupolev Tu-144: Inside Russia's supersonic airliner
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