| airboyd.tv National Archives - Takeoff SST (Supersonic Transport Aircraft) - National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency. - ARC 653130 LI 263.2392 This film shows the Soviet aircraft TU-144 taking off and landing. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org The Soviet government published the concept of the Tu-144 in an article in the January 1962 issue of the magazine Technology of the Air Transport. The air ministry started development of the Tu-144 on 26 July 1963, ten days after the design was approved by the Council of Ministers. The project started two years later than the Concorde. The plan called for five flying prototypes to be built in four years. The first aircraft was to be ready in 1966. The Tupolev Tu-144 (NATO reporting name: "Charger'") was a Soviet supersonic transport aircraft (SST). The Tu-144 remains one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being Concorde, from the Anglo-French consortium. The design, first publicly unveiled in January 1962, was constructed under the direction of the Soviet Tupolev design bureau, headed by Alexei Tupolev. The Tu-144 was Tupolev's only supersonic commercial airliner venture, as the company's other large supersonic aircraft were designed and built to military specifications. The Tu-144 was outwardly similar to Concorde, which was under development at the same time by Aérospatiale/British Aircraft Corporation, and allegations were frequently made that Soviet espionage services had ... |
