| This airliner has several unique technological features for its time such as: Wings swept back at 35 degrees the same angle as for the Boeing 707 and several other jet airliners Powerful Kuznetsov NK-12MV turboprops, the most powerful turboprop engines ever produced, each driving two AV-60H counter-rotating four-bladed reversible-pitch propellers. Lower deck galleys. Lower deck aircrew rest area. Long landing gear (the nose gear is 3 meters high) due to its large propeller diameter (during a test flight to Washington prior to Nikita Khrushchev's first visit to the United States, the destination airport did not have steps tall enough to reach the Tu-114's cabin door because of this feature) The production version originally seated 170 passengers, with an additional dining salon (sometimes used as regular seating) and sleeping area. Later, the sleeping area was converted to normal seating, raising the capacity to 200 passengers. Initially it was used on the main international routes for Aeroflot, but when the Ilyushin Il-62 started to appear, it was relegated to domestic flights. The main problem for these domestic operations was the large amount of runway needed for takeoff and landing. JAL service For operating the Moscow - Tokyo route, Japan Air Lines made an agreement with Aeroflot to use the Tu-114 on that route. For these flights, the seating arrangement was changed to a two-class layout with 105 seats. In 1969 the Tu-114 flights were stopped, and the four involved ... |
