Tupolev Tu-144

Soviet copy of the Concorde SST, nicknamed by the Western media Konkordski. Based on stolen information and developed by Andrei Nicholayvich Tupolev this aircraft had its first unadvertised test flight on December 31, 1968 near Moscow, before Concorde.

However this crash development program produced a flawed craft and it did not fly again until 1973 following a major redesign. This time the craft debuted at the Paris Air Show on June 3, 1973. While in the air it undertook a violent turn to avoid a French Mirage? fighter plane, broke up, and crashed, killing the six on board and eight on the ground.

The Tu-144 did not fly again outside of Russia. In 1977, a Tu-144 flew from Moscow to Alma-Ata?, its first passenger flight. But due to mechanical problems it was unable to maintain the one flight per week schedule.

Seventeen Tu-144's were manufactured in total.

/Talk