28 AIRLINER WORLD SEPTEMBER 2017
was still a much cheaper option than a
Concorde ticket for those who wanted
to break the sound barrier.
On April 27, 1978, the first production
airframe of the final variant, the
Tu-144D (D meaning long range) took
to the air, powered by the long-awaited
Kolesov RD-36-51 turbojet engines,
which finally enabled the intended
supercruise speed of Mach 2.
Commercial Conclusion
The Tu-144D variant, however, was
fated to never see passenger service.
Disaster struck on May 23, 1978 during
a routine test flight near Moscow, when
CCCP-77111, a brand-new Tu-144D,
suffered a crack in a fuel line in the
starboard wing during its sixth flight.
When the APU was started, the leaking
fuel started a massive fire. The pilots,
B Popov and Edward Elyan, managed a
reasonably effective wheels-up landing
in a field near Yegoryevsk. But the two
engineers who had been sent back to
the passenger cabin for safety were
both killed when the deflected nose
cone dug into the ground, broke away
and punctured the fuselage exactly
where they were sitting.
Passenger flights were suspended –
the last SU499/500 round trip operated
on June 1, 1978. Production and
testing continued, however, on July 31,
CCCP-77113 suffered a compressor
disc failure during supersonic flight,
causing structural and systems
damage. The crew were able to
decelerate and land safely on the
11,500ft (3,505m) runway at Engels-2
bomber base near Saratov.
Freight flights resumed on June 23,
1979, from Moscow to Khabarovsk in
far eastern Russia, showing that the
Tu-144D’s Kolesov RD-36-51 engines
had finally enabled the programme to
overcome the range issues of the earlier
turbofan-powered Tu-144S. However,
in the final reckoning, a total of only 102
revenue flights ever operated, including
55 passenger flights that carried just
3,284 passengers.
The Tu-144 had enough supporters
to continue test flights, and on
February 20, 1981, was reissued with a
Provisional Flight Certificate, but never
returned to passenger flights. On
July 1, 1983, government order
461-169 ended production of the
aircraft and stated that the future of the
type should be only for research flights.
Within weeks, CCCP-77114, a brand-
new Tu-144D, set 13 world records for
speed and altitude, recognised by the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(FAI), the world’s governing body
for aeronautical world records, and
between 1986 and 1989 this airframe
was used for medical research into
high-altitude radiological effects.
Another Tu-144D was used during 1985
to train cosmonauts for missions on the
Buran space shuttle.
The Last Hurrah
In the early 1990s, a study group con-
sisting of Tupolev, NASA, Rockwell-
Collins and Boeing came together,
co-ordinated by Judith de Paul of IBP
Aerospace, to examine the prospects
of a future supersonic airliner, known
as SST-2. Russian authorities reacti-
vated CCCP-77114, which even after its
record-breaking and research flights
of the 1980s had still clocked up only
82hrs of flight time, for use as a flying
test bed. CCCP-77112 was used as a
ground test rig and CCCP-77115 was
on standby as a ‘hot reserve’.
Some US voices questioned the wis-
dom of using a Russian airframe with
most of the $35m budget being spent
inside Russia – the Cold War having
ended only a few years earlier. Louis
Williams, head of NASA’s High Speed
Research Program, explained in
several interviews why the Tu-144
was uniquely suited to the role: the
supersonic research platform should
come as close as possible to a future
SST-2 in performance (Mach 2.3
instead of Concorde’s Mach 2) and size
(wing area of 5,457sq ft [507m²] instead
of Concorde’s 4,575sq ft [425m²]). Also
helpful was that the Tu-144 had thebiggest share of titanium in its empty
weight – 20% – compared with any
other aircraft.
Conversion included refitting the
aircraft with new engines, Kuznetsov
NK-321 afterburning turbo-
fans, similar to the power-
plants fitted to the Tupolev
Tu-1 6 0 Blackjack supersonic
bomber. Reregistered
RA-77114 and painted in
an all-white livery with US
and Russian flags togeth-
er on the tail (and titles
in Boeing’s Stratotype
font), the Tu-144LL (LL
for flying laborato-
ry) took to the air on
November 29, 1996.
It performed a total
of 27 test flights,
with the finalRA-77114 flew the
type’s last flight when
it made a roundtrip
from Zhukovsky on
April 14, 1999.
YURY KIRSANOV/
TRANSPORT-PHOTO IMAGESTupolev added the US
flag to RA-77114 as
part of a programme
conducted in
collaboration with
NASA, Rockwell Collins
and Boeing. The
aircraft was on display
at MAKS in 1997.
YURY KIRSANOV/
TRANSPORT-PHOTO IMAGES