Russian aviation. Russian Aviation Where is tu 144 now?

Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti columnist.

Forty years ago near Paris. The car had not yet even entered passenger routes; it would appear on them later, but it would not fly for long - until 1978. What happened to the Soviet “supercarcass” and its overseas alter ego? Where and why did humanity put its supersonic passenger aircraft?

June - non-flying time

The first days of June 2013 coincide with two dates that are important for the fate of the Tu-144. Both are associated with disasters that effectively sealed the fate of the Soviet supersonic airliner.

On June 3, 1973, during a demonstration flight in Le Bourget, France, a Soviet supersonic aircraft crashed, killing fourteen people, including the head of the Tu-144 test program, Major General Vladimir Benderov.

The real reasons for that fall remained “hushed up.” This was greatly facilitated by the lack of telemetry: conversations in the cockpit were not recorded, and many parameter recorders were destroyed in the fall. As a result, the disaster was attributed to a coincidence of circumstances, transparently hinting at the guilt of the crew.

In the Soviet Union, unofficial attempts were made to hang all the dogs on the French Mirage fighter accompanying the liner, which allegedly carelessly maneuvered close to the Tu-144, forcing the crew to sharply evade, as a result of the overloads that arose The plane's fuselage broke apart.

Another, much more plausible version is also known: the crude, unfinished machine went on a demonstration flight. Until the last moment, the on-board equipment was installed and reconfigured on the airliner, and the control system, according to some information, during these “fine tunings” was put into an abnormal state.

One way or another, the machine, which was supposed to demonstrate to the whole world the successes of “developed socialism,” collapsed in a Parisian suburb. It’s unpleasant, but okay: this did not stop the airliners from being put into trial operation on passenger routes.

However, on May 23, 1978, a second disaster occurred: during a test flight, an experienced Tu-144D made an emergency landing on a field near Yegoryevsk. The plane caught fire in the air, but they managed to land it. Two crew members were killed because they were unable to leave the burning car.

Based on the results of June 1, 1978 (that is, 35 years ago - here it is, the second “anniversary”), the operation of the Tu-144 on passenger routes was temporarily stopped. As it turned out - forever.

Overhead jump

The Tu-144 was a very interesting, but completely crude machine.

Thus, the wing structure was made of large panels, which immediately created problems of excessive local stresses due to inhomogeneities, and in addition, allowed cracks to propagate over long distances. It also turned out that the stress level in the airframe exceeds the calculated one.

The NK-144A engines were a huge problem. There was no way they could debug their technology—they simply burned out. Then it turned out that the efficiency of these engines was such that one could not even dream of the 4000-4500 km range specified in the technical specifications under a maximum commercial load of 15 tons - 3000 km turned out to be the limit. (The Concorde with its 13 tons squeezed out over 6200 km.)

The length of the route on the Tu-144 Moscow-Alma-Ata base route was 3260 km, and this was close to the limit of the vehicle’s capabilities with the number of passengers carried. The RD-36-51A engines were tested on the Tu-144D, and it was assumed that they would solve the range problem, but this project was ultimately never completed. There was practically nowhere to land the car in the USSR; the alternate airfields of potential routes were especially difficult.

To summarize, we can say that the Tu-144 was killed by two weaknesses: a tense design and technological flaws, on the one hand, and the underdevelopment of the basing and operating infrastructure, on the other.

Any of these problems could be dealt with if there was a certain will. And not such monstrous machines were brought to acceptable serial reliability. And even the first traditional problem of Russia (infrastructure) also lends itself to persistent efforts: after all, the airfield network was rebuilt for the first turbojet airliner Tu-104 - and there were so many problems with its deployment at an early stage...

But the combination of two such difficulties at once in the absence of a clearly expressed imperative for the introduction of supersonic civil aviation on the part of the relevant ministry and the Central Committee sent the Tu-144 to an eternal joke.

Everyone is unlucky

You can object - after all, if you do it humanly, it will fly. Look, people have been flying Concorde for how many years, but why are we any worse?

Yes, no worse, especially if you remember how this Concorde flew. Both cars, the Tu-144 and the Concorde, faced their own set of difficulties.

The Soviet airliner could, to a certain extent, not give a damn about fuel efficiency and, in general, about various kinds of market factors that impede rapid entry into the market (this always happens when a fundamentally new technical system appears, the development of which collapses already existing niches). But its development was hampered by technical miscalculations in the design, insufficient manufacturability, and mainly by a very narrow scope of application.

The Soviet Union could not find a sufficient number of long-distance interesting routes within the country for the Tu-144. No one would have allowed a Soviet airliner to enter the transatlantic route from Paris or London to New York, just as no one would have given Western companies with Boeing the internal Soviet air transportation market.

(Even at the moment, let me remind you, there are plenty of Boeings in our country, but foreigners are still not allowed on domestic flights.) It would be difficult for the Tu-144 to integrate into the great continental route “Europe - Russia - Japan”.

“Concorde” was well developed technologically, received an acceptable basing system, and took root on transatlantic routes, but it was eaten up by “market factors.” As a result, he surrendered to the cheap and massive subsonic laborers, remaining a sort of curiosity that, on occasion, for big money, can be rented under a special charter (and this also did not allow him to pay off).

As a result, when the liner crashed near Paris in 2000, the operators couldn’t even breathe a sigh of relief - well, they say, now they can write it off with a clear conscience.

Children of the wrong future

John Tolkien once said: "It is not difficult to invent a green sun; it is much more difficult to create a world in which it would look natural." To paraphrase this maxim in the context that interests us, we can say: creating a supersonic airliner is not as difficult as creating supersonic civil aviation and the corresponding air transportation industry.

Because aviation is not only about airplanes. These are airfields, rules and personnel. This is the market, finally. Supersonic aircraft required "supersonic infrastructure" to win the skies.

But the triumphant alternative amid the fuel crisis of the mid-1970s was those who were able to squeeze out tedious percentages of profits without radically restructuring the entire airline industry. You know them very well - all these big-faced subsonic long-haul Boeings squeezed the Concorde even from its native transatlantic route.

It turned out that they easily and cheaply do the necessary work in a tolerable time. And speed comes at a cost. And the closer we get to our era, the more obviously the high speed of movement in physical space has begun to give way to the speed, reliability and capacity of communication channels. The world of the 1950s-1960s, understood as a constant increase in human mobility in space, has given way to a world in which moving, in general, is no longer always necessary for high mobility.

The world of supersonic civil aviation is not our world, let’s be aware of this. Our world can still become different, but in its current form, the Tu-144 and Concorde, in general, have nothing to do in it, even if all the technical problems are solved and half the planet is flooded with cheap kerosene.

However, the 1970s were too bad for breaking the mold and building civil aviation anew.

Did not work out. Let these swift beauties now stand in museums and remind us that the future has many options, and its shadows whimsically fight in the present for human souls. So that later the owners of these souls would proclaim with an important air that everything happened the way it happened, because “it couldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Tu-144 - the beginning of the creation of supersonic passenger airliners. The flights of military strategic aircraft aroused the interest of aviation designers, primarily due to their speed, range and large payload.

The development of passenger supersonic ships began simultaneously in several highly developed countries. For Russia this was the first post-war decade.

The history of the creation of a supersonic passenger airliner

A resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR marked the beginning of the creation of a new generation passenger aircraft.

It was planned to design an aircraft with a passenger capacity of up to 150 people, a flight speed of at least 2,500 km per hour, and a flight range, with overload tolerance, of 6,500 kilometers. The design and development of the superplane was entrusted to the design department of Tupolev A.N.

The son of A.N. Tupolev, Alexey Andreevich, was appointed head of the department leading the work on creating a supersonic airliner. This department included specialists in the following profiles:

• designers;
• technologists, whose responsibilities included preparing materials for the aircraft;
• Strength engineers responsible for strength, rigidity and service life.

Tupolev Jr. stood before the creation of the aircraft of the future, the role of which was determined not simply by technological superiority over the West, but rather by its political confrontation. Under the leadership of Yuri Popov, appointed by Tupolev Jr. as leading designer, the team of the design department of Tupolev A.N. completes work on the creation of a superplane.

The supersonic airliner took to the skies in the last days of 1968, two months ahead of the Western-style flight. Two months later, the Concorde, a passenger plane designed by English and French designers, took off.

There were only two supersonic passenger aircraft in the world: TU=144 and Concorde. The crew of the supersonic passenger ship consisted of Aeroflot pilots who served as co-pilots; test pilots from the Tupolev design department were appointed as commanders.

The design of the Tu-144 superplane

The high speed of the aircraft included some features in its design:

• the aircraft is made according to the “tailless” low-wing design, which corresponds to the aerodynamic design, where only the planes built into the trailing edge of the wing are excluded;
• ailerons, aerodynamic elements of aircraft control, are a structure of four sections occupying the trailing edge of the aircraft wing consoles, ensuring its reliable control; the keel is a multi-spar device combined with the rear part of the ship's hull, its internal part is used as a fuel caisson tank for fuel;
• The fuselage is made with a cockpit fairing that tilts downwards and longitudinal side windows. This design provides full visibility in front of the ship during its takeoff, climb and flight at a constant speed;
• the forward part of the fuselage is equipped as a cockpit;
• in the central part there is a passenger compartment, which has a sealed structure together with the crew cabin; the rear part of the fuselage has a sealed structure, arranged as a caisson-tank for fuel; at the end of this compartment there is a container for the braking element (parachute);
• three-post chassis with front strut wheels with a twin wheel design.

In the Soviet Union, the Tu-144 represented the only supersonic passenger vehicle, the speed of which was twice the speed of sound. The plane covered the distance from Moscow to the Turkish capital in 40 minutes. Currently, the operation of the supersonic vehicle has been discontinued.

Some structures were cut up and sold for scrap. The surviving copies are the property of Aviation Museums. The creation of a supersonic air passenger structure can be considered a prestige program that does not have the economic need to use this level of aviation services.

• Tu-144S (“004”) - Production aircraft with NK-144A.
• Tu-144D (“004D”) - Production aircraft with RD-36-51A.
• Tu-144LL - Flying laboratory with NK-32-1.

Tu-144 modifications

• Tu-144 (“044”)- prototype (1968)
• Tu-144S (“004”)- Serial aircraft with NK-144A. (1971)
• Tu-144D (“004D”)- Serial aircraft with RD-36-51A. (1974)
• Tu-144DA- project with “61” engines. (late 70's)
• Tu-144P- jammer project. (late 70's)
• Tu-144PR- project of the reconnaissance director. (late 70's)
• Tu-144K
• Tu-144KP- project of an aviation-missile complex. (late 70's)
• DP-2- long-range interceptor project. (late 70's)
• Tu-144LL- Flying laboratory based on Tu-144D with NK-32-1. (1996)

Tu-144 diagram

Passenger supersonic

The successes in the creation of supersonic combat aircraft, including the heavy class, in the 50s created a favorable environment for studying the possibility of creating a supersonic passenger aircraft (SPS). In the second half of the 50s, first experimental and then serial supersonic heavy military aircraft appeared on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and almost immediately, on their basis, the world's leading aviation companies prepared SPS projects of various aerodynamic and layout designs. A detailed analysis and further development of the proposed SPS projects based on the first supersonic bombers showed that creating an effective competitive SPS by modifying a military prototype is an extremely difficult task (in contrast to the process of creating the first jet passenger aircraft based on subsonic heavy combat aircraft). The first supersonic heavy combat aircraft, in their design solutions, mainly met the requirements of a relatively short-term supersonic flight. For the SPS, it was necessary to ensure long-term cruising flight at speeds corresponding to at least M = 2, plus the specifics of the task of transporting passengers required a significant increase in the reliability of all elements of the aircraft structure, subject to more intensive operation, taking into account the increase in the duration of flights in supersonic modes. Gradually, analyzing all possible options for technical solutions, aviation experts, both in the USSR and in the West, came to the firm opinion that a cost-effective ATP must be designed as a fundamentally new type of aircraft.

The A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau approached the solution to the problem of designing SPS in the early 60s. The OKB's first technical proposals for SPS were mainly based on long-range bomber projects: primarily on projects of the Tu-22 family aircraft ("105A" and "106A" - "134"), as well as the project of the strategic strike aircraft "135" - 135P. Later, when work began on the Tu-144, S.M. Yeger proposed a preliminary design of the Tu-144 with NK-144 engines, which in its layout solutions repeated the Tu-135P project. In addition to the OKB of A.N. Tupolev, preliminary work on the topic of SPS in the USSR was carried out by OKB-23 of V.M. Myasishchev. In this design bureau at the end of the 50s, based on technical solutions for the strategic carrier aircraft M-50/M-52 and M-56/M-57, proposals were prepared for several original SPS projects (M-53, M-55A, M-55B and M-55V).

The beginning of the 60s was marked by the development of practical work on the Anglo-French SPS "Concorde" (the beginning of research on the topic in 1955-1956) with a cruising supersonic flight speed of more than M = 2 and a flight range with 120-140 passengers on board 6000-6500 km . At the same time, the main US aviation companies, based on their vision of the market for future SPS, began work on designing a much larger SPS than the Concorde, designed to transport 250-300 passengers at a cruising speed of up to M = 3 at a range of 7000-8000 km (projects companies Boeing, Lockheed, Douglas).

Creation

An analysis of the conditions for the existence of the future SPS, carried out in the USSR in relation to the level of domestic aircraft manufacturing and its immediate prospects, as well as the economic capabilities of the country and the needs of the Civil Air Fleet, showed that for the USSR the most preferable way is to create a domestic SPS, in terms of its expected flight performance data, close to the English -French Concorde. During the creation of the Soviet SPS, domestic aviation science and industry were faced with a number of scientific and technical problems that our subsonic passenger and military supersonic aviation had not encountered. First of all, to ensure the required flight performance characteristics of the SPS (two-mach flight at a range of up to 6500 km with 100-120 passengers, combined with acceptable takeoff and landing data), it was necessary to ensure a significant improvement in the aerodynamic perfection of the aircraft during cruising flights at M = 2-2, 2. The aerodynamic quality in these modes had to be increased to 7.5-8.0, which significantly exceeded the values ​​​​obtained for the aerodynamic designs of domestic heavy supersonic combat aircraft of that period (the calculated value of Kmax for M = 2 for the Tu-22 was 4.4 ; for M-50 - 5.5; for M-52 - 5.6; for Tu-135 and M-56 - 6.4). It was necessary to solve the issues of stability and controllability of a heavy aircraft when flying in subsonic, transonic and supersonic regions, to develop practical methods for balancing the aircraft in all these modes, taking into account minimizing aerodynamic losses. A long flight at speed M=2 was associated with research and ensuring the structural strength of airframe units at elevated temperatures (close to 100-120? C); it was necessary to create heat-resistant structural materials, lubricants, sealants, as well as develop types of structures capable of long-term operation in conditions of cyclic aerodynamic heating. Very high demands were placed on the power plant units: it was necessary to create powerful and economical engines that operate stably in supersonic flight conditions, to solve the problems of regulating air intakes operating in a wide range of altitudes and speeds, ensuring regulation of the required air flow at the inlet with the lowest possible aerodynamic losses. It was most rational to carry out a long supersonic cruising flight at high altitudes; accordingly, the head and unit design bureaus were tasked with developing principles for creating new air conditioning systems, and then specific units and systems that would provide comfortable conditions for passengers and crew at high altitudes (up to 20 km ) and during long flights with significant heating of the airframe structural elements. It was necessary to create a number of new devices and systems that provide automatic flight control, accurate navigation in conditions of long-term supersonic flight and automatic landing. There is a need to study the environmental features of ATP operation associated with the release of large amounts of engine exhaust gases into the atmosphere at high altitudes and their impact on the ozone layer, the effects of noise and sonic boom on people, animals and buildings, the impact of long flights at high altitudes on passengers and crew associated with exposure to solar radiation. When creating the ATP, based on the conditions for its painless implementation into the existing transport system, it was necessary to take into account the features of domestic and international air transportation systems when designing the ATP, existing airports and air traffic control.

All these tasks, with the involvement of Western experience to a certain extent, were studied in detail at TsAGI, at the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau, and other design bureaus involved in the program for creating the Soviet SPS. The official basis for the start of work on the domestic first-generation SPS (SPS-1), designated Tu-144, was Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers No. 798-271 of July 16, 1963 and MAP Order No. 276 of July 26 of the same year. OKB A.N. Tupolev was asked to design and build an SPS with a cruising flight speed of 2300-2700 km/h, the practical range of a supersonic flight with 80-100 passengers was specified as 4000-4500 km; in the overload version with additional fuel tanks and with 30-50 passengers - 6000-6500 km. Operation from first class airfields with a normal take-off weight of 120-130 tons. It was planned to build 5 copies of the Tu-144 in 1966-1967 (2 copies for strength tests). Considering the technical difficulty of obtaining the maximum flight range of the first domestic SPS, it was decided to carry out work in two stages: at the first stage, the practical flight range achieved was to be 4000-4500 km, at the second stage the Tu-144 was to reach a range of 6500 km. The engines for the Tu-144, in accordance with CIAM recommendations, were specified as dual-circuit turbofans with afterburners. OKB N.D. Kuznetsov, based on the DTRD NK-8 gas generator, undertook to create for the future Soviet SPS DTRDF, designated NK-144, with a take-off thrust of 20,000 kgf and specific fuel consumption in supersonic cruising mode at the level of 1.35-1.45 kg/kgf hour. It should be noted that the success of the Tu-144 project depended to a large extent on the success of the engine builders. The choice for the Tu-144 DTRDF, operating in afterburner at cruising modes, was by no means controversial; it made it possible to obtain for the Tu-144 an engine that is less thermally stressed (and therefore more reliable and less expensive), as well as a more optimized engine for flights in a wider range of altitudes and speeds than in the case of choosing a single-circuit turbojet engine. Great doubts were raised about the possibility of obtaining moderate fuel consumption at cruising modes with this type of engine and, as a consequence, ensuring the required flight range. All this was not a big secret either for the Tupolevites or for the MAP.

Even at the design stage of the Myasishchevsky supersonic strategic carriers M-50/M-52 and M-56, as well as the development of the SPS M-53 and M-55 projects, OKB-23 received calculated results indicating that it was possible to obtain an acceptable supersonic range flying a heavy aircraft is quite possible, provided that engines with specific fuel consumption within 1.2 kg/kgf/hour are used. Such an engine was created in prototypes by the beginning of the 60s in the USSR - it was a single-circuit non-afterburning turbojet engine “16-17” (take-off thrust 18,000 kgf, specific fuel consumption at cruising mode 1.15 k/kgf hour), developed at the Design Bureau -16 P.F. Zubtsa. The Anglo-French, when choosing the type of engine for their Concorde, took an intermediate compromise path, choosing for it a single-circuit turbofan Bristol "Olympus" 593 with a small degree of boost and specific fuel consumption in afterburner of 1.327 kg/kgf hour (take-off thrust in afterburner 17200 kgf) . Unfortunately, work on Myasishchev’s projects for heavy supersonic vehicles was closed, and accordingly, in the early 60s in the USSR, the line of development of powerful, economical, afterburning, single-circuit turbojet engines was temporarily interrupted (0KB-16 was transferred to the theme of solid propellant rocket engines), and, as a result, the design began Tu-144, OKB A.N. Tupolev had to take a technical risk, relying on the DTRDF NK-144. Soon, in 1964, when the design of the Tu-144 with NK-144 was in full swing, it was decided to revive work on economical, powerful afterburning turbojet engines for the SPS: OKB-36, under the leadership of P.A. Kolesov, began designing the single-circuit turbojet engine RD-36- 51 for the Tu-144 with a maximum take-off thrust of 20,000 kgf and an expected specific fuel consumption in cruising supersonic flight mode of 1.23 kg/kgf hour (work on the RD-36-51 was carried out simultaneously with the design of another powerful single-circuit turbojet engine RD-Z6-41 for long-range supersonic strike aircraft T-4 of the P.O. Sukhoi Design Bureau).

Andrei Nikolaevich decided to entrust the design of the Tu-144 to Department “K”, which had previously dealt with unmanned vehicles and had sufficient experience in the field of mastering long-term flight at speeds exceeding M=2 (attack unmanned aircraft Tu-121, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft - serial Tu-123 and experimental Tu-139). Andrei Nikolaevich appointed A.A. Tupolev as the chief designer and head of work on the Tu-144. It was under his leadership, with the involvement of the best forces of domestic aviation science and technology, that the ideology and future appearance of the Tu-144 was born in Department “K”. Subsequently, after the death of A.N. Tupolev and the appointment of A.A. Tupolev as the head of the enterprise, the Tu-144 project was led by Yu.N. Popov and B.A. Gantsevsky. Soon the Tu-144 becomes one of the main and priority topics in the activities of the Design Bureau and the entire MAP for the next 10 years.

The aerodynamic appearance of the Tu-144 was determined mainly by obtaining a long flight range in supersonic cruising mode, subject to obtaining the required stability and controllability characteristics and specified take-off and landing characteristics. Based on the promised specific costs of the NK-144, at the initial design stage the task was set to achieve Kmax = 7 in supersonic cruising flight mode. For overall economic, technological, and weight considerations, the cruising flight Mach number was taken to be 2.2. During the development of the aerodynamic configuration of the Tu-144 at the Design Bureau and TsAGI, several dozen possible options were considered. A “normal” design with horizontal tail surfaces in the rear fuselage was studied, but it was abandoned, since such tail surfaces contributed up to 20% to the overall drag balance of the aircraft. They also abandoned the canard design, having assessed the problem of the influence of the destabilizer on the main wing. Finally, based on the conditions for obtaining the required aerodynamic quality and obtaining minimal focus spreads at subsonic and supersonic speeds, we settled on the design of a low-wing aircraft - “tailless” with a composite triangular wing of an ogive shape (the wing was formed by two triangular surfaces with a sweep angle along the leading edge of 78° - for the front floating parts and 55° for the rear base part), with four turbofan engines located under the wing, with a vertical tail located along the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, and a three-legged retractable landing gear. The airframe's design mainly used traditional aluminum alloys. The wing was formed from symmetrical profiles and had a complex twist in two directions: longitudinal and transverse. This achieved the best flow around the wing surface in supersonic mode, in addition, such a twist helped to improve the longitudinal balancing in this mode. Elevons were located along the entire trailing edge of the wing, consisting of four sections on each half-wing. The wing structure is multi-spar, with a powerful working skin made of solid plates made of aluminum alloys; the central part of the wing and elevons were made of titanium alloys. The elevon sections were driven by two irreversible boosters. The rudder was also deflected using irreversible boosters and consisted of two sections independent of each other. The aerodynamic shape of the fuselage was selected from the conditions for obtaining minimal drag in supersonic mode. To achieve this, they even went to some extent to complicate the design of the aircraft. A characteristic feature of the Tu-144 was the lowering, well-glazed nose of the fuselage in front of the pilot's cabin, which provided good visibility at high takeoff and landing angles of attack inherent in an aircraft with a low aspect ratio wing. The lowering and raising of the forward part of the fuselage was carried out using a hydraulic drive. When designing the deflecting unsealed part and its units, it was possible to maintain the smoothness of the skin at the junction of the moving part with the sealed cabin and the rest of the fuselage surface.

The shape of the engine nacelles was determined mainly by layout considerations and reliability conditions of the power plant. Four NK-144 DTRDFs were placed close to each other under the wing. Each engine had its own air intake, and two adjacent air intakes were combined into a common block. Underwing air intakes are flat with a horizontal wedge. Flow deceleration at supersonic flight speeds was carried out in three oblique shock waves, a direct closing shock and a subsonic diffuser. The operation of each air intake was ensured by an automatic control system, which changed the position of the wedge panels and the bypass flap depending on the operating mode of the NK-144 engine. The length of the engine nacelles was determined by the size of the engines and the requirements of TsAGI and CIAM to ensure the required length of the air intake channels for normal operation of the engines. It should be noted that in contrast to the design of the air intakes and engines of the Concorde, where this process proceeded as a single whole, the design of the NK-144 and engine nacelles with air intakes proceeded as two largely independent processes, which led to some extent to the oversizing of the engine nacelles and subsequently to many mutual inconsistencies in the operation of engines and the air intake system. It was planned, as on the Concorde, to introduce a landing braking system by reversing the engines; the reverse was planned to be installed on the two outer engines (the reverse system was not completed, as a result, the experimental and production vehicles were operated with a braking parachute).

Tu-144 cabin equipment [JPEG 468x300 44]

The main landing gear was retracted into the wing, the nose gear was retracted into the front part of the fuselage into the space between the two air intake blocks. The small construction height of the wing required a reduction in the size of the wheels; as a result, a twelve-wheeled trolley with wheels of a relatively small diameter was used in the main landing gear. The main fuel supply was located in the wing caisson tanks. The forward wing caisson tanks and the additional keel tank served to balance the aircraft. The main work on the selection of the optimal aerodynamic design of the Tu-144 at the OKB was headed by G.A. Cheremukhin; issues of optimizing the power plant for the project were dealt with by a division headed by V.M. Bul. On the Tu-144, many fundamental solutions of the remote control system were actually applied, in particular, the steering units for driving the aircraft controls processed signals from the system for improving stability and controllability along the longitudinal and track channels. In some modes, this measure made it possible to fly during static instability. The choice of the ideology of the Tu-144 control system is largely the merit of G.F. Naboishchikov. L.M. Rodnyansky, who previously worked on control systems at the Design Bureau of P.O. Sukhoi and V.M., made a great contribution to the creation and implementation of this fundamentally new control system. Myasishchev, and in the early 60s did a lot to fine-tune the very “crude” control system of the Tu-22. The cockpit was designed taking into account the requirements of modern ergonomics; it was designed for four people: the two front seats were occupied by the first and second pilot, behind them was the flight engineer, the fourth seat on the first prototype was intended for the experimental engineer. In the future, it was planned to limit the crew to three pilots. The decoration and layout of the Tu-144 passenger cabin met international requirements for modern design and comfort; the latest finishing materials were used in their finishing. The flight and navigation equipment of the Tu-144 was equipped with the most advanced systems that domestic avionics could provide at that time: a perfect autopilot and an on-board electronic computer automatically maintained the course; pilots could see on a screen located on the instrument panel where the plane was currently located and how many kilometers were left to their destination; landing approach was carried out automatically at any time of the day in difficult weather conditions, etc. - all this was a serious leap forward for our aviation.

The Tu-144 model was first shown in 1965 at the Paris Air Show, where it was announced that the first flight was scheduled for 1968.

Construction of the first prototype Tu-144 (“044”) began in 1965, while a second prototype was being built for static testing. The experimental “044” was initially designed for 98 passengers, later this figure was increased to 120. Accordingly, the estimated take-off weight increased from 130 tons to 150 tons. The prototype machine was built in Moscow in the workshops of the MMZ "Experience", some of the units were manufactured at its branches. In 1967, the assembly of the main elements of the aircraft was completed. At the end of 1967, the experimental “044” was transported to ZhLI and DB, where throughout 1968, finishing work was carried out and the vehicle was equipped with missing systems and units.

Tests

At the same time, flights of an analogue of the MiG-21I (A-144, “21-11”), created on the basis of the MiG-21S fighter, began at the LII airfield. An analogue was created at the A.I. Mikoyan Design Bureau and had a wing geometrically and aerodynamically similar to the wing of the experimental “044”. A total of two “21-11” aircraft were built; many test pilots flew on them, including those who were to test the Tu-144, in particular E.V. Elyan. The analogue aircraft successfully flew at speeds of 2500 km/h, and the materials from these flights served as the basis for the final adjustment of the Tu-144 wing, and also allowed test pilots to prepare for the behavior of an aircraft with such a wing.

At the end of 1968, the experimental “044” (tail number 68001) was ready for its first flight. A crew was assigned to the vehicle, consisting of: the ship's commander, Honored Test Pilot E.V. Elyan (who later received the Hero of the Soviet Union for the Tu-144); co-pilot - Honored Test Pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov; leading test engineer V.N. Benderov and flight engineer Yu.T. Seliverstov. Considering the novelty and unusual nature of the new car, the OKB made an extraordinary decision: for the first time, they decided to install ejection crew seats on an experimental passenger car. During the month, engine races, runs, and final ground checks of the systems were carried out. From the beginning of the third decade of December 1968, “044” was in pre-launch readiness, the vehicle and crew were fully prepared for the first flight, during all these ten days there was no weather over the LII airfield and the experienced Tu-144 remained on the ground. Finally, on the last day of the year 1968, 25 seconds after the start, “044” for the first time took off from the runway of the LII airfield and quickly gained altitude. The first flight lasted 37 minutes, during the flight the car was accompanied by an analogue aircraft “21-11”. According to the crew's reviews, the car showed itself to be obedient and “flyable.” The first flight was attended by A.N. Tupolev, A.A. Tupolev, and many heads of OKB departments.

The first flight of the Tu-144 became an event of world significance and an important moment in the history of domestic and world aviation. For the first time, a supersonic passenger plane took off and it was an aircraft built in the USSR; the first Concorde would take flight only on March 2, 1969. It has been proven in practice that heavy tailless aircraft have citizenship rights in the USSR (before this flight, everything was limited to a large number of heavy tailless aircraft).

The second flight (50 min) took place on January 8, 1969, and six months later, on June 5, 1969, the prototype aircraft exceeded supersonic speed for the first time at an altitude of 11,000 m; by May 1970, the aircraft was flying at speeds M = 1.25-1.6 at altitudes up to 15,000 m. On May 26, 1970, the Tu-144 for the first time in the history of civil aviation reached a speed of 2150 km/h (M=2) at an altitude of 16,300 m. On November 12, 1970, in an hour-long flight, “044” flew for half an hour at a speed exceeding 2000 km/h, at an altitude of 16960 m, a maximum speed of 2430 km/h was reached. By the fall of 1970, the prototype had flown 100 hours.

The plane was first shown publicly on May 21, 1970 at Sheremetyevo Airport. During testing, the experimental vehicle repeatedly flew outside the USSR; in May-June 1971, “044” took part in the salon in Le Bourget, where it “met” for the first time with the Anglo-French Concorde. Her flight to Bulgaria took only 1 hour: taking off in Moscow at 9 am, he landed in Sofia also at 9 am. The cruising speed at an altitude of 16 km was 2300 km/h. This altitude was reached at a distance of about 350 km in 18 minutes.

Design

The Tu-144 is a tailless low-wing aircraft. The ogival wing with its tip deflected downward has a leading edge sweep angle of 78° in the fuselage parts and 55° throughout the rest. The aircraft wing (extensions 1.74 and tapers 7, multi-spar design) consists of a main and detachable parts and has a caisson structure with a force-loaded skin in the form of milled large panels of a wafer structure made of high-strength aluminum alloys.

The aircraft is controlled using four-section elevons (on each console) and a two-section rudder located on the classic vertical tail. The keel of the aircraft, as well as the wing, is of multi-spar construction and is made integral with the rear part of the fuselage. The internal volume of the keel is used as a fuel caisson tank.

The fuselage has a circular cross-section and has a cockpit nose cone that slopes downward at an angle of 12° during takeoff and 17° during landing. The prototype's cockpit glazing consists of two front windows as well as side windows. The nose cone is equipped with four longitudinal, extended side windows to provide forward visibility during ascent and during cruising flight. The prototype fuselage was designed to accommodate 100-121 passengers.

The fuselage, consisting of stringers, beams and frames fastened to the skin, is structurally divided into 3 parts: bow, central and tail. The nose section houses the cockpit (with a canopy integrated into the contours of the fuselage) and a deflectable nose fairing made in the form of a multilayer structure made of fiberglass with honeycomb core. The central part, in which the passenger compartments are located, together with the bow part, forms a single sealed compartment. The edgings of portholes, entrance, service and emergency doors are made of milled panels. The rear part of the fuselage, being a fuel caisson tank, is made sealed. Its tip is a drogue parachute container.

The chassis is three-post. The front pillar has twin wheels. In the prototypes, the main struts were equipped with 12-wheel bogies (3 axles) retractable in the wing console. This scheme for retracting the landing gear was due to the fact that, unlike the Concorde, the space under the fuselage was occupied by a package of engines. To accommodate the wheels in the wing, their diameter had to be reduced and their number increased.

The airframe of the aircraft is designed for a service life of 30,000 hours and is made of aluminum and titanium alloys (mainly in the form of monolithic enlarged structures). Titanium alloys are widely used in the design of air intakes, engine nacelles and wings.

Equipment. The aircraft is equipped with modern electronic equipment that provides automatic control during takeoff, flight and landing in difficult weather conditions. For the first time on a domestic passenger aircraft, flight and navigation equipment was made using digital computer technology. Thanks to this, the aircraft crew consists of only three people: two pilots and a flight engineer (the flight route is also controlled by on-board automation). The aircraft is controlled using an electro-hydraulic system with irreversible hydraulic boosters. In the pitch, heading and roll channels, automatic loading of command control levers is used, which operate depending on the angle of their deflection, as well as the speed and altitude of the flight. In addition, an automatic balancing system is used in the pitch channel.

All major aircraft systems have multiple redundancies, which significantly increases reliability. In general, the Tu-144 was created in accordance with international airworthiness standards for passenger aircraft.

Power point.

The prototype aircraft used a power plant consisting of four NK-144 turbofan engines designed by N.D. Kuznetsova. The engines were installed in a package under the fuselage, which reduced the possible turning moment when part of them failed. The nozzle exit is located in a plane lying approximately halfway along the elevon chord. Multi-mode bypass engines with afterburner were supposed to make it possible to operate the Tu-144 on both medium (subsonic flight) and long-range (supersonic) routes.

The first prototype aircraft had two external engines equipped with thrust reversers. Thanks to the large power supply, wing mechanization, braking devices and reverse thrust, the Tu-144 can be operated at all 1st class airfields with concrete runways 3000 m long, designed to accommodate modern subsonic heavy jet aircraft. However, on the aircraft demonstrated in 1971, the thrust reverser was replaced by a braking parachute. The engines are equipped with individual adjustable rectangular air intakes. The position of the air intakes relative to the fuselage corresponds to the position of oblique shock waves under the wing during flight at cruising speed.

The fuel is placed in wing caisson tanks (about 70,000 kg in experimental aircraft). The aircraft has balancing tanks, which are located in the rear of the fuselage and wing flaps and are designed to change the position of the aircraft's center of gravity during the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight speeds.

Explosion safety of fuel tanks is ensured by double nitriding of the fuel.

State

The “044” was powered by experimental NK-144 engines with a specific fuel consumption in supersonic cruising mode of 2.23 kg/kgf/hour; with such specific consumption during testing, the Tu-144 managed to reach a supersonic flight range of 2920 km, which was significantly less than the required range . In addition, during the test we encountered some design flaws: during flights, increased vibration and heating of the rear fuselage from the quad engine package were observed; even titanium structures did not help. Having completed the test flight program “044” (about 150 flights in total), it remained in one prototype. No more was required of her; she accomplished her task of proving the technical feasibility of creating a supersonic passenger aircraft in the USSR. It was necessary to move forward, improving the design of the aircraft and engines.

Post for the birthday of the great Russian aircraft designer Tupolev ">Post for the birthday of the great Russian aircraft designer Tupolev " alt="TU-144. The sad story of an aircraft that was ahead of its time Post for the birthday of the great Russian aircraft designer Tupolev!}">

Today, on the birthday of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev (1988-1972), the legendary aircraft manufacturer who designed more than 100 aircraft, Babr decided to recall a post about the pinnacle of aircraft engineering thought, about the legend, and, in our opinion, the best passenger aircraft in the history of mankind - Tu- 144 and his tragic fate

Once upon a time, in childhood, many Soviet boys had on a shelf in their room a model of an unusual airplane, bowing its nose like a heron. Unusual contours, huge engines and funny “ears” - everything said that this was not just a plane with the inscription USSR on its triangular wings.

From Mokva to Turkey in 40 minutes!

The plane is interesting because that it was the only supersonic passenger aircraft in the USSR.

For those who are not strong in physics, he flew 2 times faster than the speed of sound. Those. if he were flying awayshout something after the plane, the plane will fly away faster than the sound reaches it. At two times.

From Moscow to Turkey the plane flew in 40 minutes at a speed of 2200km/h, and nothing prevented you from ending up in America 3.5 hours after takeoff.

After flying on such a huge speed, the wings and skin of the “Carcass” heated up to 150 degrees.The pilots even joked: “When we land, put the kettle on the wing and brew some tea.”

Flight routes and projected profitability of flights when fully loaded with passengers.

Just think about it: work on the creation of the Tu-144 began in the mid-50s of the 20th century, just 10 years after the end of the War! Just imagine the incredible level of progress our country has achieved, despite being half in ruins!

Of similar aircraft in the world except Tu-144 there was only the well-known Concorde, so in the history of aviation there were only two supersonic passenger aircraft in the USSR and jointly in England and France.

It is worth noting that our Tu-144 was the first to be put into operation, namely on December 31, 1968. The first Concorde took off on March 2, 1969.

November 1, 1977- the start of operation of the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144 - the first flight No. 499 of this airliner was carried out on the route Domodedovo - Alma-Ata. The ticket cost 83 rubles 70 kopecks (22 rubles more expensive than the Il-62 or Tu-154). For comparison, 83 rubles is more than half the average salary of that time. There was a funny thing: after boarding the passengers and sealing the cabin, the airfield services were unable to clear the ramp - the batteries were dead. The fact is that special high-height escalators were built for the Tu-144, powered by electric batteries. They caused the incident, as a result of which the departure of the supersonic Tu-144 was delayed for half an hour.

For the first time in history domestic civil aviation, food on board the Tu-144 was served in individual packaging on trays served on the ground. Everyone who flew a Tu-144 had a stamp in their passport: “I flew a Tu-144.” And even the tickets for this plane were special, with special markings - the type of aircraft “Tu-144” was indicated in the upper right corner.

Aeroflot pilots Only co-pilots flew on such aircraft; test pilots from the Tupolev design bureau were always appointed commanders of the aircraft. In total, 55 flights were made and 3,194 passengers were transported. The Tu-144 also had 11 first class seats, apparently for very influential passengers.

Unusual nose design The TU-144 was due to its high flight speed and sweep of the fuselage: during takeoff and landing, the nose “pecked down” and straightened out during flight. Of course, it would be possible to fly and land with the nose extended, but then the pilots would not be able to see the runway.

“The shapes of the supersonic passenger airliner Tu-144 are elegant and swift... The spacious cabins of the aircraft, the color scheme of which can be made taking into account the traditions of individual airlines, can comfortably accommodate 120 passengers... Short travel time, high regularity of flights, excellent comfort for passengers, flexibility and efficiency in using the aircraft - all this opens it up for its operation on many airlines.”

Number of serial production units built Tu-144 (16 units) and Concorde (20 units) were approximately the same, but unlike the Tushka, the French aircraft were in active operation until the 90s, although it was unprofitable - it received money from the state.

London ticket price- New York in 1986 was 2745 USD. Only very wealthy and busy people, for whom the formula “time is money” is the main credo of existence, could and can afford such expensive flights. There are such people in the West, and for them, flying on Concorde is a natural saving of time and money. In the USSR, there were no rich business people for whom time would turn into money. So, the service market that was supposed to satisfy the Tu-144 simply did not exist in the USSR. The plane obviously had to become largely unprofitable for Aeroflot, flying half empty.

Therefore, the creation program The Tu-144 can to a large extent be attributed to the country's prestige program, which is not met by the real economic needs of the domestic aviation services market.

At the time of preparing this post, Babr involuntarily drew an analogy between the TU-144 project and the BAM. Bothprojects - unimaginable in their scale and ambition, at the peak of humanIn reality, practically no one needed the opportunities.

Currently, none of the 144 are in operation. Some of them, after several flights, were scrapped, while others are museum exhibits. For example, the Civil Aviation Museum in Ulyanovsk has preserved one of the Tu-144s in very good condition. For a small fee, you will be shown around the cabin and even allowed into the cockpit of the legendary aircraft, which made only 8 flights. Being inside, an unusual feeling arises - a feeling of touching something grandiose, huge ambitions and the colossal work of its creators.

On December 31, 1968, the experimental supersonic aircraft Tu-144 (tail number USSR-68001) made its first flight. The Tu-144 managed to take off two months earlier than its Anglo-French competitor, the Concorde airliner, which made its first flight on March 2, 1969.

Tu-144 is a supersonic passenger aircraft developed in the 1960s by the design bureau of Andrei Tupolev (now Tupolev OJSC, part of the United Aircraft Corporation).

Research into the development of a supersonic passenger aircraft (SPS) began in the late 1950s in the USA, England and France. In the early 1960s, the first preliminary designs of the SPS already appeared. This was the reason for the development of a similar aircraft in the USSR. On July 16, 1963, a resolution was issued by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the creation of the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau SPS Tu-144 with four jet engines and on the construction of a batch of such aircraft.” Alexey Tupolev was appointed lead designer for the aircraft (since 1973 Boris Gantsevsky, since 1979 Valentin Bliznyuk). General management was carried out by Andrey Tupolev. The development of the engine was entrusted to the Nikolai Kuznetsov Design Bureau.

When working on the project, the developers had to face a number of complex technical problems: aerodynamics, kinetic heating, elastic and thermal deformations of the structure, new lubricants and sealing materials, new life support systems for passengers and crew. The development of the design and aerodynamics of the wing required a lot of effort (200 options were studied in the wind tunnel). The use of titanium alloys in construction required the creation of new machines and welding machines. These problems, together with the Andrei Tupolev Design Bureau, were solved by specialists from the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI), the Central Institute of Aviation Engine Engineering (CIAM), the Siberian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation (SibNIA) and other organizations. Since 1965, regular consultations have been held with the designers of the French company Aerospatial, which developed the Concorde SPS. During the preparation of working drawings, more than 1,000 specialists were seconded from the design bureau of Oleg Antonov and Sergei Ilyushin. When designing the aircraft, two analogue aircraft of the MiG-21I were used as a working model (now one of them is stored in the Air Force Museum in Monino).

In July 1965, the preliminary design of the Tu-144 was ready. In the same year, a model of an aircraft with a wingspan of about two meters was exhibited at the air show in Le Bourget (France). On June 22, 1966, a full-size mockup of the aircraft was approved. In parallel with the design, the experimental production of the OKB in Zhukovsky was producing two prototypes (flight and for static tests). The Voronezh and Kuibyshev aircraft factories also participated in their production.

On December 31, 1968, the crew led by test pilot Eduard Elyan took it into the air for the first time. On June 5, 1969, the prototype reached the speed of sound, and on June 26, 1970, it doubled it. For testing the Tu-144, Eduard Elyan was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Simultaneously with the flight tests, research was carried out at 80 ground stands, where all the most important design and layout solutions were worked out. With the help of these stands, for the first time in the USSR, a comprehensive system for assessing failures taking into account their consequences was developed. State tests continued until May 15, 1977. On October 29, 1977, the aircraft received an airworthiness certificate (for the first time in the USSR).

The Tu-144 was first shown at an aviation festival at Sheremetyevo Airport on May 21, 1970. In the summer of 1971, trial operation of the prototype began at Aeroflot. Flights were made from Moscow to Prague (Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic), Berlin (GDR, now Germany), Warsaw (Poland), Sofia (Bulgaria). In 1972, the Tu-144 was demonstrated at air shows in Hanover (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary).

The first production Tu-144 was assembled in the spring of 1971 in Zhukovsky. In 1972, production began at the Voronezh Aviation Plant. A total of 16 aircraft were built. Another one remained unfinished. Production aircraft differed from the prototype by having a fuselage length increased by 5.7 meters, a slightly modified wing shape and the presence of retractable front wings. The number of seats for passengers increased from 120 to 140. The first flight of the production aircraft took place on September 20, 1972 on the route Moscow - Tashkent - Moscow. In March 1975, the Moscow-Alma-Ata high-speed airline opened (mail and cargo were transported). On October 20, 1977, the first flight with passengers was carried out.

The Tu-144 is an all-metal low-wing aircraft designed according to the “tailless” design. The aircraft's wing is triangular, of low aspect ratio, and has a variable sweep angle (76° at the root and 57° at the ends of the wing). The wing skin is made of solid aluminum alloy plates. Along the entire trailing edge there are elevons made of titanium alloys. Elevons and rudders are deflected using irreversible boosters (an auxiliary device to increase the force and speed of the main mechanism).

The aircraft has four turbojet bypass engines with an afterburner NK-144A designed by Nikolai Kuznetsov's OKB (on the Tu-144D - non-afterburning RD-36-51A designed by Peter Kolesov's OKB-36), which are located close to each other under the wing. Each engine has its own separate air intake. The air intakes are grouped in pairs.

The main volume of fuel is located in 18 wing tanks. A balancing tank is installed at the rear of the fuselage. Fuel was pumped into it during flight to shift the center of mass during the transition from subsonic to supersonic speed.

The aircraft has a tricycle landing gear with a nose strut. The main supports have a two-axle eight-wheel bogie. All wheels are equipped with brakes. The supports are retracted forward along the flight into niches between the air intake channels.

The cockpit is integrated into the contours of the fuselage and does not have the usual protruding canopy. Therefore, the forward unsealed part of the fuselage with the radar and antenna systems tilts down during takeoff and landing, opening the cockpit windshields for visual viewing. To improve takeoff and landing characteristics, a retractable front horizontal tail was used.

To increase the reliability of operation on the aircraft, quadruple redundancy of all major systems was used. An on-board electronic computer was used to control the aircraft. The landing approach could be carried out automatically at any time of the day and in any weather. For the first time in the USSR, the Tu-144 used an automatic system for monitoring the technical condition of on-board systems, which made it possible to reduce the labor intensity of maintenance. Baggage on the plane was placed in containers in the luggage compartments.

Basic technical data of the serial SPS Tu-144D:

The length of the aircraft without PVD is 64.45 m;

Wingspan - 28.8 m;

Aircraft height - 12.5 m;

Wing area with overflow - 506.35 sq. m;

Maximum take-off weight - 207000 kg;

The empty weight of the aircraft for the 150-passenger version is 99,200 kg;

Cruising supersonic flight speed - 2120 km/h;

Practical flight range, with commercial load:

7 tons (70 passengers) - 6200 km;

11-13 tons (110-130 passengers) - 5500-5700 km;

15 tons (150 passengers) - 5330 km.

Crew - 4 people.

The main disadvantages of the Tu-144 aircraft were the high cost of production and operation, increased noise, and it was not economical and consumed a large amount of fuel.

The creation and development of the Tu-144 became the largest and most complex program in the history of Soviet aircraft construction. As a result of long-term work, it was possible to create an aircraft of the highest world class, which in its basic flight performance characteristics is not inferior to the corresponding aircraft created in the West.

However, fate was unfair to the unique car. The first major failure was the crash on June 3, 1973, during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show, in which 14 people were killed - six crew members and eight Frenchmen on the ground - and 25 were injured.

May 23, 1978 - an improved prototype version of the aircraft, the Tu-144D, equipped with improved engines, made an emergency landing near Yegoryevsk near Moscow due to a fire caused by the destruction of one of the fuel lines. Two of the seven crew members on board were killed.

On June 1, 1978, Aeroflot management decided to cancel Tu-144 passenger flights. In addition to the disasters, the fate of the Tu-144 was affected by its commercial unprofitability.

One of the improved Tu-144Ds was used for some time on the Moscow-Khabarovsk line to deliver urgent cargo. In total, the Tu-144 made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, 55 of which were passenger flights.

Until the mid-1990s, Tu-144 aircraft were used for various tests, as well as for research into the ozone layer of the Earth's atmosphere, solar eclipses, and focused sonic boom. Cosmonauts undergoing training under the Buran program trained on the Tu-144. In July 1983, the Tu-144D set 13 world aviation records.

From 1995 to 1999, one significantly modified Tu-144D (No. 77114) called Tu-144LL was used by the American space agency NASA for research in the field of high-speed commercial flights in order to develop a plan for the creation of a new, modern supersonic passenger aircraft.

The experience gained during the creation of the Tu-144 was used in the development of heavy supersonic aircraft Tu-22M and Tu-160.

At the request of the Ministry of Science and by decision of the MAP, several aircraft were installed as exhibits on the territory of the Air Force Museum in Monino, the Civil Aviation Museum in Ulyanovsk, and aircraft factories in Voronezh, Kazan and Samara. One aircraft was sold to a private technology museum in Sinheim (Germany).

Several aircraft were melted down in the 1990s.

Two aircraft TU-144LL No. 77114, which was used for NASA tests, and TU-144D No. 77115 are stored at the airfield in Zhukovsky. One of them was exhibited at the MAKS air show, most recently in 2013.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources