Also a Beauty!

[Ivan]

That was the NASA one, RA-77144
They tried to sell it on the net, whitout the engines (as they came from the Tu-160 bomber)

[Theis]

Very nice bird there!!

Cheers Theis

[Souichiro]

That was the NASA one, RA-77144
They tried to sell it on the net, whitout the engines (as they came from the Tu-160 bomber)

Ok and did it sell?

You really know your way around this one! Cool!

[ATI_7500]

I really need to take a closer look at the 144 in Sinsheim. I'm just living 40kms away from it, but I haven't got around visiting the museum after they had put up the Tu.

[Souichiro]

I don't know where exactly but I guess Germany hasn't got two tu 144's but at one of the technik museums you have the Concorde and Concordski next too each other

[zcottovision]

Rumour has it that the Tupolev engineers stole plans of the Concorde as it was being designed. Rumour then goes on to say that the French and British designers knew they were going to steal plans, and that's why they left out ones with huge errors, which led to the slightly odd "canards" just behind the cockpit.

The Tupolev was built quicker and tested quicker than Concorde, but Concorde is the one that had the good design!

[|| Andy ||]

and that's why they left out ones with huge errors, which led to the slightly odd "canards" just behind the cockpit.

First one (Tu-144A) does look different (no canards, other cockpit window layout). Photos
After the Le Bourget crash they made a few adjustments (most visible one: Canards) and they had them in service for a few years between Moscow and Almaty.  

[Ivan]

SSSR-68001 is a totally different piece of kit compared to any of the SSSR-77xxx machines. the wheels are different (not easy to see but on 68001 they are fully outside of the engine bays while 77xxx has them between the engines), as is the whole nose and wing.

The canards, while looking quite weird, actually improve the landings (as NASA found out). These are full-functional small wings complete with flaps and slats. Aerospatiale never came up with canards, but the wingshape looks like one of the proposed Concorde wingshapes, but with quite different angle

Between the 144S and 144D they again changed the wing shape for better low speed handling, but (to add to the confustion) some of the early converted Tu-144S have the old wing

While they might look the same from a distance, they are totally different machines, built for different purposes. The Concorde was designed for transatlantic service, where it could fly lower whitout upsetting the people on the ground. The Tu-144 was designed for overland service where it neede to fly higher (20% better thrust-to-weight ratio in the Tu-144D and a different wing shape). The planned route to Cuba included a stop on the Azores.

About the guy who bought RA-77144... he did got the plane, but he can't get it out of Russia (seems that Tupolev wants to keep the engine installation intact), so it is now collecting dirt at Zhulkovski airbase

[Souichiro]

Well they got the an-225 flying so...........

Does anyone has a few milion to spare?



Save the Concordski!

[|| Andy ||]

mhmm, its a great piece of kit..
kinda like the vulcan....

why do all the best have to be grounded  :'(

[Souichiro]

Because the new ones are better/more economic

2 quotes after the final concorde flight:

Never untill now has mankind taken a step back in travelling untill now.


I cannot believe that I have to tell my daughter who has to fly to new york taking up 7* hours that we were able to do it in 3 in the past!

*how many hours does it take? London-Ny

[|| Andy ||]

*Too Long  ;D



I totally agree with those statements..

but the greener future awaits, and people are more conserned with Green Aircraft, than mach 2.0, airliners with a/b's...

[Souichiro]

So wind powered gliders are the way to go?

Haven't got a clue what an alternative method of fuel would be? Water? They'd first try it out on the cars though as they are doing now. So flying hydrogen bombs? Sounds cool

[|| Andy ||]

They want to use things like Fans....

So it would use less fuel.. But it wont work, so they'll go back to good old Jets..

[Souichiro]

Did you guys know that Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic wanted to buy a Concorde to do some kind of comercial flying with? We could have had one still flying