It was supposed to be a Soviet triumph. Instead, it became the most public crash in the history of Cold War aviation. A ...

Driven by Cold War rivalry, the Soviet Union’s rush to build the Tu-144 set records and raised eyebrows. This is the story of ...

One of the best examples of this competition has to be the case of supersonic passenger airliners, the Concorde and its Soviet equivalent, the Concordski, whose official name was Tupolev Tu-144.

The crucial difference was that, while Concorde could cruise at Mach 2 with its reheat turned off, the Tu-144 could not. Which meant it was severely compromised when it came to what it could ...

It weighed around 20 tons – or 40,000 pounds heavier than the Concorde. The Tu-144’s extra weight was due to the additional wheels on its landing gear. This gear had 12-wheels.

Which is odd, as even the builders of the Concorde conceded at the time that, from the outside, the Tu-144 was much quieter than the supersonic jet we all came to know and love. But that's not enough.

Compared to its arch-rival Concorde, the Tu-144 was a fiasco, draining precious time and rubles from other projects. The French-Anglo venture on the other hand served just under 30 years.

The USSR’s Tupolev Tu-144 looked remarkably similar to its Concorde competitor, when it was unveiled at the Paris Air Show in 1971, earning it the nickname of "Concordski". 10.

Compared to Concorde, the Tu-144 was around 12ft longer than its rival and had more powerful engines. The Paris Air Show was, however, the beginning of the end for the Tu-144.

The TU-144 made its maiden flight on Dec. 31, 1968 two months before Concorde. It went into service in late 1969, carrying mail and freight, and first flew passengers in 1977.

The Tu-144 was also dimensionally larger than its competitor at a length of just over 215 feet, compared to the Concorde at 204 feet. At nearly 92 feet wide, the Soviet jet was also almost 10 feet ...