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 ...

Second Crash. The Tu-144 was only introduced into passenger service in November 1977. It may have resembled its Anglo-French counterpart, but it lacked the luxuries of the Concorde.

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.

In the case of Concorde, the aircraft went a full 30 years before being canceled in 2003, following the 2000 crash of a Concorde into Gonesse, France, just three miles from where the Tu-144 went down.

When the first Tupolev Tu-144 thundered its way into aeronautical history 50 years ago, lifting off from Zhukovksy airfield on the last day of 1968, much of the supersonic programme remained ...

The Tu-144 first flew in 1968, two months before the Concorde. Top speed was an impressive Mach 2.15, slightly faster than the Concorde, and it could carry over 40 more passengers. And it was, by ...

While the Tu-144 was bigger and could fly slightly faster than Concorde, that didn’t help its cause. The aircraft was slightly less aerodynamic than the Concorde.

The United States may yet emerge as the world leader in supersonic passenger jets, but the early days of SST technology belonged to the former Soviet Union and a consortium of British and French ...

The Tupolev Tu-144 first flew on December 31st, 1968, two months before the Anglo-French jet. Both were supposed to be able to travel long distances at speeds similar to military aircrafts.

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.

At the time that the Concorde was being developed, there wasn’t just the competition from the Tu-144 team, but also the Boeing 2702 (pictured) and Lockheed L-2000, with the latter two ultimately ...