Key Point: The Tu-144 was a fiasco, draining precious time and rubles from other projects. The Soviet-built Tu-144 actually flew before its supersonic rival Concorde, though it had a number of flaws ...

Here’s What You Need To Remember: The Tu-144 reportedly flew a paltry 102 flights, only 55 of which actually carried any passengers. Compared to its arch-rival Concorde, the Tu-144 was a fiasco, ...

To many, when they think of supersonic airliners, they instantly think of Concorde. The joint Anglo-French aircraft that served for nearly 30 years, ferrying people across the Atlantic at Mach 2.

AFTER WEEKS OF rain and fog at Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airfield, site of the Soviet Union’s top flight test center, New Year’s Eve 1968 dawned with more of the same. This was immensely discouraging for ...

Not to be outdone by their aviation rivals in the west, the Soviet Union built and briefly flew its own supersonic commercial jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. Sixteen were built and a handful remain. Only one ...

There is ample evidence of Soviet industrial espionage in the 1960s and 1970s, with the KGB specifically targeting the Anglo-French Concorde program. Networks of informants, typically mid-level ...

The Concorde jet was one of the crowning achievements in aviation. It was a supersonic passenger jet, meaning that it broke the speed of sound while flying. Your average Boeing 737-800 flying with ...

The Tu-144 arrived at the 1973 Paris Air Show as the Soviet Union’s answer to Concorde and a symbol of Cold War prestige. Instead, the world watched in horror as the supersonic airliner broke apart in ...

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