Originally Posted by
jlemon
7. What is notable about the production quantities of the supersonic Tupolev 144 when compared to Concorde ?
Well, I've been puzzling over this quiz item for awhile now....so it's time to venture forth with some type of answer.
I believe Tupolev built one prototype of the Tu-144 followed by sixteen production models.
The Concorde, on the other hand, saw a total of 20 examples built if my memory serves me correctly. However, of this 20, I believe only fourteen were destined for airline use by BA and AF...... ......
Well, production quantities were exactly the same - four prototypes and 16 production aircraft, a total of 20. Coincidence or what ? Both were built across two factories as well, although whereas all Concorde types were built very equally in Bristol-Filton and Toulouse, the Tu144 prototypes were all built at Factory 156 at Moscow-Lefortove, and trucked to Zhukovsky (which is, inevitably for this thread, near Monino) for their test flights, while the production aircraft were all built at Factory 64 at Voronezh, in mid-south Russia.
The Tu144, the
First Supersonic Airliner In The World, first flight 31 December 1968 (two months before Concorde on 2 March 1969) had four prototypes. Two flew (CCCP-68001 and 77101), the other two were used in various initial ground tests at Zhukovsky; one was destroyed in a pressurisation test that didn't go to plan, the other then had to take over, presumably somewhat more carefully. Regarding the production aircraft, a few are preserved, while what happened to a number is unknown; there are rumoured to be a couple still secreted in hangars at Zhukovsky or Voronezh. I did hear that one had turned up on e-Bay a while ago, but was never deliverd. One was reinstated and did a series of test flights for NASA in 1996-8; contrary to some stories, it never left Russia while doing these.