Tupolev Tu-144 Supersonic airliner 1/72 fighter aircraft ModelSvit 7203 Manufacturer: ModelSvit (Ukraine) Scale: 1/72 Material: Plastic Paint: Unpainted, Unassembled, Kit do not contain paints and glue. Condition: New in Box The Tupolev Tu-144 (NATO name: "Charger'") was the first commercialsupersonic transport aircraft (SST). It was one of only two SSTs to enter commercial service, the other being the Anglo-French Concorde. The design, publicly unveiled in January 1962, was constructed in the Soviet Union under the direction of the Tupolev design bureau, headed by Alexei Tupolev. Tu-144 crashed in 1973 at the Paris Air Show, delaying its further development. The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost two years after Concorde. In May 1978, another Tu-144 (an improved version, named Tu-144D) crashed in a test flight while being delivered, and the passenger fleet was permanently grounded after only 55 scheduled flights. The aircraft remained in use as a cargo plane until 1983, by which point a total of 102 commercial flights had been completed. The Tu-144 was later used by the Soviet space programme to train pilots of the Buranspacecraft, and by NASA for supersonic research.The Soviet government published the concept of the Tu-144 in an article in the January 1962 issue of the magazine Technology of Air Transport. The air ministry started development of the Tu-144 on 26 July 1963, 10 days after the design was approved by the Council of Ministers. The plan called for five flying prototypes to be built in four years, with the first aircraft to be ready in 1966.
Trustpilot
2 months ago
1 week ago
