CUT THE RIBBON: TUPOLEV TU-144

Posted on October 9, 2012 by admin

The first commercial flight to break the wall of Match 2 was made by a Russian aircraft called Tupolev Tu-144. It was July 1968. Despite what mosts think about supersonic  flights , the Concorde, made from  a collaboration between Ari France and British Airways, was not the first to break this record. The Tupolev, nicknamed Concordiski to recall his competitor, was constructed by Vaso in the URSS under the direction of Andrej Nikolaevic Tupolev.  Europe and URSS were trying everything to discover a faster way of travelling: a continuous battle to arrive first.  The romantic side of these  hazardous airplanes was that they were made to generate the dream of a modern life, a better future, just breaking in half distances between places. The first attach to the reputation of Tupolev Tu-144 emerged during an International Fair in Paris Le Bourget on 3^rd June  1973. A maneuver  forced the pilot to make a quick dive that caused the destruction of the aircraft . Fifteen homes were devastated, six people of the crew and eight people on the ground were killed. From  1973 on there were  more accidents, more sad stories that lead to the revocation of Tupolev Tu-144 in 1978.  While this very expansive project was dying, the Concorde was continuing, in style, to cross the Atlantic.  Twice a day from London and from Paris all the superstars and the rich continued to fly New York, dance at 54 and go back without booking any hotel. The supermodels were flew rapidily, the business man were transatlanted to meetings in few hours. Then September Eleven, the crisis, a major accident and even Concorde was out of the game in 2003.  The supersonic era, its romantic allure, was over.