250kt speed restriction below 10000ft is killing my Concorde!!

[Covoxer]

Guys! This thread has to be moved to RWA forum!!!

I just can't stand to stright it up.

Following information is based on 100% know facts except where noted. (can give you some links, but Google good as well )

At the time when first SST projects were started USSR was at the cold war and was doing everything to show their technological
superiority to the western countries. So they couldn't just stand aside this high tech race.
But USSR had not enough research information that could be used building SST. They had not developed yet any Mach 2 big planes.
Biggest Soviet M2 aircraft at the time were fighters. So they had to start from the beginning and supposedly lose the rase, or they could
use KGB as a helping hand stealing some information from Franch developers.
And they did it. Some usefull basic aerodynamic research information was stolen successfully and it helped to start development fast.
But it didn't work for long. Soon KGB agent was found but instead of stopping him, they decided to give him wrong information to destroy
Soviet project. So, the bunch of fake data had flown into the 144 project before this agentural work had stopped.
As a result, desinformed Tupolev's engeneers were leed the mostly wrong way by the information "stolen" by KGB. And it was close from
the project failure.
To save it, they had to do additional aerodynamic research, develop new technologies, construct all new systems from the scratch...
The only major thing stolen from Concorde project that was used and helped in 144 development was basic aerodynamic information
regarding clead delta wing design (without horizontal stabiliser). There was no other aircraft built by this sheme in USSR.

That's the story. And the result of it is quite a different plane than Concorde.
I know that many may look at it and find it quite same looking as Concord and that's the real root of it's nickname "Concordski". But from
the technical point of view they are very different. Like modern 777 and A330, or 757 and A320. Besides, if you look at some other SST
projects like Lockheed L-2000 and Boeing 2707-300 (but not 2707), you may find them even more Concord like. They had no retractible
cannards. But on the other hane, they were much bigger.
So what's the difference betwin Concorde and Tu-144? Step by step.

SIze - Tu-144 is bigger. It has longer and 5 abreast hull while Concorde only 4 abreast. Concorde was certified to carry maximum of 128
pax and in practice it was 92 in AirFrance layout and 100 in BritishAirways. Tu-144 was carrying more than 140 by default. Making it about
1.5 times more capable.

Speed - Tu-144 airframe was able to stand higher temperatures than Concordes due to the extensive use of the Titanium parts.
Rumours are that Tu-144 has more titanium in it's construction than any other serial aircraft in the world. Though SR-71 is the only
candidate to superceed it. Anyway, Tu-144 had cruise speed around M2.4 while Concorde was never flying faster than M2.05.

Time - Tu-144 had made first flight few moths earlier than Concorde. But Concorde went into expluatation 2 years earlier than Tu-144.

So, airframe of the Tu-144 was more technologicaly advanced andmore capable. It had worse aerodynamics though. That's why 144 had
to be improved with retractible cannards. It would be not able to fly at "low" speeds without them. Concorde don't need it, but if one
implement such an improvement to Concordes aerodynamically better airframe, it could increase it's capabilieties like increase range
e.t.c.
So, one can't surelly say which airframe was better, but one thing that was really bad about Tu-144 were it's engines. Worst thing about
them was the fact that Tu-144's supersonic cruise speed was achieved with afterburness on while Concorde uses them only for
takeoff/climb. The trust without afterburners was not enough to keep supersonic speed for a long time. So it was a great waste of fuel. As
a result, Tu-144 had much shorter range and was more expensive in expluatation. For example, Tu-144 was not able to make a trans
Atlantic flight. Those engines were also very unreliable. Atleast one Tu-144 was destroyed because of their failure (engine fire). Flight
delays due to the engin problems were a common situation at the times of Tu-144 commercial use.

Now to the history.

Jetsim wrote:
she WAS going to be the fastest jetliner but she crashed

She WAS the fastest jetliner. There was There were 17 Tu-144's build and 3 of them crashed actually. They were on sheduled
passengers flights on Moscow - AlmaAta route from 1977 till 1978. Totally they made 102 passengers flights. Besides it was also used
in the cargo flights from 1976 till 1978 on the same rote. This is not 25 years of Concorde, but it was regular use for sure.

The bottom line.
Tu-144 had a bad rock of it's Paris Air Show disaster. None knows for sure (or it's still kept in secret) why it went into dip dive right after
takeoff, but if Concorde would make such a dive it would probably end up in the same village that Tu-144 did. Anyway, this accident was
not the reason of the Tu-144's failure. USSR could use it in internal routes and not care much about foreign customers anyway.
Tu-144 was commercial failure due to the bad engines. It was much to expensive both in production and expluatation, not reliable, it had
too short range as for SST and it was not very comfortable.
But from the technical point of view it's a wonderful machine!

To skip Google go here: http://www.faqs.org/docs/air/avsst.html.



Post Edited ( 01-03-06 21:27 )