Tu-144 - not just the "first swallow"supersonic passenger aviation. This is one of the symbols of the Cold War Councils and its technical superiority over the Western world. Tu-144, almost twice the speed of sound and a few decades ahead of its time, marked the beginning of a new era of passenger aviation, which, however, has not yet come. His only competitor in this field - the Anglo-French Concorde - suffered an even more deafening fiasco.
In the sixties, humanity, perhaps, stillwas technologically and scientifically not ready for such achievements. At that time, practically nothing was known to world science about metal fatigue. The whole history of the competition between these two cars was accompanied by continuous catastrophes and setbacks on both sides.
When it became known about the jointAnglo-French project to create a radically new supersonic passenger airliner, the reaction of the Soviet Union was lightning fast. The answer to this project was to be the Tu-144. "Concord" was calculated on the cruising speed of flight within the limits of 2200-2300 km / h. The Soviet analogue was required to surpass this indicator, like many others. Nikita Khrushchev did not want to yield to his Western enemies in anything.
The development of this ambitious project wascommissioned Tupolev Design Bureau. The new aircraft was given the brand "TU-144", and its construction was handled by the Voronezh aircraft plant. The appearance of the new offspring of the Soviet aircraft industry before the Concorde and the technical superiority of the Soviet airliner over the Anglo-French car were regarded as important political tasks only. Money for the construction of the Tu-144, as was customary in the USSR, did not regret.
The whole design of this supersonic metalThe bird was the embodiment of a bright and progressive technological idea: filed the workpiece on an automated CNC machine and at the output received a huge fragment of the fuselage or plane of the wing. Automation, of course, did not fail, but with this approach it was for some reason forgotten that for semi-finished products of such a huge size and ingots needed a suitable scale. They are difficult to cast, which leads to the formation of local inhomogeneities, foreign inclusions and defects that weaken the metal.
Maybe this would not be a problem ifwould not the purpose of the machine. After all, the TU-144 aircraft had to overcome the sound barrier, which means that it could withstand enormous overloads. For example, his technological rival, "Concorde" after not the longest operational period, in flight, wings began to fall off. And the cause for a long time could not be clarified. He passed through various tests. Including in deep basins under very high pressure conditions. In the end, it was simply withdrawn from production.
Approximately the same fate befell TU-144.After processing the structure, made of a solid metal plate with a large thickness, in some places there were thin (up to two millimeters) bridges. They eventually broke up, unable to withstand the constant huge overloads.
And yet the Tu-144 in terms of operationsignificantly surpassed the "Concorde", although there is still a memory of the crash of this car. Perhaps the most famous of them is the catastrophe that occurred at the air show in Le Bourget in 1973. The invaluable experience gained in the creation of this machine was successfully used in the design and construction of heavy supersonic Tu-22M and Tu-160 airliners.
And the Tu-144 itself until the mid-nineties successfullywere used in various scientific studies: studying the ozone shell of the planet, solar eclipses, etc. The modification of this machine - Tu-144D - set thirteen world records, which have not yet been beaten.
