Reply to post: Re: It was however

Re: It was however

There's good reason to think that the Tu-144 ended up looking similar to Concorde simply due to parallel evolution. In detail, it was hugely different in all sorts of ways - airframe construction was totally Soviet, the engines were totally Soviet (albeit ultimately developed from British engines supplied openly after WWII), the wing development was protracted, totally Soviet, and very different to Concorde in detail, etc., etc.

Why did the 1973 Paris air show crash happen? No one is sure. But the Wikipedia page on the crash has this curious and unverified claim:

"In 2005, during the production of the Russian documentary The Fight for Supersonic Flight: The Truth About the Tu-144, E. Krupyanskiy said: "There were certain experimental control units present on the plane (Tu-144), that were installed on the plane for the first time."[this quote needs a citation] On the in-cockpit footage released before the test flight, the control console is clearly seen fully exposed on the back of the captain's seat. The control units were supposed to be disabled, with the console covered up and sealed for the test flight, but in the wreckage the console was found without seals or cover. Krupyanskiy said "They enabled a system, which was used to improve the manoeuverability characteristics of the aircraft ... improving the effectiveness of the rudders."[this quote needs a citation]

E. Gorynov (another Tu-144 test pilot) stated that he is completely sure that usage of these experimental technologies was not decided by the crew. He also stated that he was 30 meters away from the aircraft before the test flight and overheard a discussion by the crew, where the captain said loudly: "If we are going to die, then at least we will die all together.""

The Wikipedia page on the Tu-144, Paris Air Show crash section, states this:

"Gordon et al state that the flight crew had departed from the approved flight profile for the display, a serious offense in itself. They were under instructions to excel the Concorde display by all means. During the unapproved, and therefore unrehearsed manoeuvres, the stability and control augmentation system was not operating normally. If it had been it would have prevented the loads that caused the port wing to fail."