Tupolev Tu-144

what is it?

The Tupolev Tu-144 (Russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev that operated commercially from 1975 to 1983, including 1977–1978 passenger service. The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft with its prototype's maiden flight from Zhukovsky Airport on 31 December 1968, two months before the British-French Concorde. The Tu-144 was a product of the Tupolev Design Bureau, an OKB headed by aeronautics pioneer Aleksey Tupolev, and 16 aircraft were manufactured by the Voronezh Aircraft Production Association in Voronezh.

🔎How to recognise it: 4 jet engines · 28.8 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,500 km/htop speed
• range 6,500 kmwithout refuelling
• seats 150passengers
• size 207 tmax take-off weight
• built 16made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 58 years ago, in 1968.
• 🏎️Top speed is 19.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 2.0 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 28.8 m: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 35 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 6,500 km: Amsterdam to New York (≈5,850 km) without stopping.
• 🏔️Can fly 2.3× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1968-12-31

introduced

1975

retired

1978

status

retired

number built

16

role

supersonic airliner

origin

🇷🇺 Soviet Union

makers

Tupolev, Voronezh Aircraft Production Association

engines

4× Kolesov RD-36-51

crew

3

passengers

150

length

65.7 m

wingspan

28.8 m

height

12.6 m

max take-off weight

207 t

top speed

2,500 km/h

cruise speed

2,125 km/h

range

6,500 km

ceiling

20,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.