After a person began to explore the vast expanses of the sky, he always sought to improve aircraft as much as possible, to make them more reliable, faster, more capacious. One of the most advanced inventions of mankind in this direction are supersonic passenger aircraft. But, unfortunately, with rare exceptions, most of the developments have been closed or are currently at the project stage. One of such projects is the supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-244, which we will talk about below.
Faster than sound
But before starting the conversation directly about the Tu-244, let's take a brief excursion into the history of mankind overcoming the boundary of the speed of sound, because this aircraft will be a direct continuation of scientific developments in this direction.
A significant impetus to the development of aviation was given by World War II. It was then that real-life projects of aircraft with jet engines appeared, capable of developing speeds more than helical ones. Since the second half of the 40s of the last century, they began to be actively accepted in both military and civil aviation.
The next task was to maximize the speed of the aircraft. If reaching the supersonic barrier was not difficult, simply increasing the power of the engines, then overcoming it was a significant problem, since the laws of aerodynamics at such speeds change.
Nevertheless, the first victory in the race with sound was achieved already in 1947 on an American experimental aircraft, but supersonic technologies began to be massively used only in the late 1950s and early 1960s in military aviation. Serial models such as the MiG-19, North American A-5 Vigilante, Convair F-102 Delta Dagger and many others appeared.
Passenger supersonic aircraft
But civil aviation was so unlucky. The first supersonic passenger aircraft appeared only in the late 60s. Moreover, to date, only two production models have been created - the Soviet Tu-144 and the Franco-British Concord. These were typical long-range aircraft. Tu-144 was in operation from 1975 to 1978, and Concord - from 1976 to 2003. Thus, at the moment, no supersonic aircraft are used in passenger air transportation.
There were many projects for the construction of supersonic and hypersonic airliners, but some of them were eventually closed (Douglas 2229, Super-Caravelle, T-4, etc.), and the implementation of others stretched out indefinitely (Reaction Engines A2, SpaceLiner, Next Generation Supersonic Transport). The latter includes the Tu-244 aircraft project.
Start of development
The project to create the aircraft, which was supposed to replace the Tu-144, was launched by the Tupolev Design Bureau back in Soviet times, in the early 70s of the last century. When designing a new airliner, designers used the development of its predecessor, Concord, as well as the materials of American colleagues who took part in the work. All developments were carried out under the leadership of Alexei Andreyevich Tupolev.
In 1973, the designed aircraft was named Tu-244.
Project objectives
The main objective of this project was to create a truly competitive supersonic aircraft for passenger traffic in comparison with subsonic jet airliners. Almost the only advantage of the former over the latter was a gain in speed. In all other respects, supersonic airliners were losing to their slower competitors. Passenger traffic on them simply did not pay off economically. In addition, flying on them was more dangerous than on simple aircraft with a jet engine. The latter factor, by the way, became the official reason why the first Tu-144 supersonic aircraft was discontinued just a few months after it began.
Thus, it was the solution to these problems that was put before the developers of the Tu-244. The aircraft should be reliable, fast, but, at the same time, its operation in order to transport passengers should have been economically viable.
Specifications
The final model of the Tu - 244 aircraft, adopted in development, should have the following technical and operational characteristics.
The crew of the airliner included three people. The capacity of the cabin was taken at the rate of 300 passengers. True, in the final version of the project it had to be reduced to 254 people, but in any case it was much more than that of the Tu-154, which accommodated only 150 passengers.
The planned cruising speed was 2.175 thousand km / h, which was twice the speed of sound. For comparison, a similar indicator on the Tu-144 was equal to 2,300 thousand km / h, and Concord - 2,125 thousand km / h. That is, it was planned to make the aircraft a little slower than its predecessor, but due to this, significantly increase its capacity, which should have provided economic benefits from passenger transportation. The movement was provided by four turbofan engines. The range of the new aircraft was to be 7500-9200 km. Carrying capacity - 300 tons.
The airliner was supposed to be 88 m long, 15 m high, with a wingspan of 45 m and a working surface area of 965 m 2 .
The main external difference of the new aircraft from the Tu-144 was to be a change in the design of the nose.
Continued Development
The construction project of the second-generation supersonic airliner Tu-244 took a rather protracted character and underwent significant changes several times. Nevertheless, even after the collapse of the USSR, the Tupolev Design Bureau did not stop developing in this direction. For example, already in 1993, at the air show in France, detailed information about the development was provided. However, the country's economic situation in the 90s could not but affect the fate of the project. In fact, his fate hovered in the air, although design work continued, and there was no official announcement of its closure. It was at this time that American experts began to actively join the project, although contacts with them were carried out in the days of the USSR.
To continue research on the creation of second-generation supersonic airliners, in 1993 two Tu-144 aircraft were converted to flying laboratories.
Closing or freezing?
Against the background of ongoing development and statements that by 2025 TU-244 aircraft will enter the operation of civil aviation in the amount of 100 units, the absence of this project in the state program for the development of aviation for 2013-2025, which was adopted in 2012, was very unexpected. . I must say that in this program there were also a number of other notable developments that until that time were considered promising in the aircraft industry, for example, the supersonic Tu-444 business aircraft.
This fact could indicate that the Tu-244 project is either permanently closed or frozen for an indefinite time. In the latter case, the release of these supersonic aircraft will be possible only much later than 2025. However, no official explanation was given on this subject, which leaves a rather wide field for various interpretations.
Prospects
Given all of the above, it can be stated that the Tu-244 project is currently at least hovering in the air, and possibly completely closed. There has not yet been an official announcement of the fate of the project. Also, the reasons for which it was suspended or permanently closed are not announced. Although it can be assumed that they may be the lack of public funds to finance such developments, the economic disadvantage of the project, or the fact that in 30 years it could simply become obsolete, and now more promising tasks are on the agenda. However, the influence of all three factors at the same time is quite possible.
In 2014, the media suggested that the project would resume, but so far they have not received official confirmation, as well as a rebuttal.
It should be noted that foreign developments of second-generation supersonic passenger aircraft have not yet reached the finish line, and the implementation of many of them is a big question.
At the same time, while there is no official statement of authorized persons, it is not worth completely putting an end to the design of the Tu-244 aircraft.