The Soviet Concorde That Fell From the Sky | Tu-144 "Concordski"

In 1973, the Soviet Union beat the West into the supersonic age — then watched its masterpiece break apart over a French airfield in front of 100,000 people. The Tupolev Tu-144 — mocked in the West as "Concordski" — was the USSR's answer to Concorde. It flew first, flew faster, and was built on a foundation of stolen blueprints, KGB espionage, and a political deadline no engineer could safely meet. This is the story of how the race to be first turned a triumph into one of the most public disasters in aviation history — and why a jet that should have changed the world ended up hauling mail to Almaty before vanishing into museums. Built entirely from public-domain archival film and historical record. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 The crash that shocked the world 1:49 Chapter 1 — The Race 4:50 Chapter 2 — The Heist 9:03 Chapter 3 — First 11:47 Chapter 4 — Faking It 15:59 Chapter 5 — Le Bourget 20:29 Chapter 6 — The Unravelling 22:55 What Remains 📚 SOURCES & FOOTAGE Archival film via the Internet Archive (archive.org), incl. U.S. National Archives (public domain) and PeriscopeFilm collections. 🔔 New documentaries on the machines the Iron Curtain built — and lost. Subscribe: ‪@IronCurtainIndustries‬ #Tu144 #Concordski #SovietUnion #ColdWar #Aviation #Concorde #Tupolev #AviationHistory