10 FACTS about the Tu-144. Why did the Soviet "Concorde" fly for ONLY 7 MONTHS?

On the 1st of November 1977, a Soviet jet beat Concorde to Mach 2 and carried paying passengers between Moscow and Alma-Ata, in a cabin so loud the crew handed out pencils and paper because nobody could hear a word across the aisle. The Tu-144 lifted off on the 31st of December 1968, two months ahead of its Anglo-French rival, and was grounded after just 55 revenue flights. 208 days of passenger service, 2 fatal crashes, and one of the loudest silences in aviation history. This video unpacks 10 hard facts about the Tu-144 program. We trace the rushed first flight pushed by the Politburo, the NK-144 afterburning turbojet that drank kerosene the whole way to cruise, the mid-program switch to the RD-36-51A turbofan, the retractable canard wings behind the cockpit, the 1973 Paris Air Show breakup in front of 300,000 spectators, the Cold War espionage row that earned the jet the nickname Concordski, and the second crash that finally closed the door on revenue service. Inside, an honest accounting of cabin noise near 110 decibels at the back, the engineering compromises forced by a state that wanted a trophy before it wanted an airliner, and how NASA's Tu-144LL flights between 1996 and 1999 still feed Boom Supersonic and Lockheed's X-59. The story of Andrei Tupolev, jailed by Stalin, and his son Alexei finishing the program after 1972 explains the silence around the jet better than any technical report. Subscribe to «AVIAST», hit like, and drop your verdict in the comments. SEO TAGS: tu-144, tupolev tu 144, soviet concorde, concordski, supersonic airliner, tu-144 crash, paris air show 1973, concorde vs tu-144, cold war aviation, mach 2 airliner, soviet aviation, andrei tupolev, nk-144 engine, rd-36-51a, aeroflot supersonic, moscow alma-ata, aviation history, failed aircraft, supersonic flight, aviast TIMECODES: 00:00 - Pencils in the cabin 00:25 - Beating Concorde by 2 months 00:39 - Concordski nickname 01:19 - First flight 1968 02:23 - 10 facts ahead 03:10 - Fact 1 cabin noise 04:26 - Fact 2 the engines 05:36 - Fact 3 engine redesign 06:34 - Fact 4 drooping nose and canards 18:49 - Tupolev family story 20:46 - NASA Tu-144LL legacy 22:00 - Selling the second ticket