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Old 2nd Nov 2004, 11:52
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Phileas Fogg
 
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I think you'll find the supersonic airliner sold on ebay outdoes the Vulcan or indeed Foxbat:

Though designed to meet an Aeroflot requirement for a high-speed airliner, the ill-fated Tu-144 was built primarily as a statement of Soviet national pride as well as to compete with the Concorde and a possible American supersonic transport. Although outwardly similar to the Concorde, the Tu-144 was a somewhat larger design able to seat up to 140 and cruise at speeds up to Mach 2.35. The design owed much to earlier studies of the Tu-125 and Tu-135 bombers. Although these aircraft were never built, they gave Tupolev engineers experience in optimizing the aerodynamic behavior of Mach 2 configurations, dealing with heating issues, designing engine inlets, and addressing other concerns associated with high-speed flight, such as sonic booms. The resulting design featured a highly-contoured ogival wing similar to that of the Concorde and employed elevons for pitch control rather than a standard horizontal tail. Also like the Concorde, the engines were placed in pairs near the trailing edge under each wing, and the forward fuselage employed a drooped-nose mechanism to improve pilot visibility during takeoff and landing.
Though first publicized in 1965, most of the world did not get a good look at the new aircraft until a Tu-144 appeared at the 1973 Paris Air Show. Unfortunately, this aircraft crashed in full view of the world press providing a major blow to the Soviet program. After several modifications, including addition of retractable canards for improved low-speed performance, new inlet design, increased wingspan, a lengthened fuselage, and removal of the pilot ejection seats seen on the prototypes, the aircraft was deemed airworthy. The Tu-144 first entered service in late 1975 and began a series of cargo and mail flights between Moscow and Alma Ata. Two years later, passenger service was also introduced between these cities. These flights lasted only seven months, however, before a second fatal accident resulted in termination of Tu-144 operations. Following the final commercial flight on 1 June 1978, the remaining Tu-144s were put into storage or donated to museums.

The only version that continued to fly was the improved Tu-144D used as a supersonic research testbed. One of these was further upgraded to the Tu-144LL standard and operated jointly by Russia and the United States as part of NASA's High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) project. This aircraft completed about 27 research flights to conduct tests of supersonic engine technologies, fuel systems, advanced flight controls, noise reduction techniques, and other concepts intended to make supersonic transports more economical and environmentally friendly. The sole Tu-144LL was later sold to a private owner over eBay for $11 million in 2001.
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