SSD makes some salient points, and if I may, I'll digress slightly...
I've had the privilege of working with some excellent Engineers of several nationalities, including the Russians.
Russia has a peculiarity in its approach to Engineering design which I've not seen to the same extent elsewhere. Whilst a Brit, American, Frenchman, etc. when asked to design an aeroplane, will generally start with the specification, basic principle and a blank drawing board, the Russian won't. He (or she) will go to great lengths to research every solution that has gone before. A Russian Engineer will only try something entirely new if he's been satisfied that the problem hasn't been adequately solved before.
Russian Aeronautical Engineering textbooks are full of pages of solutions to problems, which young Engineers are supposed to learn their way around thoroughly. British Aeronautical Engineering textbooks are full of pages of basic theory, which young Engineers are supposed to learn how to adapt to any given problem. Both work.
In my experience the Russian "evolutionary" approach to design usually gives excellent products, quickly and cheaply. The British "revolutionary" approach to design gives more radical products and bigger steps forward, but sometimes at greater cost and with a fair bit of re-inventing the wheel that shouldn't happen but does.
I suspect that in the case of Concorde .v. Tu144, the revolutionary approach was the best way because it was inevitably such a huge step forward in technology. In other cases, for example the YAK-52 .v. the Tucano or Bulldog, the Russians got a much more sound and economical aircraft by putting good WW2 technology together with as little innovation as possible.
To give a real-world example, I was having a conversation with a couple of Russian Engineers at one of the smaller design Bureaux about WW2 aircraft. I mentioned the unusual cooling system (through a double skinned float) of the Supermarine S6b. "Aha", said my colleage, "you mean the new English method of cooling" and diving into a filing cabinet produced a textbook on aircraft cooling systems where, amongst pages upon pages of radiator designs, was a diagram of the Supermarine S6b with it's double skinned float.
IMHO, the best designer is the one who can apply both methods, but they are sadly far too far apart, in any country. Darrol Stinton with his 2 design books is the only person I know actively encouraging the mixed approach in Britain.
G