TU-154

[Evening Star]

see the black smoke trail

Amusing entertainment in the departure lounge at DME; spotting Soviet era designs approaching by the smoke trails. Boebus designs boring by comparison.

a football team for a match, and should leave on Thursday

Thread creep here ... with Mrs ES a Russian and yours truly an England supporter, suspect that by the time that TU154 leaves on Thursday domestic disharmony will be reigning in the ES household.

[WHBM]

There is still one Tu154 a week into Heathrow T2, Rossiya (ex-Pulkovo) Airlines from St Petersburg on Saturday mornings. They changed over to 737s last year, and now have some A319s as well, but the Tu154s have come back this summer. It's usually in alongside the Aeroflot Il-96 used from Moscow on Saturday mornings.

There were once-weekly Tu154 flights from Heathrow to Leningrad (as St Petersburg was then called) in 1980. Has any other route out of Heathrow retained the same frequency and type over 27 years ?

[nivsy]

Nice forum this one. Brings back memories. Flew Aeroflot TU154 from Munich to Moscow back in 1995 now. Yikes. Me and my mates made a b line towards the rear of the aircraft, no specific seats were allocated at check in even then!) and I remember watching a few Russians sitting opposite of us kicking down the seat backs of the empty seats in front and putting their feet up during taxi for departure. Yep, somewhat stupidly we did the same and the heavily made up stewardesses just smiled at us. It was a great fligt and I remember that the landing at Moscow and on return to Munich was very smooth -yet the approach seemed steep. Happy days!


Nivsy

[irishair2001]

If I remember correctly,the TU-154 was actually proposed and demonstrated to British charter Airlines in the 70s and actually did a few demos at LUTON it was offered in a 201 seat configuration ,compared to the 110 -135 seat conf available in charter airline narrowbodies at that time.

[WHBM]

Never heard of the 154 ever getting close to UK operators. Presumably never considered for a UK CofA. Maybe even Dan-Air turned them down

In the early 1990s there was an operator out of Manchester to the Mediterranean with a Yak42 in the summer season, I don't remember their identity or how they did it, but there were several complaint stories in the general press.

[irishair2001]

I think it was more a propaganda thing by the Soviets at that time to try to convince airlines in the west that they could produce a jet airliner that was better than western airliners,I think the price tag being offered ,was about 60 % less than an equivilent western airliner,I remember that shambles of an operation out of MAN with the YAK-42, was it flown on behalf of Air Scandic by any chance.

[callum11223344]

but at the end of the day Russians dont give a ****.... and they rule

[Vitesse]

Obviously no-one here would consider looking at an MSFS TU154...

An M version has just been released as freeware. Put together by a Russian team, it is particularly detailed and to my non-expert eye very well executed. Many systems are simulated, (including cabin pressurisation but not the fog). It offers an insight into the Russian way of doing things and might be worth a look...if anyone was willing to lower themselves.

It comes with an English manual. Cyrillic gets easier after a while I'm told.

http://www.protu-154.com/index_e.html

cheers!

[John Hill]

I have flown on a TU-154 once, Pyongyang to Beijing early in 1999. If I recall correctly the climb angle did appear to be very steep and the noise level in the cabin was very low. In flight snack was a single small red apple.

[MAN Guy]

Fantastic thread, the TU-154 has always been one of my favorite aircraft although I've sadly never flown in one.

I have very fond memories of spotting these fantastic aircraft at MAN when I was a kid. I would head up there on saturday mornings during the summer often to be greeted by 2 or 3 Balkan TU-154B's and/or M's lined up on Pier B doing the sun flights to Varna and Bourgas. You could always catch an Aeroflot TU-154M on a sunday morning too back in the early to mid nineties as well as the occasional Tarom TU-154B....... what a noise when they pushed back and started!

Sadly not seen many around (at MAN anyway) these days, all of the Bulgarian holiday flights seem to be done by BH Air A320's or UK charter airlines with Boeing or Airbus equipment..... But last summer Belavia sent in TU-154M's on most Mondays for their summer flights to Minsk..... hope to see and hear them around again this summer