When can a new supersonic passenger plane take off? Business jet based on the Tu-160 bomber: is it real? How to silently break the sound barrier?
Tu-160 is the largest and most powerful supersonic and variable-wing aircraft in the history of military aviation. Among the pilots he received the nickname "White Swan". Photo: AP
Do supersonic passenger cars have a prospect? - I asked not so long ago the outstanding Russian aircraft designer Genrikh Novozhilov.
Of course have. At least a supersonic business plane will definitely appear, - replied Genrikh Vasilievich. - I have talked with American businessmen more than once. They clearly stated: "If such an airplane appeared, Mr. Novozhilov, then, no matter how expensive it is, it would be instantly bought from you." Speed, altitude and range are three factors that are always relevant.
Yes, they are. The dream of any businessman is to fly across the ocean in the morning, conclude a big deal, and return home in the evening. Modern aircraft fly no faster than 900 km / h. And the supersonic business jet will have a cruising speed of about 1900 km per hour. What are the prospects for the business world!
That is why neither Russia, nor America, nor Europe have ever abandoned attempts to create a new supersonic passenger car. But the history of those that have already flown - the Soviet Tu-144 and the Anglo-French Concorde - has taught us a lot.
In December of this year, it will be half a century since the Tu-144 made its first flight. A year later, the liner showed exactly what it was capable of: it broke the sound barrier. He picked up a speed of 2.5 thousand km / h at an altitude of 11 km. This event went down in history. There are still no analogues of passenger aircraft in the world that are capable of repeating such a maneuver.
"One hundred and forty-four" has opened a fundamentally new page in the world aircraft construction. They say that at one of the meetings in the Central Committee of the CPSU, designer Andrei Tupolev reported to Khrushchev: the car turns out to be quite gluttonous. But he just waved his hand: your business is to wipe the capitalists' nose, and we have kerosene - at least fill up ...
Wipe your nose. Kerosene - flooded.
However, the European competitor, which took off later, also did not differ in efficiency. Thus, in 1978, nine Concordes brought their companies about $ 60 million in losses. And only government subsidies saved the day. Nevertheless, the "Anglo-French" flew until November 2003. But the Tu-144 was written off much earlier. Why?
First of all, Khrushchev's optimism was not justified: an energy crisis broke out in the world and the prices of kerosene rushed up. The supersonic first-born was immediately dubbed “the boa constrictor on the neck of Aeroflot.” Huge fuel consumption knocked out the design range of flights: Tu-144 did not reach either Khabarovsk or Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, only from Moscow to Alma-Ata.
And if only that. A 200-ton "iron", cruising over densely populated areas at supersonic speed, literally blew up the entire space along the route. Complaints rained down: cows' milk yield dropped, chickens stopped rushing, acid rains crushed ... But the fact remains: "Concorde" flew only over the ocean.
Finally, the most important thing is disasters. One - in June 1973 at the air show in Paris Le Bourget, as they say, in full view of the entire planet: the crew of test pilot Kozlov wanted to demonstrate the capabilities of the Soviet liner ... Another - in five years. Then a test flight was performed with engines of a new series: they just had to pull the plane to the required range.
"Concorde" also did not escape tragedy: the plane crashed in July 2000 while departing from Charles de Gaulle airport. Ironically, it collapsed almost where the Tu-144 used to be. 109 people on board and four on the ground were killed. Regular passenger traffic resumed only a year later. But a series of incidents followed, and they also put a fat point on this supersonic aircraft.
On December 31, 1968, the first flight of the Tu-144 took place, two months earlier than the Concorde. And on June 5, 1969, at an altitude of 11,000 meters, our plane was the first in the world to break beyond the sound barrier. Photo: Sergey Mikheev / RG
Today, at a new stage in the development of technology, scientists need to find a balance between conflicting factors: good aerodynamics of a new supersonic aircraft, low fuel consumption, as well as strict restrictions on noise and sonic boom.
How realistic is it to create a new passenger supersonic aircraft based on the Tu-160 bomber? From a purely engineering point of view - quite, experts say. And in history there are examples when military aircraft successfully "took off their shoulder straps" and flew away "to civilian life": for example, the Tu-104 was created on the basis of the long-range Tu-16 bomber, and the Tu-114 - the Tu-95 bomber. In both cases, the fuselage had to be redone - to change the wing layout, to expand the diameter. In fact, these were new aircraft, and quite successful ones. By the way, an interesting detail: when the Tu-114 first flew to New York, there in the dumbfounded airport there was neither a ladder of a suitable height nor a tractor ...
At the very least, similar work will be required for the conversion of the Tu-160. However, how cost effective will this solution be? Everything needs to be carefully evaluated.
How many planes do you need? Who will fly them and where? How commercially available will they be to passengers? How soon will the development costs be recouped? .. Tickets for the same Tu-144 were 1.5 times more expensive than usual, but even such a high cost did not cover the operating costs.
Meanwhile, according to experts, the first Russian supersonic administrative aircraft (business jet) can be designed in seven to eight years if there is a reserve for the engine. This plane can accommodate up to 50 people. The total demand in the domestic market is forecasted at the level of 20-30 cars at a price of $ 100-120 million.
Serial supersonic passenger aircraft of the new generation may appear around 2030
Designers on both sides of the ocean are working on projects for supersonic business jets. Everyone is looking for new layout solutions. Someone offers an atypical tail, someone - a completely unusual wing, someone - a fuselage with a curved central axis ...
TsAGI specialists are developing a project SDS / SPS ("supersonic business aircraft / supersonic passenger aircraft"): according to the idea, it will be able to perform transatlantic flights over a distance of up to 8600 km at a cruising speed of at least 1900 km / h. Moreover, the salon will be transformable - from 80-seater to 20-seater VIP-class.
And last summer, at the air show in Zhukovsky, one of the most interesting was the model of a high-speed civilian aircraft, created by TsAGI scientists in the framework of the international project HEXAFLY-INT. This plane should fly at a speed of more than 7-8 thousand km / h, corresponding to Mach 7 or 8.
But for high-speed civil aircraft to become a reality, a huge range of tasks will have to be solved. They are related to materials, a hydrogen propulsion system, its integration with the airframe and obtaining high aerodynamic efficiency of the aircraft itself.
And what is already absolutely certain: the design features of the projected winged aircraft will be clearly non-standard.
Competently
Sergey Chernyshev, General Director of TsAGI, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
The sonic boom level (sharp pressure drop in the shock wave) from the Tu-144 was equal to 100-130 pascals. But modern research has shown that it can be increased to 15-20. Moreover, reduce the volume of the sonic boom to 65 decibels, which is equivalent to the noise of a big city. Until now, there are no official standards for the permissible sound boom level in the world. And most likely it will be determined not earlier than 2022.
We have already suggested the appearance of the demonstrator of the supersonic civilian aircraft of the future. The sample should show the ability to reduce sonic boom in supersonic cruising and noise in the airport area. Several options are being considered: an airplane for 12-16 passengers, also for 60-80. There is an option for a very small business jet - for 6-8 passengers. These are different weights. In one case, the car will weigh about 50 tons, and in the other - 100-120, etc. But we start with the first of the designated supersonic aircraft.
According to various estimates, today there is an unrealized demand on the market for fast flights of business people on airplanes with a passenger capacity of 12-16 people. And, of course, the car must fly at a distance of at least 7-8 thousand kilometers on transatlantic routes. The cruising speed will be Mach 1.8-2, that is, about twice the speed of sound. This speed is a technological barrier to the use of conventional aluminum materials in the airframe design. Therefore, the dream of scientists is to make an airplane entirely from temperature composites. And there are good developments.
Clear requirements for the aircraft must be determined by the starting customer, and then at the stages of preliminary design and development work, some change in the initial appearance of the aircraft obtained at the preliminary design stage is possible. But the sound principles of sonic boom reduction will remain unchanged.
The short-term passenger operation of the supersonic Tu-144 was limited to flights from Moscow to Alma-Ata. Photo: Boris Korzin / TASS photo chronicle
I think it's 10-15 years before the flying prototype. In the near future, according to our plans, a flying demonstrator should appear, the appearance of which is being worked out. Its main task is to demonstrate the basic technologies for creating a supersonic aircraft with a low sonic boom level. This is a necessary stage of the work. A new generation serial supersonic aircraft may appear on the horizon in 2030.
Oleg Smirnov, Honored Pilot of the USSR, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Commission of the Public Council of Rostransnadzor:
To make a supersonic passenger aircraft on the basis of the Tu-160? For our engineers, it is completely real. Not a problem. Moreover, this car is very good, with remarkable aerodynamic qualities, a good wing, fuselage. However, today any passenger aircraft must first of all comply with international airworthiness and technical fitness requirements. The discrepancy, when comparing a bomber and a passenger plane, is more than 50 percent. For example, when some people say that during alteration it is necessary to "inflate the fuselage", one must understand that the Tu-160 itself weighs more than 100 tons. "Inflate" is also adding weight. This means increasing fuel consumption, reducing speed and altitude, making the aircraft absolutely unattractive for any airline in terms of its operating costs.
To create a supersonic aircraft for business aviation, new avionics, new aircraft engines, new materials, and new types of fuel are needed. On the Tu-144, kerosene, as they say, flowed like a river. This is not possible today. And most importantly, there should be massive demand for such an aircraft. One or two cars ordered from millionaires will not solve the financial problem. Airlines will have to lease it and "work off" the cost. On whom? Naturally, on passengers. Economically, the project will fail.
Sergey Melnichenko, General Director of the ICAA "Flight Safety":
For almost 35 years that have passed since the start of the serial production of the Tu-160, technologies have gone ahead, and this will have to be taken into account when deeply modernizing the existing aircraft. Aircraft builders say it is much easier and cheaper to build a new aircraft according to a new concept than to rebuild an old one.
Another question: if the Tu-160 is rebuilt specifically for a business jet, will the Arab sheikhs be interested in it after all? However, there are several "buts". The plane will need to obtain an international certificate (and the European Union and the United States stand behind it), which is very problematic. In addition, new efficient engines will be needed, which we do not have. Those that are available do not consume fuel, they drink it.
If the plane is converted for the carriage of economy passengers (which is unlikely), then the question is - where to fly and whom to carry? Over the past year, we have just approached the figure of 100 million transported passengers. In the USSR, these figures were much higher. The number of airfields has decreased several times. Not everyone who would like to fly to the European part of the country from Kamchatka and Primorye can afford it. Tickets for the "fuel-drinking plane" will be more expensive than for the "Boeings" and "Airbus".
If the plane is planned to be rebuilt purely for the interests of the heads of large companies, then it will most likely be so. But then this question concerns only them, and not the Russian economy and people. Although in this case it is difficult to imagine that flights will only be carried out to Siberia or the Far East. Terrain noise problem. And if the updated plane is not allowed to enter Sardinia, then who needs it?
On December 31, 1968, the world's first supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144 made a test flight. Three years later, in the summer of 1971, he made an incredible impression on the organizers and guests of the International Aviation Exhibition in Paris. To demonstrate the capabilities of the "Soviet bird", the developers sent the plane from Moscow at 9 am and at the same time - at 9 am - it landed in the capital of Bulgaria.
Design of the Tu-144 supersonic aircraft.
Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic aircraft developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. Along with the Concorde, it is one of only two supersonic airliners ever used by airlines for commercial travel.
In the 60s, in the aviation circles of the USA, Great Britain, France and the USSR, projects were actively discussed to create a passenger supersonic aircraft with a maximum speed of 2500-3000 km / h, a flight range of at least 6-8 thousand km. In November 1962, France and Great Britain signed an agreement on the joint development and construction of the Concorde (Concord).
The creators of the supersonic aircraft.
In the Soviet Union, the design bureau of academician Andrei Tupolev was engaged in the creation of a supersonic aircraft. At a preliminary meeting of the Design Bureau in January 1963, Tupolev said:
“Thinking about the future of air transportation of people from one continent to another, you come to an unambiguous conclusion: supersonic air liners are undoubtedly needed, and I have no doubt that they will come into life ...”
The academician's son, Aleksey Tupolev, was appointed the lead designer of the project. More than a thousand specialists from other organizations worked closely with his OKB. The creation was preceded by extensive theoretical and experimental work, which included numerous tests in wind tunnels and in full-scale conditions during analogue flights.
Concorde and Tu-144.
The developers had to break their brains to find the optimal machine layout. The speed of the designed liner is of fundamental importance - 2500 or 3000 km / h. The Americans, having learned that the Concorde is designed for 2500 km / h, announced that they would release their passenger Boeing-2707 made of steel and titanium just six months later. Only these materials could withstand the heating of the structure without destructive consequences in contact with the air flow at speeds of 3000 km / h and higher. However, solid steel and titanium structures still have to undergo serious technological and operational testing. This will take a long time, and Tupolev decides to build a supersonic aircraft from duralumin, based on a speed of 2500 km / h. The American Boeing project was subsequently canceled altogether.
In June 1965, the model was shown at the annual Paris Air Show. Concorde and Tu-144 turned out to be strikingly similar to each other. Soviet designers said - nothing surprising: the general form is determined by the laws of aerodynamics and the requirements for a particular type of machine.
Supersonic aircraft wing shape.
But what should be the shape of the wing? We settled on a thin triangular wing with the outline of the leading edge in the form of the letter "8". The tailless scheme - inevitable with such a design of the load-bearing plane - made the supersonic airliner stable and well-controlled in all flight modes. Four engines were located under the fuselage, closer to the axis. The fuel is stored in wing coffered tanks. The balance tanks, located at the rear of the fuselage and wing overlays, are designed to change the position of the center of gravity during the transition from subsonic to supersonic flight speed. The nose was made sharp and smooth. But how do you provide the pilots with forward visibility? Found a way out - "bowing nose". The circular fuselage had a cockpit nose fairing that tilted downward at an angle of 12 degrees during takeoff and 17 degrees during landing.
A supersonic plane takes off into the sky.
For the first time, a supersonic plane takes to the skies on the last day of 1968. The car was driven by test pilot E. Elyan. As a passenger aircraft, it was the first in the world to overcome the speed of sound in early June 1969, at an altitude of 11 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft took the second speed of sound (2M) in the middle of 1970, being at an altitude of 16.3 kilometers. The supersonic aircraft incorporates many design and technical innovations. Here I would like to note such a solution as the front horizontal tail. When using the PGO, the flight maneuverability was improved and the speed was suppressed during the landing approach. Domestic supersonic aircraft could be operated from two dozen airports, while the French-English Concorde, having a high landing speed, could only land at a certified airport. The designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau did a tremendous job. Take, for example, field testing of a wing. They took place at a flying laboratory - the MiG-21I, which was converted specifically for testing the design and equipment of the wing of the future supersonic aircraft.
Development and modification.
Work on the development of the basic design of the "044" went in two directions: the creation of a new economical turbojet engine of the RD-36-51 type and a significant improvement in the aerodynamics and design of a supersonic aircraft. The result was to meet the requirements for the range of supersonic flight. The decision of the Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the version of the supersonic aircraft with the RD-36-51 was adopted in 1969. At the same time, at the suggestion of the MAP - MGA, a decision is made, until the creation of the RD-36-51 and their installation on a supersonic aircraft, on the construction of six supersonic aircraft with NK-144A with reduced specific fuel consumption. The design of serial supersonic aircraft with the NK-144A was supposed to be significantly modernized, to make significant changes in aerodynamics, having received Kmax more than 8 in the supersonic cruising mode. series on RD-36-51.
Construction of a modernized supersonic aircraft.
Construction of the pre-production modernized Tu-144 ("004) began at MMZ" Experience "in 1968. According to the calculated data with the NK-144 engines (Cp = 2.01), the assumed supersonic range was to be 3275 km, and with the NK-144A ( Cp = 1.91) exceed 3500 km.In order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics at cruise mode M = 2.2, the wing shape was changed in plan (the sweep of the flowing part along the leading edge was reduced to 76 °, and the base part was increased to 57 °), the wing shape became closer to the "Gothic". Compared with "044", increased wing area, introduced a more intense tapered twist of the wing ends. taking into account the optimization of the flight deformations of the wing in this mode. birthmarks.
In contrast to "044", each pair of engines in paired engine nacelles with air intakes was pushed apart, freeing the lower part of the fuselage from them, relieving it from increased temperature and vibration loads, while changing the lower wing surface in the place of the calculated flow compression region, increased the gap between the lower surface wing and the upper surface of the air intake - all this made it possible to use more intensively the effect of pressing the flow at the inlet to the air intakes on the Kmax than it was possible to get on the "044". The new layout of the engine nacelles required changes in the chassis: the main landing gear struts were placed under the engine nacelles, with their retraction inward between the air channels of the engines, they switched to an eight-wheeled bogie, and the nose landing gear retraction scheme was also changed. An important difference between "004" and "044" was the introduction of a front multi-section retractable in-flight destabilizer wing, which was extended from the fuselage in takeoff and landing modes, and made it possible to provide the required balancing with deflected flaps elevons. Modifications to the design, an increase in payload and fuel reserves led to an increase in take-off weight, which exceeded 190 tons (for "044" - 150 tons).
Pre-production Tu-144.
The construction of the pre-production supersonic aircraft No. 01-1 (side No. 77101) was completed at the beginning of 1971, and on June 1, 1971 it made its first flight. According to the program of factory tests, the aircraft performed 231 flights, lasting 338 hours, of which 55 hours flew in supersonic mode. On this machine, complex issues of interaction of the power plant in various flight modes were worked out. On September 20, 1972, the car flew along the Moscow-Tashkent highway, while the route was completed in 1 hour 50 minutes, the cruising speed during the flight reached 2500 km / h. The pre-production machine became the basis for the deployment of serial production at the Voronezh Aviation Plant (VAZ), which was entrusted by the government's decision to develop a supersonic aircraft in a series.
The first flight of the serial Tu-144.
The first flight of serial supersonic aircraft No. 01-2 (side No. 77102) powered by NK-144A engines took place on March 20, 1972. In the series, according to the results of tests of the pre-production machine, the aerodynamics of the wing was corrected and its area was slightly increased again. The takeoff weight in the series reached 195 tons. The specific fuel consumption of the NK-144A by the time of operational tests of serial machines was intended to be increased to 1.65-1.67 kg / kgf h by optimizing the engine nozzle, and later to 1.57 kg / kgf h, while the flight range should was to increase to 3855-4250 km and 4550 km, respectively. In fact, they were able to achieve by 1977, during tests and refinements of the Tu-144 and NK-144A series, Cp = 1.81 kg / kgf hour at cruising supersonic thrust mode 5000 kgf, Cp = 1.65 kg / kgf hour at takeoff afterburner thrust mode 20,000 kgf, Cp = 0.92 kg / kgf h at the subsonic cruising thrust mode of 3000 kgf and at the maximum afterburner mode in the transonic mode, they received 11800 kgf. A wreck of a supersonic aircraft.
The first stage of testing.
In a short period of time, in strict accordance with the program, 395 flights were performed with a total flight time of 739 hours, including more than 430 hours at supersonic modes.
Second stage of testing.
At the second stage of operational tests, in accordance with the joint order of the Ministers of the Aviation Industry and Civil Aviation of September 13, 1977, No. 149-223, a more active connection of the means and services of civil aviation took place. A new commission was formed to conduct tests, headed by the Deputy Minister of Civil Aviation B.D. Rude. By the decision of the commission, then confirmed by a joint order dated September 30 - October 5, 1977, crews were assigned to conduct operational tests:
The first crew: pilots B.F. Kuznetsov (Moscow Transport Department of Civil Aviation), S.T. Agapov (ZhLiDB), navigator S.P. Khramov (MTU GA), flight engineers Yu.N. Avayev (MTU GA), Yu.T. Seliverstov (ZhLiDB), leading engineer S.P. Avakimov (ZhLiDB).
The second crew: pilots V.P. Voronin (Moscow State University GA), I.K. Vedernikov (ZhLiDB), navigator A.A. Senyuk (MTU GA), flight engineers E.A. Trebuntsov (MTU GA) and V.V. Solomatin (ZhLiDB), leading engineer V.V. Isaev (GosNIIGA).
Third crew: pilots M.S. Kuznetsov (GosNIIGA), G.V. Voronchenko (ZhLiDB), navigator V.V. Vyazigin (GosNIIGA), flight engineers M.P. Isaev (MTU GA), V.V. Solomatin (ZhLiDB), leading engineer V.N. Poklad (ZhLiDB).
The fourth crew: pilots N.I. Yurskov (GosNIIGA), V.A. Sevankaev (ZhLiDB), navigator Yu.A. Vasiliev (GosNIIGA), flight engineer V.L. Venediktov (GosNIIGA), leading engineer I.S. Mayboroda (GosNIIGA).
Before the start of the tests, a lot of work was done to review all the materials received in order to use them "for offset" to meet specific requirements. However, despite this, some civil aviation specialists insisted on the implementation of the "Program of operational tests of a supersonic aircraft" developed at GosNIIGA back in 1975 under the leadership of the leading engineer A.M. Teterukov. This program essentially required the repetition of previously performed flights in the amount of 750 flights (1200 flight hours) on the MGA routes.
The total volume of operational flights and tests for both stages will amount to 445 flights with 835 flight hours, of which 475 hours at supersonic modes. There were performed 128 pair flights on the Moscow-Alma-Ata route.
The final stage.
The final test phase was not technically challenging. Rhythmic work on a schedule was ensured without major disruptions and major defects. The engineers and technicians were “having fun” assessing household equipment, preparing for passenger transportation. The flight attendants and the corresponding specialists of GosNIIGA, connected to the tests, began to conduct ground trainings to test the technology of servicing passengers in flight. The so-called. "Raffles" and two technical flights with passengers. The "raffle" was held on October 16, 1977 with a complete simulation of the cycle of ticket check-in, baggage clearance, passenger boarding, flight duration, passengers disembarkation, baggage check-in at the destination airport. From the “passengers” (the best employees of OKB, ZhLiDB, GosNIIGA and other organizations) there was no end. The ration of food in the "flight" was at the highest level, since it was approved according to the first class menu, everyone enjoyed it very much. The raffle made it possible to clarify many important elements and details of passenger service. On October 20 and 21, 1977, two technical flights were performed along the Moscow-Alma-Ata highway with passengers. The first passengers were employees of many organizations who were directly involved in the creation and testing of a supersonic aircraft. Today it is even difficult to imagine the atmosphere on board: a feeling of joy and pride reigned there, a great hope for development against the background of first-class service, to which technical people are absolutely not accustomed. On the first flights, all the heads of the leading institutes and organizations were on board.
The road is open for passenger traffic.
Technical flights passed without serious comments and showed the full readiness of the supersonic aircraft and all ground services for regular flights. On October 25, 1977, the Minister of Civil Aviation of the USSR B.P. Bugaev and Minister of Aviation Industry of the USSR V.A. Kazakov approved the main document: "Act on the results of operational tests of a supersonic aircraft with NK-144 engines" with a positive conclusion and conclusions.
On the basis of the presented tables of compliance of the Tu-144 with the requirements of the Temporary Airworthiness Standards of the civil Tu-144 of the USSR, the full volume of the presented evidentiary documentation, including acts on state and operational tests, on October 29, 1977, the chairman of the State Aviation Register of the USSR I.K. Mulkidzhanov approved the conclusion and signed the first in the USSR airworthiness certificate of type No. 03-144 for a supersonic aircraft with NK-144A engines.
The road was opened for passenger traffic.
The road was opened for passenger traffic.
The supersonic aircraft could land and take off at 18 airports in the USSR, while the Concorde, whose takeoff and landing speed was 15% higher, required a separate landing certificate for each airport.
The second production copy of a supersonic aircraft.
In June 1973, the 30th International Paris Air Show took place in France. There was enormous interest aroused by the Soviet Tu-144, the world's first supersonic aircraft. On June 2, thousands of visitors to the air show in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget watched the second serial production of a supersonic aircraft hit the runway. The roar of four engines, a powerful takeoff - and now the car is in the air. The sharp nose of the liner straightened and aimed at the sky. The supersonic Tu, led by Captain Kozlov, made its first demonstration flight over Paris: having gained the required altitude, the car went beyond the horizon, then returned and made a circle over the airfield. The flight took place in normal mode, no technical problems were noted.
The next day, the Soviet crew decided to show everything that the new one is capable of.
Disaster during the demonstration.
The sunny morning of June 3 did not seem to bode well. At first, everything went according to plan - the audience, raising their heads, applauded in unison. The supersonic plane, having shown the "highest class", went down. At that moment, the French Mirage fighter appeared in the air (as it later turned out, he was filming an air show). A collision seemed inevitable. In order not to crash into the airfield and spectators, the crew commander decided to climb higher and pulled the steering wheel towards himself. However, the height has already been lost, and heavy loads have been placed on the structure; as a result, the right wing cracked and fell off. A fire broke out there, and a few seconds later the blazing supersonic plane rushed to the ground. The terrible landing took place on one of the streets of the Parisian suburb of Gusenville. The giant car, destroying everything in its path, crashed to the ground and exploded. The entire crew - six people - and eight Frenchmen on the ground were killed. Gusenville also suffered - several buildings were destroyed. What led to the tragedy? According to most experts, the cause of the crash was an attempt by the crew of a supersonic aircraft to avoid a collision with the Mirage. During the landing approach, the Tu was caught in a wake from the French Mirage fighter.
The photo shows the signature of the first cosmonaut to land on the moon, Neil Armstrong, pilot-cosmonaut Georgy Timofeevich Beregovoy, and all the dead crew members. Supersonic aircraft No. 77102 crashed during a demonstration flight at the Le Bourget air show. All 6 crew members (Honored Test Pilot Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Kozlov, Test Pilot V.M. Molchanov, Navigator G.N. Bazhenov, Deputy Chief Designer, Engineer Major General V.N. Benderov, Leading Engineer B.A. Pervukhin and flight engineer A.I.Dralin) died.
According to the employees of the Tupolev Design Bureau, the cause of the disaster was the connection of an unsettled analog block of the control system, which led to a destructive overload.
According to the pilots, emergency situations occurred in almost every flight. On May 23, 1978, the second supersonic plane crash occurred. An improved experimental version of the airliner, Tu-144D (No. 77111), after fuel ignited in the nacelle area of the 3rd power plant due to the destruction of the fuel line, smoke in the cockpit and the crew shutting off two engines, made an emergency landing on a field near the village of Ilyinsky Pogost, not far from the city Yegoryevsk.
After landing through the cockpit window, crew commander V.D.Popov, co-pilot E.V. Elyan and navigator V.V. Vyazigin left the airliner. Engineers V. M. Kulesh, V. A. Isaev, V. N. Stolpovsky who were in the cabin left the liner through the front entrance door. Flight engineers O. A. Nikolaev and V. L. Venediktov were trapped in the workplace by structures deformed during landing and died. (The deflected nose cone touched the ground first, worked like a bulldozer knife, picking up the ground, and turned under the stomach, entering the fuselage.) On June 1, 1978, Aeroflot permanently stopped supersonic passenger flights.
Improvement of the supersonic aircraft.
Work on improving the supersonic aircraft continued for several more years. Five production aircraft were produced; five more were under construction. A new modification has been developed - Tu-144D (long-range). However, the choice of a new (more economical) engine, RD-36-51, required significant redesign of the aircraft, especially the power plant. Serious design gaps in this area led to a delay in the release of the new liner. Only in November 1974, the serial Tu-144D (tail number 77105) took off, and nine (!) Years after its first flight, on November 1, 1977, the supersonic aircraft received a certificate of airworthiness. Passenger flights were opened on the same day. During their short operation, the liners carried 3194 passengers. On May 31, 1978, flights were terminated: a fire broke out on one of the serial Tu-144Ds, and the liner crashed during an emergency landing.
The disasters in Paris and Yegoryevsk led to the fact that the state's interest in the project diminished. From 1977 to 1978, 600 problems were identified. As a result, it was decided to remove the supersonic aircraft already in the 80s, explaining this by "a bad effect on human health when crossing the sound barrier." Nevertheless, four of the five Tu-144Ds that were in production were nevertheless completed. Later they were based in Zhukovsky and took off as flying laboratories. A total of 16 supersonic aircraft were built (including those in long-range modification), which made a total of 2556 sorties. By the mid-90s, ten of them survived: four in museums (Monino, Kazan, Kuibyshev, Ulyanovsk); one remained at the factory in Voronezh, where it was built; one more was in Zhukovsky along with four Tu-144Ds.
Subsequently, the Tu-144D was used only for freight traffic between Moscow and Khabarovsk. In total, the supersonic aircraft made 102 flights under the Aeroflot flag, of which 55 were passenger (3,194 passengers were transported).
Later, supersonic aircraft made only test flights and several flights in order to establish world records.
On the Tu-144LL, the NK-32 engines were installed due to the lack of serviceable NK-144 or RD-36-51, similar to those used on the Tu-160, a variety of sensors and test control and recording equipment.
In total, 16 Tu-144 airliners were built, which made a total of 2,556 flights and flew 4,110 hours (most of them, 432 hours, flew 77,144). The construction of four more liners was never completed.
Supersonic speed is the speed at which an object moves faster than sound. The speed during the flight of a supersonic aircraft is measured in Mach - the speed of the aircraft at a certain point in space relative to the speed of sound at the same point. Now it is quite difficult to surprise with such speeds of movement, and even some 80 years ago they only dreamed about it.
How it all started
In the forties of the twentieth century, during the Second World War, German designers were actively working on solving this issue, hoping to turn the tide of the war with the help of such aircraft. As we know, they did not succeed, the war ended. However, in 1945, closer to its completion, the German pilot L. Hoffmann, testing the world's first jet fighter Me-262, at an altitude of 7200 m was able to reach a speed of about 980 km / h.
The first to realize the dream of all pilots to overcome the supersonic barrier was the American test pilot Chuck Yeager. In 1947, this pilot was the first in history to overcome the speed of sound on a manned vehicle. He flew the Bell X-1 prototype rocket powered aircraft. By the way, the German scientists captured during the war and their developments greatly contributed to the appearance of this device, as well as, in fact, to the entire further development of flight technologies.
In the Soviet Union, they reached the speed of sound on December 26, 1948. It was an experimental aircraft LA-176, at an altitude of 9060 m, piloted by I.E. Fedorov and O.V. Sokolovsky. About a month later, on this aircraft, but already with a more advanced engine, the speed of sound was not only achieved, but also exceeded the speed of sound by 7000 m. The LA-176 project was very promising, but due to the tragic death of O.V. Sokolovsky, who controlled this apparatus, the development was closed.
In the future, the development of this industry slowed down somewhat, as a significant number of physical difficulties arose associated with controlling an aircraft at supersonic speeds. At high speeds, air begins to manifest itself as compressibility, aerodynamic streamlining becomes completely different. Wave resistance appears, and such an unpleasant phenomenon for any pilot as flutter - the plane starts to get very hot.
Faced with these problems, the designers began to look for a radical solution that could overcome the difficulties. This decision turned out to be a complete overhaul of the design of aircraft intended for supersonic flights. The streamlined shapes of airliners that we are now seeing are the result of many years of scientific research.
Further development
At that time, when the Second World War had just ended, and the Korean and Vietnamese wars began, the development of the industry could only take place through military technologies. That is why the first production aircraft capable of flying faster than the speed of sound were the Soviet MiG-19 (NATO Farmer) and the American F-100 Super Saber. The speed record was for the American aircraft - 1215 km / h (set on October 29, 1953), but already at the end of 1954, the MiG-19s were able to accelerate to 1450 km / h.
Interesting fact. Although the USSR and the United States of America did not conduct official hostilities, the real multiple clashes during the Korean and Vietnam wars showed the indisputable advantage of Soviet technology. For example, our MiG-19s were much lighter, had engines with better dynamic characteristics and, as a result, a faster rate of climb. The radius of possible combat use of the aircraft was 200 km longer for the MiG-19. That is why the Americans really wanted to get an intact sample and even announced a reward for completing such a task. And it was realized.
After the end of the Korean War, 1 MiG-19 plane was hijacked from the airbase by the Korean Air Force officer No Geum Sok. For which the Americans paid him the due 100,000 dollars as a reward for the delivery of an undamaged plane.
Interesting fact. The first female pilot to reach the speed of sound is American Jacqueline Cochran. She reached a speed of 1270 km / h while flying an F-86 Saber.
Civil aviation development
In the 60s of the last century, after the appearance of technical developments tested during the wars, aviation began to develop rapidly. Solutions were found to the existing problems of supersonic speeds, and then the creation of the first supersonic passenger aircraft began.
The first ever flight of a civilian airliner at a speed exceeding the speed of sound took place on August 21, 1961, in a Douglas DC-8 aircraft. At the time of the flight, there were no passengers on the plane, except for the pilots, ballast was placed to match the full load of the liner under these experimental conditions. A speed of 1262 km / h was reached when descending from an altitude of 15877 m to 12300 m.
Interesting fact. Boeing 747 SP-09 of China Airlines (China Airlines) February 19, 1985, flying from Taiwanese Taipei to Los Angeles, went into an uncontrollable dive. The reason for this was engine malfunctions and subsequent unskilled personnel actions. During a dive from an altitude of 12,500 m to 2900 m, where the crew was able to stabilize the aircraft, the speed of sound was exceeded. At the same time, the liner, which was not designed for such overloads, received serious damage to the tail section. However, with all this, only 2 people on board were seriously injured. The plane landed in San Francisco, was repaired and later again carried out passenger flights.
However, really real supersonic passenger aircraft (SPS), capable of performing regular flights at speeds above the speed of sound, all two types were designed and built:
- Soviet airliner Tu-144;
- Anglo-French aircraft Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde.
Only these two aircraft were able to maintain a supercruise. At that time, they even surpassed most combat aircraft, the design of these liners was unique for their time. There were only a few types of aircraft capable of flying in super cruise mode; today, most modern military vehicles are equipped with such capabilities.
Aviation of the USSR
The Soviet Tu-144 was built somewhat earlier than its European counterpart, so it can be considered the world's first supersonic passenger airliner. The appearance of these aircraft, both Tu-144 and Concorde, will not leave anyone indifferent even now. It is unlikely that in the history of aircraft construction there were more beautiful machines.
The Tu-144 has attractive characteristics, except for the range of practical use: a higher cruising speed and lower landing speed, a higher flight ceiling, but the history of our liner is much more tragic.
Important! Tu-144 is not only the first flying, but also the first crashed supersonic passenger airliner. The disaster at the Le Bourget air show on June 3, 1973, in which 14 people died, was the first step towards the completion of the Tu-144 flights. Unambiguous reasons have not been established, and the final version of the disaster raises many questions.
The second catastrophe near Yegoryevsk in the Moscow region on May 23, 1978, where a fire occurred in flight, and 2 crew members were killed during landing, became the final point in the decision to terminate the operation of these aircraft. Despite the fact that after analysis it was found that the fire occurred as a result of a flaw in the fuel system of the new, tested engine, and the aircraft itself showed excellent controllability and reliability of the structure, when the burning one was able to land, the cars were removed from flights and taken out of commercial operation ...
How it happened abroad
The European Concorde, in turn, flew much longer from 1976 to 2003. However, due to unprofitability (the aircraft could not be brought to the minimum payback), the operation was also curtailed. This was largely due to the plane crash in Paris on July 25, 2000: during takeoff from Charles de Gaulle airport, the engine caught fire, and the plane crashed to the ground (113 people died, including 4 on the ground), as well as the terrorist attacks on September 11 2001 Despite the fact that this was the only plane crash in 37 years of operation, and the terrorist attacks were not directly related to the Concorde, the overall decrease in passenger flow reduced the already absent profitability of flights and led to the fact that the last flight of this aircraft made on route Heathrow - Filton November 26, 2003
Interesting fact. A ticket for a Concorde flight in the 70s cost at least $ 1,500 one way, towards the end of the nineties the price increased to $ 4,000. A ticket for a seat on the last flight of this liner was already worth $ 10,000.
Supersonic aviation at the moment
To date, solutions like the Tu-144 and Concorde are not expected. But, if you are the kind of person who does not care about the cost of tickets, there are a number of developments in the field of business flights and small aircraft.
The most promising development is the XB-1 Baby Boom aircraft of the American company Boom technology from Colorado. It is a small aircraft, about 20 m long and 5.2 m wingspan. It is equipped with 3 engines developed in the fifties for cruise missiles.
It is planned to accommodate about 45 people, with a flight range of 1800 km at speeds up to Mach 2. At the moment, this is still a development, but the first flight of the prototype is planned for 2018, and the aircraft itself must be certified by 2023. The creators plan to use the development both as a business jet for private transportation and on regular low-capacity flights. The planned cost for a flight by this car will be about $ 5,000, which is quite a lot, but at the same time comparable to the cost of a business class flight.
However, if you look at the entire civil air transportation industry as a whole, then with the current level of technology development, everything does not look very promising. Large companies are more concerned with the benefits and profitability of projects than with new developments in the field of supersonic flight. The reason is that in the entire history of aviation there have not been sufficiently successful implementations of tasks of this kind, no matter how much they tried to achieve the goals, they all failed to one degree or another.
In general, those designers who are engaged in current projects are more likely enthusiasts who are optimistic about the future, who, of course, expect to make profits, but they are quite realistic about the results, and most of the projects so far exist only on paper, and there are enough analysts are skeptical about the possibility of their implementation.
One of the few really big projects is the Concorde-2 supersonic aircraft patented last year by Airbus. Structurally, it will be an aircraft with three types of engines:
- Turbofan jet engines. Will be installed at the front of the aircraft;
- Hypersonic jet engines. Will be mounted under the wings of the liner;
- Rocket engines. Installed in the aft fuselage.
This design feature assumes the operation of various engines at certain stages of flight (takeoff, landing, cruising speed).
Considering one of the main problems of civil air transportation - noise (air traffic management standards in most countries set a limit on the noise level, if the airport is located close to residential areas, this imposes restrictions on the possibility of night flights), Airbus has developed a special technology for the Concorde-2 project allowing vertical take-off. This will make it possible to virtually avoid shock waves hitting the surface of the earth, which in turn will ensure that there is no discomfort for people below. Also, thanks to a similar design and technology, the airliner will fly at an altitude of about 30-35000 m (at the moment, civil aviation flies a maximum of 12000 m), which will help reduce noise not only during takeoff, but also throughout the entire flight, since at that height, sound shock waves cannot reach the surface.
The future of supersonic flight
Not everything is as sad as it might seem at first glance. In addition to civil aviation, there is and always will be the military industry. The combat needs of the state, as before, drove the development of aviation, and will continue to do so. The armies of all states need more and more advanced aircraft. From year to year, this need only increases, which entails the creation of new design and technological solutions.
Sooner or later, development will reach a level where the use of military technologies may become profitable and for peaceful purposes.
Video
The development of a second generation supersonic passenger aircraft, abbreviated as SPS-2, is entering its final phase. The first flight of the Tu-244 is expected by 2025. The new Russian commercial airliner will be structurally different from the Soviet Tu-144 in terms of characteristics, flight range, comfort, spaciousness, size, engine power, and avionics. Its supersonic speed of Mach 2 will remain the same as that of its predecessor Tu-144LL "Moscow", it is still the best indicator in the world in heavy civil aircraft construction. At an altitude of 20 km, the routes are free.
A limitation for aircraft designers and developers may be the length of the 1st class runway, at least 3 km is required. Such concrete strips are not found in all airports in the world and in the country. There can be no illusions about the fact that the best aircraft will not be in demand by Western countries, which are more interested in selling their European Airbus and American Boeing, flying at a speed of 700 - 900 km / h, 2.5-3 times slower. You will have to rely only on the needs of Russia and the BRICS, as well as on wealthy customers who can afford such aircraft.
Project objectives
The first Tu-244 model is expected to see the proven NK-32 engines, the same as those of the Tu-160M2 strategic bomber upgraded on 11/16/2017. The very first development of the SPS-2 began too early, in 1973, thanks to the achievements of Soviet military designers in the 1950s, 50 years ahead of their time. At that time, there were still no such high-quality composite materials to use them in large quantities, and the power plants had insufficient traction. In the 1960s, there were engines with a 20-ton thrust, in the 1970s with a 25-ton thrust, and now 32-ton engines are used.
Aircraft designers have 2 main tasks:
Flight range - 9 200 km.
Reducing fuel consumption for this class of equipment.
The first and second tasks can be solved by the example of the Tu-160 and Tu-22M3, using a variable sweep of the wing, making the aircraft multi-mode. You can analyze the closed projects T-4 and T-4MS Chernyakov, study the development of Myasishchev on modifications of the M-50, brilliant and fantastic then, more suitable today. The Tupolev Design Bureau has everything for this, it contains materials from all the leading design bureaus of the USSR engaged in heavy strategic aviation, on the basis of which the world's best military "long-range" Tu-22M3M and Tu-160M2 were created.
The advantages of jet aircraft
The advantage of a jet is speed. This guarantees a comfortable flight and shortens the distance in time. Spending three times less hours in a chair is a good health of passengers, for example, on the Vladivostok-Kaliningrad flight. Business time is saved. Using the services of the Tu-244 airliner, you can spend 1 day longer on vacation, and, upon arrival, immediately go to work without fatigue. It is also important to receive moral satisfaction from our citizens from the prestige of the Tu-244, to feel pride in Russia. The release of civilian jet aircraft from the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation is more significant than the self-sufficiency of the country's defense enterprises, it is a commercial focus, jobs, a guarantee of stability and the accumulation of profits in harsh market conditions.
Disadvantages of Bullet Passenger Airliners
In the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s, they noticed that the creation of a civil supersonic passenger airliner on military principles would not work due to the requirements for comfort and safety. We began to study in this regard the experience of the USA, France and England, which was considered the best, then, according to the plan of the chief designer Alexei Andreevich Tupolev, went into operation. The disadvantages of the first Tu-144 and Concorde include high fuel consumption, loudness of the engine, sound booms, and the amount of harmful emissions into the atmosphere.
The main disadvantage of the Tu-244 is the commercial, military and political institutions of the West, because their Concordes flew off in 2003, and there are no new ones in the plans, because our aircraft construction paths diverge. The explanation for this: firstly, NATO does not need strategic supersonic aviation, because at the heart of their power is an aircraft-carrying ocean fleet, and nuclear bombs and missiles are enough to deliver by aircraft with a range of 1.5 km (fighters) from military bases scattered around the world, which is why military projects of this class in the west are not very in demand. Also, the rather high cost of the flight sharply narrows the potential market segment for these aircraft, so there can be no question of mass production. However, the simultaneous order for military and passenger transport is exactly what can give a serious impetus to supersonic passenger aviation.
What will be the Tu-244 in terms of flight performance
The design was delayed, the Tu-144 in the 1968 configuration reached its first design characteristics by the mid-1970s. Work on its improvement since 1992 - the beginning of the Tu-244 project, 25 years have passed since then, to complete what has been started it will take another 10 they did not lead to anything good, as in all similar cases in the former USSR. Only the collection of scientific data from the Tu-144LL for the NASA military space program and the slowdown of our enterprises in development.
Today there are many options for Tu-244 projects. No one will say exactly what the plane itself will be like. Unofficial sources are spreading ambiguous information. The characteristics described below are conditional, based on current capabilities. Characteristics: length 88.7 m; a wingspan of 54.77 m, an area of 1200 sq.m., and an aspect ratio of 2.5 m; wing sweep along the edge - at the center section 75 degrees, - at the console 35 degrees; fuselage width 3.9 m, height 4.1 m, luggage compartment of 32 square meters; takeoff weight 350 t, including fuel 178 t; engines NK-32 - 4 units; cruising speed 2.05 M; range of 10 thousand km; Max. height 20 km.
Airframe Tu-244
Imagine a trapezoidal wing and a complex deformation of its middle trapezoid. Aileron control in balance, roll and pitch. The socks are mechanically deflected at the leading edge. The wing structure is divided into parts, front, middle and consoles. The middle and cantilever parts are with multi-spar and multi-thread power circuits, but there are no front ribs. In the vertical tail is the same as in the structure of the wing and a two-piece steering rudder.
Fuselage with pressurized cabin, nose and tail compartments - the dimension will be selected on order based on the number of passenger seats. For 250 and 320 passengers, the fuselage diameter from 3.9 to 4.1 m is suitable. The cabin will be divided into classes, 1st, 2nd and 3rd. In terms of comfort, the Tu-244 will be at the level of the latest modification of the Tu-204. The aircraft is equipped with a cargo compartment. Four pilots, their seats with catapults (in Russian), shoot upwards. Everything on board is re-automated and subordinated to the central program control.
The Tu-244 may lose a deflectable nose, similar to the Tu-144LL, due to the development of the latest optoelectronic equipment and the possibility of deflecting the vectors of controlled thrust in modern domestic power plants. In places of maximum load, titanium alloy VT-64 can be used in the area of the wheel. The nose pillar may remain the same, as if there will be 3 new main supports for the concrete strip, designed for high loads. Navigation and flight equipment will correspond to the meteorological minimum according to the international classification IIIA ICAO.
avia-su.ru
The twin-engine fighter produced by the Sukhoi Design Bureau was adopted by the USSR Air Force in 1985, although it made its first flight back in May 1977.
This aircraft can reach a maximum supersonic speed of Mach 2.35 (2500 km / h), which is more than twice the speed of sound.
The Su-27 has earned a reputation as one of the most efficient units of its time, and some models are still used in the armies of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
www.f-16.net
A tactical attack aircraft developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics. Designed for two crew members, the first aircraft entered service with the US Air Force in 1967, and was used for strategic bombing, reconnaissance and electronic warfare. The F-111 was able to reach Mach 2.5 (2655 km / h), or 2.5 times the speed of sound.
letsgoflying.wordpress.com
Twin-engine tactical fighter developed by McDonnell Douglas in 1967. The all-weather aircraft is designed to capture and maintain air superiority over enemy forces during air combat. The F-15 Eagle first flew in July 1972 and officially entered service with the United States Air Force in 1976.
The F-15 is capable of flying at speeds in excess of Mach 2.5 (2655 km / h) and is considered one of the most successful aircraft ever built. The F-15 Eagle is expected to be in service with the US Air Force until 2025. The fighter is now exported to a number of foreign countries, including Japan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
airforce.ru
A large, twin-engine supersonic aircraft manufactured by the Mikoyan Design Bureau is designed to intercept foreign aircraft at high speeds. The aircraft made its maiden flight in September 1975, and entered service with the Air Force in 1982.
The MiG-31 reaches a speed of Mach 2.83 (3000 km / h) and was capable of flying at supersonic speeds even at low altitudes. The MiG-31 is still in service with the Air Forces of Russia and Kazakhstan.
XB-70 newspaceandaircraft.com
The six-engine XB-70 Valkyrie aircraft was developed by North American Aviation in the late 1950s. The aircraft was built as a prototype for a strategic bomber with nuclear bombs.
The XB-70 Valkyrie reached its design speed on October 14, 1965, when it reached Mach 3.02 (3219 km / h), 21,300 m above Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Two XB-70s were built and used on test flights from 1964 to 1969. One prototype crashed in 1966 after a mid-air collision, and another XB-70 is on display at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
Bell x-2 starbuster
X-2 wikipedia.org
The rocket-powered aircraft was a joint development of Bell Aircraft Corporation, the US Air Force and the National Aeronautics Advisory Committee (NASA's predecessor) in 1945. The aircraft was built to study the aerodynamic properties during supersonic flight in the range of Mach 2 and 3.
The X-2, nicknamed Starbuster, made its maiden flight in November 1955. The following year, in September 1956, Captain Milburn at the helm was able to reach a speed of Mach 3.2 (3370 km / h) at an altitude of 19,800 m.
Shortly after reaching this maximum speed, the aircraft became uncontrollable and crashed. This tragic incident put an end to the X-2 program.
airforce.ru
The Mikoyan-Gurevich aircraft was designed to intercept enemy aircraft at supersonic speeds and collect reconnaissance data. The MiG-25 is one of the fastest military aircraft ever put into service. The MiG-25 made its first flight in 1964 and was first used by the Soviet Air Force in 1970.
The MiG-25 has an incredible top speed of Mach 3.2 (3524 km / h). The aircraft is still in service with the Russian Air Force and is also used in a number of other countries, including the Algerian Air Force and the Syrian Air Force.
wikipedia.org
A prototype aircraft developed by Lockheed Corporation in the late 50s and early 60s. The aircraft was built to intercept enemy aircraft at Mach 3.
Testing of the YF-12 took place at Area 51, a top-secret US Air Force training ground that ufologists have attributed to an alien connection. The YF-12 made its maiden flight in 1963 and developed a maximum speed of Mach 3.2 (3330 km / h) at an altitude of 24,400 m. NASA. The plane finally stopped flying in 1978.
