Supersonic TU 144 | Stock Footage Royalty Free HD Video Clips

Supersonic TU 144

Hours of footage on supersonic airliner TU-144 including interviews with crewmembers and engineers; rare archive footage of first takeoff and more.

Western media nicknamed the plane Konkordski, because of its superficial similarity to Concorde. A prototype first flew on December 31, 1968 near Moscow, two months before the Concorde. At a Paris air show in 1973 one the aircraft crashed. While in the air it undertook a violent turn down, probably stalling the engines to avoid a French Mirage fighter plane. Trying to pull out of the subsequent dive, the plane broke up and crashed, destroying 15 houses and killing all six on board and eight on the ground.

Panorama and different views of air plant filmed in 80-th when a total of 17 Tu-144s were built, including the prototype and five Tu-144Ds with more powerful engines and longer range. Tu-144 flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata.

Footage of Mid-1990s. Boeing and NASA partnered with Tupolev to test supersonic flight. Tu-144 that had been in storage for years was obtained and modified by the Tupolev Aircraft Design Bureau in 1996 creating the Tu-144LL Flying Laboratory. Footage featuring program experiments - aboard the aircraft and ground test engine experiments. This airplane had military items engines from Tupolev 160 bomber. It was to be sold but the Russian government would not allow it to exported. Views of landing and takeoff, interviews with crewmembers and an engineer saying that this model belongs to TU supersonic generation but is, in fact, completely new modified airplane.

Late 90-th. Footage picturing the strike on Tupolev air plant, women crying and saying that they do not receive salary for several months in a row. />
Archive footage of Soviet Tupolev design bureau headed by the legendary Andrei Nicholayvich Tupolev. Footage of the first flight of a supersonic passenger plane filmed on December 31, 1968 on the secret Zhukovsky Airfield near Moscow. Among the invited crowd to witness the historic flight were the 80-year-old Andrey Tupolev and his son Alexei Tupolev, who would inherit his father’s role upon the elder's death in 1972. Shots of the snow-covered runway, the crewmembers, takeoff of TU144, etc. Pictures of many aircrafts designed by Tupolev from scratch.

Detailed description, as well as full interview transcript is available upon request.