![]() Very little is known about this version, as the second one – “flying wing” – was considered as having more potential. It had to be powered by either Rolls-Royce Trent or its domestic competitor, specially designed (but never built) NK-44. A “normal” design was of a double-decker with a length of 86 meters and a wingspan of 77 meters, very similar to the A380 but considerably heavier. Vorobyev headed the project personally, adding his experience with strategic bombers into the mix. So was born the Tu-404, the largest sibling of the “-04” family, whose eventual fate foreshadowed the meaning of the now-infamous error code. Connections between hubs had to grow thicker and the circumference of fuselages had to reflect that. As an answer to that, Tu-304 entered the design phase: twin-engined wide-body airliner with an oval cross section, a new plane for Russia’s new era.īut the westerners were not content with massive twinjets, they were planning their A380s, Boeing NLAs and Lockheed Martin VLSTs. But those were four-engined monstrosities of the bygone times and in the west the shining Boeing 777 has just started attracting orders. Previously, Soviet long-haul airliners were exclusively built by Ilyushin: Il-62, Il-86 and the new Il-96 were supposed to compete with Boeing 747. Having almost no means to do that but still seeking to keep the bureau’s position as a major aircraft manufacturer, the engineer turned his head towards the western trends. His finishing touches on the new airliner coincided with the end of Perestroika and the eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union, as the old system crumbled and government-controlled design bureaus started to be reorganized into private companies.īy 1991 – the last days of the USSR – Vorobyev was the deputy head of Tupolev’s department of civil aviation, and thus was befallen with the task of continuing modernisation of the country’s airplane fleet in the circumstances of complete economic turmoil. One of engineers working on Tu-204 was Yuri Vasilyevich Vorobyev, whose previous work included modernisation of Tu-22M Backfire supersonic bomber. By the early 80s, it already needed a replacement, which led to the development of Tu-204 – the first and the only specimen of the last generation of Soviet airliners. This way, Tu-154, a semi-successful competitor to Boeing 727, appeared. Economics, Tu-404 and its familyĪlthough the majority of Tupolev’s civil aircraft were offshoots of military ones – Tu-114, Tu-124, as well as Tu-104 and its modifications being developed from various strategic bombers – an intention to compete on Western markets brought a need to design airliners from ground-up. ![]() ![]() ![]() Many others, though, remain in the blueprints and shiny models, presented at air shows, marvelled at, and then forgotten. As we know too well, those went nowhere and the only child of this idea – the glorious A380 – is on its last legs. On the other hand, a school of thought emerged, which hailed the design and construction of new large double-decker airplanes of the future. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |