28
votes
Was wood used in the construction of the TU-144?
You're looking at a typical metal wing's innards with stringers (small lateral stiffeners made from aluminum angle) riveted to aluminum sheet, and the remnants of wing ribs also attached. The colour ...
- 136k
24
votes
Tu-144 vs Concorde: which one of the two carried passengers first?
Concorde was first by almost two years:
Aircraft
Maiden Flight
First Commercial Flight
Source
Concorde
2 March 1969
21 January 1976 (London → Bahrain & Paris → Dakar → Rio de Janeiro)
...
- 58.3k
14
votes
Tu-144 vs Concorde: which one of the two carried passengers first?
The Tu-144 commenced commercial on the 1st of November 1977 (according to Sinsheim Museum)
According to some sources the first commercial flights of the Concorde took place on the 21st of January 1976....
- 353
10
votes
Accepted
Why is it said that the Tupolev Tu-144 had superior aerodynamics to the Concorde?
Let's see if we can find numbers to support this claim:
Tu-144D:
Ogival delta wings without conical camber, cranked delta. A distinctly low set & a much simpler wing, a poor performer at low speed,...
- 10.3k
4
votes
Why didn’t the Concorde have flap-canards like the Tu-144?
It did not need them. Concorde could operate from most commercial airports and did not need especially long runways. Retractable canards add drag and the mechanism is a point of failure.
I fail to ...
- 4,382
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible