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Two Tu-144 were sold as a heap of nonferrous scrap

By Pavel | March 16, 2006 on 3:54 pm | In # Avia news, Aviation Video, Civilians, Tupolev |

Right-click to download Two Tu-144 were sold video.
22,4 Mb, 2:46, 320 x 240, mp4
Vesti news program from “RTR” Russian TV channel reports: two Tu-144 airplanes, assigned to the Zhukovsky airbase, were sold to two private companies. Companies are going to cut them into pieces and resell as a nonferrous scrap (back to the state most possibly). One of the planes has already lost part of the aluminium facing under the wings.
Tu-144 Zhukovsky Airbase Today it is still possible to buy out only on of two sold planes, but Zhukovsky city government has no budget for this, so it looks like nothing will be done about it.
Very strange question - how in general was possible to sell the state treasure to private companies. City government has no answer.
Reminding, Auto & Technik Museum Sinsheim has bought and transferred one specimen of this type of plane in 2001, to the 20th anniversary of the museum. This museum thinks Tu-144 is “important chapter of aeronautic history” (see Tu-144 page of the online Museum Sinsheim). Tu-144 and Concord are the main showpieces of the museum, which are proudly being demonstrated to all the visitors.
While all over the world Tu-144 is considered to be masterpiece of art and huge amounts of money are being spent to buy and transfer it to the museum, in Russia it measures only by it’s metal weight.
Tu-144 Zhukovsky Airbase One of these two planes is Tu-144LL reg 77114, famous flying laboratory, result of Russia and US united efforts - involved companies were: Tupolev design bureau, NASA, Boeing company (McDonnell Douglas) and Rockwell. This plane was made from Tu-144D, its upgrade cast $350 million dollars. It performed 19 flights, under control of both Russian and American test-pilots. During the flights it was reached maximum speed of 2.02 Mach and maximum altitude of 16887 meters. This tail set up 13 world records for the supersonic passenger aircrafts.
See some video materials here: Tu-144 landing video.
Today there is exact information about 8 aircrafts of Tu-144 series:
Tu-144C reg 77106 in Monino, Moscow
Tu-144C reg 77107 in Kazan
Tu-144C reg 77108 in Samara
Tu-144C reg 77109 in Voronezh
Tu-144C reg 77110 in Ulyanovsk
Tu-144D reg 77112 is in Museum Sinsheim, Germany.
Tu-144LL reg 77114 is in Zhukovsky
Tu-144D reg 77115 is in Zhukovsky

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Here is a Wallpaper which i made out of my Photos of the Tu-144 in Sinsheim:
http://my.opera.com/Buran-Pilot/albums/show.dml?id=46526

Comment by Hellkrieger — March 16, 2006 #
Man! That is so shitty!! Oh! is that “Flying laboratory” in that video “Tu 144 landing?” is it the same plane?

Comment by THATS SHITTY! — March 17, 2006 #
Yes, exactly. It has tail with two flags (Russia and US) and three-colors line across, second picture in this article.
Reg no. 77114

Comment by Pavel — March 17, 2006 #
Who were the “owners”, and how were they authorised to sell the planes?

And how strange they sell them “for scrap”, when everybody knows they could have made far more money, either by selling them to a museum, or by carefully dismantling them, and selling the parts, for instance on eBay, or through a website!

Comment by ChristiaanJ — April 2, 2006 #
As far as I can see, all the close-up shots are of 77115 which is not the “Flying Laboratory” aircraft.

77114 can be seen in the distance in some of the interviewing shots though. Given that this was semi-maintained until about 5 years ago, I’d imagin it is in “relatively” better condition.

I don’t have any sound on this PC so I haven’t heard what was said (not that I can understand Russian anyway!).

Comment by sst_max — April 5, 2006 #
Yes, 77114 is at the distance. And yes, after upgrade of $350 millions dollars I think it’s in a little bit better condition..

Comment by Pavel — April 5, 2006 #
The last information I had obtained from Moscow told me that 77115 will be on display on a street at Zhukovky and that the engines had been removed from 77114 because she has been sold to a US museum. I wonder, if the unsold Concordes were transfered to BA and AF with the cost of 1 pound and 1 franc, why a retired TU-144 can’t be sold to the city of Zhukovsky for 1 ruble? Tupolev PSC must know that the TU-144 will be forever the flagship of all theirs aircrafts.

Comment by tu144sst_David — April 6, 2006 #
Thank you for interesting information, checking. Will reply asap.

Comment by Pavel — April 6, 2006 #
Unbelievable! the TU-144LL should be saved!! This is a historically important jet, there’s no way it should just be cut up! If any of them are to be cut up, the flying laboratory should be the last one they think about. Is this signed and sealed? in other words is it likely to be stopped?

Comment by DaveC — April 6, 2006 #
no entiendo a esta gente, si estos aparatos efectuaron un cambio histórico en la aviación comercial por haber sido los pioneros en la aviación civil supersónica, cómo es posible que no puedan venderlos aunque sea a museos que de veras aprecien lo que ellos significan?…de veras es increible e indignante que terminen desguazados.

Comment by j. alas — April 8, 2006 #
Ok, latest news.
Tu-144D reg 77115 is beeing actively fought for. It’s in much better condition, it even has its native engines and avionics. Today this tail belongs to ANTK Tupolev (aviation scientific and research complex Tupolev) and city administration together with Zhukovsky city heroes club are trying to buy it out to make a monument in Zhukovsky city - take a look at the project here.

Regarding flying laboratory - Tu-144LL reg 77114. It was sold by ANTK Tupolev to the Zvetmet company - company that deals with nonferrous scrap. Plane already doesn’t have engines. And if 77115 can be bought out, with 77114 its unclear. The only thing that is clear - 77114 today belongs to the Zvetmet company, and there is no info about any US museum.

Comment by Pavel — April 12, 2006 #
Well although Im Swedish I am feeling sorry for you Russian guys.

Back in 2001 (cant recall the exact time/date) I looked in to buying 77114 when she was up for sale. No reaction from the seller, maybe they didnt want to sell here when push came to show.

Now It look as if we can only look on and accept that there is no honor among some people.

P.S It would at least have saved her from being cutup… this is bad, real bad!

Comment by JT — June 14, 2006 #
I feel gutted and very sad that this has happened.

I’ve been a life long Concorde fan and Concorde chaser. i know if this ever happened to any of the remaining Concordes (currently ” stuck ” in museums) there would be a national out cry.

I always wanted to see a TU144 and fly on one, but never got the chance.

The TU144 was the ” Russian Concorde ” and all of them should have been kept safe secure just like the Russians kept Yuri Gagarin’s space craft safe.

Concorde and the TU144 represented the future, which meant this time 3 years ago you could fly from Heathrow to New York on Concorde in 3 1/2 hours as opposed to 7-8 hrs on a subsonic Boeing 747.

The TU144 due to its fuel hungry engines and lack of supercruise never had the capability to fly to New York.

In 1990’s NASA brought a TU144 back from the scrap heap, made it flight worthy and mach 2 flight capable, they proved that they could do it and they did it.

People like Bill Gates and other rich men could save the TU144 + Concorde and lauch a new eara in aviation where mach 2 SSTs are ” THE ” way to travel and subsonics like the Airbus A380, Boeing 747 etc are left on the scrap heap and in the past as they are all to slow……..

I hope the remaining TU144s are kept safe.

We cant let these planes die, they need to be kept safe……….

Comment by Jetinder — June 25, 2006 #
I feel very sorry about the plane’s fate.It was “unlucky” from the beginning.
Althogh NASA helped financially to recover one of the TU-144’s it is Russian engines and design that made it fly supersonically again

Comment by Alex — July 7, 2006 #
Well, that’s a boring story for Tu-144. I’ll buy one if I could but not for cut or do something destory the plane. I just want to know all data about it and how it was made. I’m designing my own supersonic aircraft now and I need more data about the SST.

Comment by UX-150FD — September 22, 2006 #
wel,people are breaking their heads just to make other supersonic private jets….why not take the concorde or tu-144 and make the interior like a privat jet and work on the engines to make them less thirsty for fuel.
isn’t that cheaper than to design a new plane that can go supersonic?
cause you already have the plane just make it better just like the germans do with their porsche

Comment by fa — December 29, 2006 #
77114 woiuld have flown around the world once, then subsequently donated to a museum after providing high-profile visibility for a well-financed startup company.

You can blame either Prof. Poukhov, the MOD, or maybe even the GRU, but the buyer had the money in escrow and bent over backwards to get the plane.

This bird is deader than fried chicken.

Comment by tejavia — February 13, 2007 #
The CCCP-77112 is in Germany
http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5976392

Comment by Sinterklaas — May 13, 2007 #
Yes, it is written in the article. Thanks for good photo!

Comment by Pavel — May 16, 2007 #
I am 15 years of age and have found this forum most interesting! I am a massive TU-144 fanatic and have been in contact with the general designers at Tupolev in Moscow (MOCKBA). I have rebuilt one of the aircraft in a scaled down version, registered CCCP-77116. A beautiful aircraft, far more attractive than concorde! The TU-144 seems to have more character and grace than the concorde and a more interesting and mysterious history. I had intentions of buying the forward nose cone from CCCP-77108, as a piece of memorabilia, but cannot trace the aircraft down. I have installed replica Kolesov RD-36-51A engines and aeroflot fittings and livery. I hope they can save the remaining TU-144s out there, they are wonderful machines! Congrats to A.N and A.A Tupolev and to the Russian Design bureau!

Comment by Ben — September 19, 2007 #
wanted tu-144 items. can anyone help

Comment by tim bennett — January 27, 2008 #