What interested me was not the Tu-334, but rather what appears to be behind it. A Tu-144!?! Can anyone shed any light on this, where it was taken and why a Tu-144 appears to be being displayed.
LN-MOW From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 1896 posts, RR: 15 Reply 1, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 952 times:
As far as I know, at least 1 Tu-144 is still airworthy. It was been used as a testbed by NASA and Boeing (?) a couple of years back.
One Tu-144 was also sold to a Texas businessman - I don't know if that's the same aircraft. Now THAT'S the ultimate business jet ...
Eal401 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 2, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 21 hours ago) and read 910 times:
Have just found out some more about it, it's a Tu-144LL used as a testbed by NASA and Boeing as part of research into a new Boeing aircraft. All done 1996-97 time. For more info;
Woodsboy From United States of America, joined Mar 2000, 1011 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 20 hours ago) and read 829 times:
Yup, thats the testbed aircraft alright. As far as I have heard, it went back "home" to rest with the remaining TU-144s after its testing back in 1996.
You can see the Russian flag as well as the American flag on the tail of this TU-144 so this must undoubtedly be the test aircraft. As far as a Texas businessman buying one, I would be interested in hearing more about that. Back when they were refitting the testbed aircraft, I read that there was maybe one other TU-144 that was possibly a candidate for airworthyness but that even it was in pretty bad shape. There were some photos accompanying the article (In Air International) that showed all the remaining TU-144s lined up with peices falling off of them, peeling paint, missing panels, rust etc.
Airbus380 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 20 hours ago) and read 820 times:
It has an American flag with the Russian flag. When the original TU-144 was built, it had the Communist flag. There is still a TU-144 at Tupelov's manufacturing factory. The windows on this look more like those of a Concord. This is very interesting and good catch.
Clickhappy From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 9444 posts, RR: 72 Reply 5, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 774 times:
Ahlfors From Canada, joined Oct 2000, 1318 posts, RR: 5 Reply 6, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 16 hours ago) and read 737 times:
That has got to be one of the highest bids ever received at eBay. I believe they charge 1% of the final sale price so thats a sweet $25,000 just made off of that!
B744F From Germany, joined Jan 2006, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (11 years 8 months 1 week 13 hours ago) and read 688 times:
this photo taken at MACS (direct transliteration from russian, it means International Moscow Air Show) airshow at Moscow (and URL also telling that). so, it is not surprise at all that you can see tu144 there (it is not in airworthiness condition, just taxed from parking at Zhukovski airfield, where the show took a place).
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