Category An Illustrated History of the World’s Largest Airline

Tortoise and Hare

The Tupolev Tu-154 and the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144 both got out of the starting gate at about the same time. The trijet made its first flight on 3 October 1968, and the Soviet SST followed only three months later, on the last day of the year (see pages 64-65). The slower aircraft went into service with Aeroflot on 9 February 1972, on the route from Moscow to the health resort Mineralnye Vody. But the event was almost unnoticed while the world of aviation underwent the hypnosis of supersonic aspirations.

Workhorse

Like all new civil airliners, the Tu-154 had its problems in the early years. But Tupolev and Aeroflot pressed on with what was designed to be — to quote John Stroud — "an aircraft with the range of the 11-18, the speed of the Tu-104, and the take-off and landing performance of the An-10." Of these, only the Tu-104 was emulated in this specification, but the tar­gets were substantially met. And, as the map on this page illus­trates, the sometimes overworked equine metaphor can be for­
given in its application to the aircraft that produced, by the 1990s, about half of the passenger-kilometers of the entire Aeroflot fleet, or perhaps alone as much as the total output of any one of the three leading airlines of the United States.

As Ilyushin had already found (page 55), the Kuznetsov NK-8 turbofan was a thirsty one and fuel burn could be greatly improved by replacing it with the Soloviev D-30KU as had been done in the 11-62. The Tupolev design bureau was slow to accept this possibility, and it was not until 1982, ten years after the Tu-154 entered service, that a prototype Tu-154M with derated Soloviev D-30KU engines was pro­duced by converting a standard production Tu-154B-2. New engine nacelles were developed from those fitted to the II – 62M, with the same type of clamshell thrust reversers, and several aerodynamic improvements were made. The first two production aircraft from the Kuybyshev factory were deliv­ered to Aeroflot on 27 December 1984, and the type remains in production.

Slow But Steady

For several decades, Aeroflot was not its own master; indeed, under the Soviet system, it probably never was; but in later years, as the Cold War thawed, it acquired more autonomy and could influence the course of its own route expansion and aircraft development. In the international arena, almost a decade was to pass after the end of the Second World War before an Aeroflot aircraft was seen in western Europe, when an Ilyushin 11-12 resumed service to Stockholm in 1954. Subsequently, progress to other continents was slow.

Back in the 1920s, Dobrolet had made connections to Mongolia and Afghanistan, and experimental flights had been made to China. Now, in 1955, as the Soviet Union formed a close alliance with Mao’s People’s Republic, Aeroflot opened a link with Peking (Beijing); and the next year resumed flights to Kabul. More far-reaching tentacles reached out, with Tupolev Tu-104 service to India in 1958, to Jakarta in 1962, and Tupolev Tu-114 service to Japan in 1967. Vietnam

came on stream in 1970.

Next continent was Africa, with an Ilyushin 11-18 service to Cairo in 1958; then to West Africa, to Guinea, in 1962. During the period of the rise of African nationalism and the collapse of colonialism, the Soviet Union was anxious to capi­talize (if that is the right word) on the situation; and Aeroflot was often the emissary, opening up links with Moscow throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

To The New World

These routes in the Eastern Hemisphere had been undertaken mainly with the Tupolev Tu-104 and the Ilyushin 11-18. Not until the introduction of the big turboprop Tu-114 in 1961 did Aeroflot feel confident enough, and the Soviet Union feel proud enough, to span the Atlantic. Service to Havana started in 1963 and to Canada in 1966. When the Ilyushin 11-62 was ready, Aeroflot was able to claim some slots at New York’s Kennedy International Airport.

And just as it had made its first landfall in North America in Fidel Castro’s Cuba, so it repeated the pattern by opening the first service to South America when Chile voted in a Marxist government, and Aeroflot promptly began to fly to Santiago, via Gander and Havana, in 1972. Eleven years later it started service to Buenos Aires; and later on to Nicaragua, where the left-wing Sandanistas had ousted the Somosas.

Political Ups and Downs

While in most parts of the world, politics did not interfere with, although they sometimes helped, sometimes hindered, Aeroflot’s ambitions to forge a global network. The relation­ship with the United States was so precariously balanced that the smooth continuance of scheduled air service between New York (and Washington, from 5 April 1974) and Moscow was never assured. In December 1981, all pretense of tolerance was thrown aside when martial law was declared in Poland, and one of the knee-jerk reactions of the Reagan administration was to terminate Aeroflot’s service to the U. S.A. Less than two years later, on 15 September, even the Aeroflot offices in the U. S. were closed down after a Korean airliner had been shot down by Soviet jets off the coast of Kamchatka.

Other countries had also imposed a ban after the ‘Flight 007’ incident, but in time the political climate eased and Aeroflot continued to build its route system. Not until 29 April 1986, however, was Aeroflot able to resume service to the States, after Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev had met in Geneva in the fall of the previous year. By 7 December 1987,
when Mikhail made a state visit to Washington, the Ilyushin I1-62M was not even remarked upon by the press. Aeroflot was part of the scene.

Polar Specialist

Not all of Aeroflot’s routes and services were politically moti­vated or necessarily linked with political strategy. The same could be said for the airlines of other nations, although it is arguable that Aeroflot was, as a branch of the Soviet Civil Air Administration, more directly the instrument of policy than were some other flag carriers or ‘chosen instruments’. The pioneering of some routes, however, while having certain political undertones, were just as much examples of the true spirit of airline enterprise and development.

On 10 September 1975, for example, Aeroflot opened a twice-monthly service to Longyearbyen, in Spitzbergen (Svalbard), a Norwegian territory of the Arctic on which there were two Soviet-operated coal mines. Questions were occa­sionally raised as to why the U. S.S. R., with all its extensive wealth of coal within its own borders, should need a couple of mines in Spitzbergen. Such suspicions aside, it did give Aeroflot, along with S. A.S., the privilege of operating to the most northerly airport in the world open to the public.

At the other end of the globe, on the opposite polar axis, Aeroflot was also active, having made its first flight to Antarctica as early as 1961 (see pages 70-71). The Soviet national air carrier thus carried the flag to every continent except Australia, and operated both to the Arctic and the Antarctic — though service to Mirnyy and Molodezhnaya was not exactly frequent, roughly once or twice a year.

Round-The-World

Aeroflot was eventually to join the ranks of those airlines that offered service completely around the world — or nearly enough to qualify for that claim. On 19 May 1991, from its well-established far eastern terminal of Khabarovsk, an Ilyushin I1-62M started service to San Francisco, via Anchorage. On 29 March 1992, this route was augmented by a direct flight, also via Anchorage, from Moscow.

Pan American Airways used to be proud of its round-the – world flights but Juan Trippe and his successors never did fill the domestic gap across the U. S.A. until it purchased National Airlines in 1978. The supreme irony was that, at the end of the same year when Aeroflot achieved round-the-world status, Pan American Airways, one of the world’s great airlines, closed its offices and terminated all its services.

No book on Russian aviation is complete without refer­ence to the inventor Aleksander Fedorovich Mozhaisky (1825-1890). He began to study bird flight when aged 31, and during the next 20 years, experiment­ed with models. He flew kites and designed propellers. In 1876 he himself flew in a large kite, towed by a team of three horses.

In 1877, the War Ministry granted 3,000 rubles for further tests, and on 23 March 1878 Mozhaisky outlined an ambi­tious ‘large apparatus’ able to lift a man. Granted a further 2,000 rubles, he traveled to England in 1880 to obtain, from R. Baker, Son, and Hemkiens, two small steam engines, one of 20hp, the other of ten. On 3 November 1981, he received a ‘Privilege’ to build his flying machine.

Parts were constructed at the Baltiisky factory at St Petersburg and assembled at the Krasny Selo military field. On 31 January 1883, he approached the Russian Technical Society with a request to demonstrate his appa­ratus. By the end of the year, it was moving under its own power, at least on the ground.

The fuselage and the tail, as well as the 353т^ (3,800sq ft) square planform wing, were built of wood, with steel angle brackets, and covered with varnished silk fabric, as were the three four-bladed propellers, the center one of which was 8.75m (28ft 7in) in diameter.

Some time in 1884, an unknown pilot attempted to fly Mozhaisky’s apparatus. He was launched down a sloping ramp, but failed to take to the air because of inadequate power. Mozhaisky ordered more powerful engines from the Obukhovsky steelworks, but died before the work was completed.

Other Russian scientists and inventors, such as S. I. Chernov, K. Ye. Isiolkovsky, and S. A. Chaplygin, all made considerable contributions to aeronautical knowl­edge during the 1890s.

Junkers leaped at the chance of taking advantage of the Treaty of Rapallo, signed on 16 April 1922, and in which Germany became the first country to recognize the Soviet Union. A production line was set up at Fili, a suburb of

Moscow, where a factory had been built in 1916 to produce the Il’ya Muromets. The Fili-built F 13s were designated Ju 13s.

During 1923, under the title of Junkers Luftverkehr Russians!, Ju 13s operated a trunk route from Moscow to Baku, on the Caspian Sea, and center of the new oil industry. It thus provided a westbound airlink, via Moscow, with Berlin, via Deruluft; and a potential eastbound connection to Persia — an intriguing aerial variant of the Drag Nacht Oosten move­ment that had, in 1889, seen the Sponsorship of the Baghdad Railway, in an effort to extend German influence in Asia.

German infiltration into Russian aviation dwindled by the mid-1920s. The Moscow — Baku route was taken over by Ukrvozdukhput (see next page). But Junkers aircraft were put to good use all over the Soviet Union (see also pages 20 and 24).

JUNKERS-W 33 IN SOVIET SERVICE

Shvetsov ASh-82T (2 x 1.900hp) ■ MTOW 17,500kg (38,5801b) ■ Normal Range 1,500km (930mi)

164 SEATS ■ 900km/h (580mph)

Kuznetzov NK-8-2 (3 x 9,500kg,20,9501b) ■ MTOW 90,000kg (198,4151b) ■ Normal Range 2,850km (l,770mi)

Unlikely Champion

For those interested in records, in terms of the greatest, the fastest, or the ‘mostest’, the Tupolev Tu-154 offers a fascinating exercise in statistics. The work output of the Aeroflot fleet of this type is arguably the most productive of any individual aircraft type by any individual air­line in the world, measured by the standard method of calculation, based on the annual aggre­gate output of passenger miles.

This is not to suggest that the Tu-154 is therefore the most economical aircraft of any of its contemporary rivals. But in producing the aircraft and in operating it under the Soviet condi­tions of financial and operating criteria, the Tupolev Design Bureau and Aeroflot have served their country well. For offsetting the higher seat-mile costs is the excellent performance which includes the ability to take off and land at almost any reasonable airport, even those without paved runways.

THE TRIJETS COMPARED

(Right) Passengers disembark from the inaugural Tu-154 flight to Simferopol, main airport for the Crimean resort area. (Boris Vdovienko)

Supersonic Diversion

Sharing The Dream

While many in the West tended to dismiss the Tupolev Tu – 144 supersonic airliner project as being a copy of the Anglo – French Concorde, with allegations of much industrial espi­onage worthy of James Bond himself, the two aircraft were developed and produced simultaneously. The Tu-144, as many have surmised, was not copied, and did not follow the Concorde. In fact, it was the first to fly, and it was the first to go into service, albeit for air cargo service only, almost as a series of proving flights before the passenger service.

The Tupolev Tu-144, with its extensive use of titanium structure, and its advanced aerodynamics, gained the respect of American engineers and designers as no other Soviet air­craft had ever done before. But the Soviet supersonic program gradually lost momentum as the engineers and operator (Aeroflot) came face to face with reality; and the dream of supersonic airline schedules across the length and breadth of the U. S.S. R. faded.

Success — and Tragedy

The Tupolev Tu-144 had its moment of glory. Test pilot E. V. Yelian made the maiden flight on 31 December 1968, a date said to have been a political imperative, to be ahead of the Concorde, which first flew two months later. Both aircraft attracted world-wide publicity but then came disaster and tragedy. At the Paris Air Show, on 3 June 1973, a Tupolev Tu – 144 disintegrated as it pulled out of a steep dive. At first thought to be structural failure, then pilot error, or a combi­nation of both, later analysis has suggested that both pilot and aircraft could have been victims of enforced program­ming changes that jeopardized a well-disciplined demonstra­tion routine. Whatever the reason, it was a shattering blow to the hopes and aspirations of the Soviet aircraft industry.

Curtailed Service Record

Nevertheless, production continued. At first wholly support­ive of the SST, Bugayev, head of Aeroflot, faced formidable problems and the operation of the revolutionary aircraft

TU-144 PRODUCTION

seemed impracticable. The engines could not be programmed to operate at full efficiency in alternating subsonic and super­sonic speeds; high fuel consumption inhibited long range operations; the sonic boom limited the operational scope; and the cabin noise level was unacceptably high.

Ultimately, the entry of the Tupolev Tu-144 into airline service was almost a token gesture. Cargo flights began from Moscow to Alma Ata on 26 December 1975; passenger flights on the same route began on 1 November 1977; and these con­tinued intermittently for only a few months before the service ended on 1 June 1978, after 102 flights. The dream had ended.

It was left to a notable scholar of the next generation to examine the scientific principles of flight and to publish analyses of his research. Nikolai Yegorovich Zhukovskiy (1847-1921) is recognized in Russia as the founder of modern aerodynamics and hydrodynamics.

Zhukovskiy graduated at Moscow University in 1868, taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School (M. V.T. U.) from 1872, and, from 1886, simultaneously at the

University. He continued teaching in Moscow, and super­vised the construction of his first wind tunnel in 1902, founded Europe’s first aerodynamic institute in 1904, and M. V.T. U.’s own aerodynamics laboratory in 1910.

His continued studies led to the publication of the law governing lift in 1906, profiles of aerofoils and propellers in 1910-11, and analyses of propeller tip vortices in 1912­13. He published many important monographs on aero­dynamic theory.

In 1918, Nikolai Zhukovskiy was chosen to head the pres­tigious Central Aero-Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI). He died in 1921, but such was his stature that TsAGI became known as the Zhukovskiy Institute.

An Airline for the Ukraine

In the Ukraine, the spirit of republican independence mani­fested itself by the formation of an airline. On 1 June 1923, less than three months after the formation of Dobrolet, Ukrainskoe Obschestvo Vozduzhnyk Shoobshcheniy (The Ukrainian Airline Company) (abbreviated to Ukrvozdukhput) was founded. Headquarters were at Kharkov, a potential hub for air services throughout the European part of the U. S.S. R.

Dornier Establishes a Presence

Ukrvozdukhput opened for business on 15 April 1925, when it started to operate from Kharkov to Odessa and Kiev. Two months later, on 15 June, routes to Moscow and Rostov-on-Don completed a commendable spoke network centered on Kharkov. The Kalinin aircraft factory was in that city, and a cooperative arrangement was forged with the Dornier company. This latter had connections with the German Lloyd transport group which, in turn, was a partner in Deruluft. Ukrvozdukhput’s first fleet consisted of four-passenger Dornier Komet IIs, and a half a dozen six-seat Dornier Komet Ills.

Recognition of the Soviet Union (see page 15) had given Germany a doorway for trade, and effective control of the airlines provided a pathway through that door. Aside from being a strong influence on the airline operation, Dormer’s methods of construc­tion could clearly be detected on the first Kharkov-based Kalinin aircraft, the K-l, K-2, K-3, and K-4. None went into service with Ukrvozdukhput, but were later to see service with Dobrolet.

Zakavia

A small airline was also established, on 10 May 1923, at Tiflis (Tbilisi) in Georgia. Its name
was Zakavia, derived from Zakavkazie, or Trans-Caucasus, and there were also plans to form an airline called Kakavia, but this never happened. Zakavia operated one route, to Baku, Azerbaijan, probably with a Junkers Ju 13. Late in the year, it was associated with Azerbajdzhanskogo dobro – vol’nogo vozdushnogo flota, or Azdobrolet, which existed for a few months. Beset by political upheaval, civil wars, and surrounded by high mountains, Zakavia had the odds stacked against it from the start, and after about two years of frustrated effort, it combined with Ukrvozdukhput.

Shvetsov ASH-621R (1 x l. OOOhp) ■ MTQW 5,500kg (12,1251b) ■ Normal Range 845km (520mi)

This picture encapsulates the role of the Antonov An-2 in providing the rural bus service to hundreds, perhaps thousands of small communities, such as this one in northern Kamchatka, (photo: Boris Vdovienko)

Unexplained Incident

The versatility of the An-2 ‘Annushka’ became legendary. But on one occasion, it met its match. The story goes that, at a small community far from direct authority, a pilot had to stop over at a weekend, having arrived with the mail and other contents on the Friday. The local populace, fishermen all, persuaded him to make an unscheduled flight to a local river which was reputed to be gushing fish. Fourteen good men and true piled on to the 12-seat aircraft, together with complete fishing gear, and enough provisions to last a week.

The augmented load was too much for even such a willing horse as the An-2. It managed to get off the ground, but only just. The pilot, realizing that he was not going to make it, switched off the engine, to avoid a fire, if it crash-landed. And crash-land it did, ignomi – nously, distributing pieces of aircraft around the field. The assembled company fled.

Came the dawn the next day, and the local constabulary investigated the tangled remains. Strangely, nobody in the whole community had the slightest knowledge of the incident, and the official report, in essence, decided that this was an unsolved mystery. Some dastard­ly vandals from foreign parts, perhaps.