Antonov An-lOA

MO SEATS ■ 68®km/h (423mph)

 

Oleg Antonov. (Vasily Karpy)

 

The Bigger The Better

The Soviets have always been in the forefront in building large aircraft. The tradition started in 1913 with Igor Sikorsky’s Il’ya Muromets, the world’s first transport air­craft, and is maintained today with the giant Antonov load – carriers from Ukraine. Only one five-engined ANT-14 was built in 1931, and only one eight-engined ANT-20 Maxim Gorky ever flew, in 1934. Neither went into commercial air­line service with Aeroflot. The six-engined ANT-20Ws, as the PS-124, saw limited service between 1939 and 1941. Twelve years after the end of the Second World War, how­ever, Andrei Tupolev produced the Tupolev Tu-114, that, for more than a decade, was the largest airliner in the world.

The Tupolev Tu-114D

The Tupolev Tu-114 was a direct development of the Tu-20 (Tu-95) long-range turboprop bomber, itself a formidable piece of military hardware. Although the commercial Tu-114 made its first flight on 3 November 1957, and was proudly named the Rossiya (Russia), thoughts had already been directed to a conversion, for civil use, of the bomber fuselage. This Tu-116 first flew late in 1956 and was accepted by Aeroflot and designated Tu-114D (Dalnyi, or long-range). In 1958, the Tu-114D made several proving flights, including a remarkable three-stop circumnavigation of the entire Soviet Union, each stage designed not only to test the long-range capability, but also to ‘show the flag’ over all the capital cities of the 15 republics of the Union. But the Tu-114D was too narrow, permitting only 30 seats in its pressurized rear fuselage section; only one was built.

The Tupolev Tu-114

The re-designed fuselage, some 4m (12.8ft) in diameter, was wide enough for a comfortable six-abreast layout, and for high density, even eight-abreast was possible, permitting a maximum of 220 seats, though this version is unlikely to have been used extensively. For the first time in any airliner, the galley was located ‘downstairs’ in the lower deck, and food and drinks were served by electric elevators. Seen in elevation, the Tu-114 was of orthodox outline, but the similarity with other large turbo-prop airliners of its day ended there, except in the size. In particular, the wings were swept back — unusually for a turbo-prop — and had pronounced anhedral. Mounted on the wings were four powerful Kuznetsov engines, which drove eight-bladed contrarotating propellers. In addition to the large four-wheel landing gears units, there was not only a twin – wheel nose gear, but also a small twin tail-wheel installation for protection of the fuselage on take-off. The Tupolev Tu-114 could cruise at 770km/h (480mph) at an altitude of 8,000m (25,500ft) over distances of up to 8,950km (5,560mi).

Tu-114 (SSSR-76470) after take-off. (photo: Boris Vdovienko)

One shortcoming was the height of its landing gear. The main deck was 5m (16ft) off the ground, requiring no little stamina for boarding — the equivalent of climbing two full flights of stairs. Nevertheless, the Tupolev Tu-114 was a truly remarkable airliner. There was none other like it in the world, and it raised a few technical and political eyebrows every time it landed on foreign shores.

Aeroflot Spreads Its Wings

The Soviet national airline took the Tupolev Tu-114 to its heart, realizing that this aircraft could reach the furthestmost points of the U. S.S. R. territory without intermediate stops; and could fly to Havana, capital of its trans-Atlantic commu­nist ally, Cuba. On 21 May 1959, the Tu-114 flew non-stop from Moscow to Khabarovsk, carrying 170 passengers over the 6,800km (4,200mi) distance. The following month, on 28 June, it flew into the U. S.A., making the Moscow to New York flight in llhr 6min. The Tu-114 did not, however, operate on schedule to the United States, this landmark being set by the Ilyushin 11-62.

Aeroflot began scheduled Tu-114 service to Khabarovsk, on 24 April 1961. The speed of the turboprop enabled it to match the 960km/h (600mph) speed of the Tupolev Tu-104 jet, because the latter’s shorter range forced it to make at least two stops. Scheduled service began to Havana on 7 February 1963. Normally carrying only 60 passengers on this very long segment, the Tu-114 was routed via Murmansk, where it made a technical stop, because it was not allowed, for politi­cal reasons connected with NATO defense, to overfly Scandinavia. Also, the Murmansk-Havana distance of 8,575km (5,328mi) was shorter by 971km (618mi) than that to Moscow. Later negotiations, completed in 1968, enabled Aeroflot to fly direct to Havana, as S. A.S. and other western airlines were permitted to overfly the Soviet Union.

Tu-144 registrations were SSSR-L5411 (prototype) plus SSSR-76458 through –

76461 and 76463 through 76490 (total 33). SSSR-76462 was the Tu-114D