Tupolev Tu-114
170 SEATS ■ 770km/h (478mph)
Kuznetsov NK-12M (4 x 12,000ehp) ■ MTOW 175,400kg (385,8001b) ■ Normal Range 8,950km (5,560mi)
New Lands To Conquer
On 25 March 1963, the Tupolev Tu-114 took over the direct Moscow-Delhi service from the Tu-104 and the 11-18; and on 27 June of that year started service to Conakry, Guinea, with flights extending to Havana, as an alternate route to that via Murmansk. On 19 April 1965, the Conakry service was extended to Accra, Ghana. These were friendly countries, economically dependent on the U. S.S. R., but the following year the Tu-114 made its mark in the capitalist world.
On 4 November 1966, scheduled service began to Montreal, Canada, via Murmansk. The journey time from Moscow was 11V2 hours for the 7,350km (4,568mi) at an average speed of about 640km/h (400mph). Then, on 19 April 1967, after delicate negotiations and demonstration flights, a joint service opened non-stop from Moscow to Tokyo, a distance of 7,488km (4,563mi). This was a remarkable achievement for both Aeroflot and for the Tupolev Design Bureau. For the first time, a Soviet-built aircraft appeared in the markings of a non-communist airline of world stature: Japan Air Lines. The aircraft was flown by the crews of both airlines, and cabin service was provided immaculately by the Japanese carrier.
LONG-RANGE AIRLINERS OF THE LATE 1950s
The Tupolev Tu-114 was deployed on other routes, such as Moscow-Paris and Moscow – Tashkent, but was superseded when the faster and more airport-compatible Ilyushin 11-62 came into domestic service in 1967, and on intercontinental routes in 1968 (see pages 54-55). Every dog, it is said, has his day; and the Tupolev Tu-114, the largest aircraft in the world until the advent of the Boeing 747, was truly a mastiff. Its only fatal accident was at Moscow, on take-off, on 17 February 1966, and this was on a non-scheduled flight.
Andrei Tupolev (right), seen here with Eugene Loginov in front of a Tu-124, at Vnukovo Airport in Moscow in 1962. Loginov was the head of all civil aviation affairs in the Soviet Union at that time, (photo: Boris Vdovienko)