The Syrian airfield prepare for reception of military aircraft of China
The latest news about fast emergence in borders of Syria of navy of China encouraged Syrians and res[...]
Standard Trijet
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.