Originally posted by Westy
Because the end result was to beat the West at all costs. And as we should be ware making a piece of shiesse takes no time or effort at all.
http://www.super70s.com/Super70s/Tech/Aviation/Aircraft/Tu-144.asp
"It was so loud that it was put into service delivering not passengers, but mail between Moscow and Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan on December 26, 1975. The expensive twice weekly flights were cut back to once a week in June 1976 and cancelled altogether by in December of 1977.
Aeroflot thought so little of the aircraft that it didn't even mention it in its five year plan for 1976-1980. However, it was not the airline executives decision and Aeroflot reluctantly put the Tu-144 into passenger service on November 1, 1977 on the same Moscow to Alma-Ata route.
Mechanical problems plagued the new aircraft and prevented the aircraft from maintaining even its modest one flight per week schedule. On May 23, 1978, the first Tu-144D produced experienced a mechanical failure and crash landed killing two engineers. A week later (June 1, 1978), the 102nd and last passenger flight took place. Aeroflot officials had had enough and refused to fly the inefficient and dangerous aircraft."
Great. I love all this rewritten history, from the people who have no understanding of the things they talk about.
First: Tu-144 was built for supersonic Moscow-Khabarovsk route. Availible engines let it only fly as far as Alma-Ata.
Second: Tu-144 was an economical failure, mostly because in Soviet society they had to keep the ticket prices to be affordable for everyone. One of my friends still can't forgive himself for saving something like 25 rubles and buying a ticket to ordinary plane instead of Tu-144. It was maybe 30-50% more expensive...
Third: did you see the pictures of first Tu-144? The site doesn't have it, because showing it can completely beat the whole effort to show Russians as "thievs". Landing gear blueprints? Maybe passenger seat design was stolen too?
Fourth: who really have beaten both Europeans and Soviets were Americans who were unable to built such complicated airplanes, and saved a lot of money
Fifth: Americans stole MiG-25 design to build F-15. Just look at the both airplanes.
Americans copied everything including wing shape that is exactly the same. Now let me explain why it's not true
What you have to understand is that the technological difference, design ideology and production culture makes things like "stealing blueprints" useless. To build a B-29 copy it took a complete new technological process, equipment and years of research. Even copying a licensed DC-3 with all possible technical documentation took several years and almost a complete re-design.
