Following the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new era was established which allowed for an unprecedented level of collaboration between the United States and Russia.
One of the joint projects saw America utilise a Soviet relic to advance research into supersonic air transport.
The cooperation began in 1993 when a United States-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation chaired by former US vice president Gore and Russian prime minister Chernomyrdin was set up.
The collaboration pursued areas of benefit to technical interchange between the two nations.
During this time NASA and various US commercial aviation industry partners were heavily invested in a High-Speed Research (HSR) programme which aimed to advance research and development of a second-generation supersonic transport (SST) aircraft to succeed Concorde.
Why not use Concorde?
During this period Concorde was in high demand for commercial use in the airline industry. With only 20 being made and just 14 entering service, the Anglo-French built jet was a very scarce and highly sort a…
