Why the Soviet Union’s supersonic airliner failed

Feature

Despite flying before and faster than Concorde, the Tupolev Tu-144 never saw the same levels of success as its European counterpart. Here are five reasons why… 

Concorde. The world’s first commercial supersonic airliner, right? Wrong, in fact, that title goes to the Tupolev Tu-144 which first flew on December 31, 1968, two months before its European-built counterpart. 

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Originally published in Key.Aero