avgtempleosfan

[avgtempleosfan]

[WIP] Why was the Tupolev Tu-144 such a failure?

The year is 1968, and the undeclared but undeniably existent Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States has permeated every facet of life imaginable for the citizens of the so-called First, Second, and even Third worlds. Proxy wars were not enough to satiate the world's reigning war machines, and thus a new frontier opened up: scientific innovation.

The rapid advancement of technology after World War II was no mistake. Both the communist blocs and the capitalist West were investing billions into their research programs, especially those regarding spaceships and aircraft, to make sure they were ahead of their competitors.

The Soviet Union had a history of firsts. The first satellite to launch successfully was USSR's Sputnik 1. The first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, was a Soviet cosmonaut (which, by the way, is a ridiculously cool title for space-farers). However, these firsts weren't always... the highest quality or most refined, due to the Soviet aerospace program's so-so funding and pushing from the government to "get it done before NASA can." There's an informal saying in circles I frequent about this whole unpolished Russian craft debacle that basically means "if it's done before NASA, consider it a bomb."

But competition with American scientists was not the biggest threat to snagging another first title for the USSR, this time in the field of supersonic transport. No, it was the British and French's joint Concorde project that the Tupolev Tu-144 had to beat this time.

[avgtempleosfan]

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