The Tupolev Tu-244 was a proposed
supersonic transport
A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupol ...
(SST) aircraft, developed from the
Tu-144
The Tupolev Tu-144 (russian: Tyполев Ту-144; NATO reporting name: Charger) is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev in operation from 1968 to 1999.
The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport ...
. It implemented novel features such as
cryogenic fuel
Cryogenic fuels are fuels that require storage at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain them in a liquid state. These fuels are used in machinery that operates in space (e.g. rockets and satellites) where ordinary fuel cannot be used, d ...
to enable flight distances of up to and would have carried up to 300 passengers. The project was cancelled in 1993.
History
The draft work began in 1979, and when the project ended in 1993 substantial progress had already been made during the interpretation. Specifically, the air resistance in the range of Mach 2 was only 50% higher than a conventional passenger airliner traveling at a speed of Mach 0,9.
The nearly-circular fuselage ( width, height) and the wing unit would have consisted to a large extent of titanium-composite materials. The engines were to be higher performance hydrogen-fuelled versions of the
Kuznetsov NK-321 turbofan, used also with the
Tu-160
The Tupolev Tu-160 (russian: Туполев Ту-160 Белый лебедь, translit=Belyj Lebeď, translation=White Swan; NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Desi ...
. Adjustable air
intake ramp
An intake ramp is a rectangular, plate-like device within the air intake of a jet engine, designed to generate a number of shock waves to aid the inlet compression process at supersonic speeds. The ramp sits at an acute angle to deflect the intake ...
s from the Tu-160 might have been included. Projected passenger capacity was 311.
Fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control ...
was intended for flight control. Rather than using a tilting nose, video cameras were to provide the crew with the necessary view for landings.
Specifications
See also
References
* .
* .
Tu-0244
Supersonic transports
Abandoned civil aircraft projects
Tailless delta-wing aircraft
Quadjets
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