AIRCRAFT-PASSENGER-TU-114 Upgrade Possibility?

Question

With all the recent news (for those who actually read newspapers), I am hearing a lot of noise about making a high capacity passenger prop, not unlike the Q400. There are plenty of forums discussing new designs.

Why reinvent the wheel? The 114 rivals current jet economy using antiquated 50's technology. Why not upgrade to more efficient engines (P&W's or the A400 power plant), and lower the cruise speed to a "slow" 400 knots? Even if the wing needed upgrading, it is easier to downgrade a swept wing than it would be to upgrade a non-swept.

The Russian economy could use the boost, and this plane has a spotless safety record over its lifetime (1 accident user error).

Answer 1

Just a few points worthy of note, here...

1- there was a total of 31 (thirty one) Tu-114 produced (and two hulls were lost). Since the model went into service in 1961 and was retured in 1976, there is a good chance that the existing airframes already "had it" (i.e. were nearing the end of their service life). Even if someone wated to produce "new" airframe, the big issue would be to locate the tooling, the drawings. Finding the engineers who designed it is probably asking for too much however...

2- swapping a swept wing for a straight one would change the center of lift, leading to massive alteration of the CG enveloppe; requiring extended airframe modification and a complete certification program

3- the Tu-114 was a large long range airliner, with about 200 passengers capacity. As such, it operated from long runways. By way of contrast, the currently envisioned larger prop airliners are supposed to be 100 passengers commuter airplane, with medium to short range application, and operating from relatively short runways.

4- about this spotless safety record, it could be pointed out that there were 1405 Boeing 747 produced until now, and 47 hull losses. This is one hull loss per 29.9 aircraft, about the same ratio as for the Tu-114, except the 747's have been flying for a lot longer (first 747's went into service 38 years ago). This is not to show superiority of a design over another one (although more recent airframes are safer since they were designed with better technology) but to point out that a model safety record is essentially irrelevant, all planes are good.

If the Russian economy needs that kind of a boost, they should design a new aircraft from scratch, based on contemporary technology and modern avionics and systems.

Answer 2

You are kidding; right? The TU144 is an antique. The cost to get it airworthy would be astronomical and you would be left with a 25 year old plane that doesn't carry enough passengers to pay for the fuel - plus the fact that the avionics are outdated too. It would be cheaper and more efficient to just use an existing aircraft.