Did Tupolev Tu-144 copy concorde?

Question

Didn't concorde exist before Tupolev Tu-144? why did they copy the British's invention?

Answer 1

Tu-144's first flight was March 31, 1968, a few months before

Concorde's first flight (March 2, 1969).

"Technical influence" would be the politically correct way to say it.  Many similarities, especially visually, but some differences.  Espionage, for sure.

Sorry, but no confirmation from either government about a chase plane causing the crash.  Multiple theories exist to this day.

For those interested in a more technical explanation of what occured, flightsafety.org has this to say:

During the second demonstration flight at the Paris Air Show '73 a low pass was made over runway 06. At the end of the runway the aircraft entered a steep climb. While the canards on the forward fuselage were being retracted, the Tu-144 entered a steep dive.

The disturbed airflow may have caused one or more engines to flame out. In order to regain control the canards were deployed again. The crew tried to pull out of the dive, causing the overstressing of the airframe.

The left canard-wing is reported to have separated, striking the wing and puncturing the fuel tank. The Tupolev broke up and crashed in flames into the small town of Goussainville.

It appears that, for safety reasons, the Tupolev factory had restriced the control surface deflection to a maximum of 5 degrees with canards extended. For the second day of the show Tupolev wanted a more impressive flight demonstration, certainly in comparison with the other supersonic transport (SST) at the air show: Concorde.

Engineers thus disabled the 5-degree limitation. A latent erroneus set-up of the auto-stabilizer electronics now could have serious effects. After retraction of the canards the auto-stabiliser reacted by deflecting the elevons 10 degrees down. This caused the SST to enter a sudden dive.

Answer 2

The Russians argued that to come up with a solution to a similar problem (supersonic flight/passenger load/range), the end result will be similar, but not a copy. There was espionage involved, but in the end, the Tu144 wing was not as pretty (sculptured) as the Concords, but the Russians came up with the original idea of using canards (baby folding wings) behind the cockpit to improve low speed handling that their wing design didn't provide. The placement of the engines was also different, so it wasn't a copy..altho, I must say they did make copies of the B-29's that landed in Russia during WW-2

Answer 3

Yes, they copied quite a lot of technology, though observation of the aircraft close-up revealed extremely poor workmanship.

The structure was found to be inadequate for its use- it had major structural failure maneuvering at the Paris Air Show, crashing, terminating its viability.

Answer 4

To some degree.  The USSR was engaged in one-upmanship with the western powers, and wanted whatever they had.  But the TU-144 wasn't successful; for one thing, it takes three times as much fuel to go supersonic as it does subsonic.  So building an economical supersonic transport is more than a bit of a challenge.

Answer 5

Its a popular misconception that the Tu-144 is a knock-off of the Concorde. Everything differs, all to evident by the wing shape, canard usage, control systems, braking, cooling system, propulsion etc. Apparently whatever obtained through the alleged espionage was not used. These aircraft have only their bisonic capabilities as similarity.

Answer 6

There was some evidence of the Soviets trying to find out information on the Concorde.   At one time they tried to purchase flight control computers or some type of hardware from Concorde suppliers.  Building a supersonic airliner is a tricky proposition both attempts proved to be uneconomical and unsaleable.  The TU144 lacked a really efficient cooling system* so huge air conditioning units had to be installed just to keep the aircraft and cabin cool at supersonic speeds.  They say the noise level was really uncomfortable because of all this extra equipment .

Answer 7

To some extend they have copied some of the technology of the concord, however upon closer examination, there are some very critical differences between the two aircraft in both design and construction.

PS>> the crash at the Paris air show was due to the pilots overloading the aircraft in a desperate manouver to prevent a midair collision with a chase plane that got too close for an areal photograph.

Answer 8

Yes, Soviets did steal some of French technology like braking system, landing gear and airframe of Concorde. However, TU-144 made its maiden flight before Concord and of course,  they did this to up themselves over the Western Powers.