Work proceeded at breakneck speed, with the best minds in the country redirected to this prestigious project. Now, Andrei Tupolev appointed his son Alexei to oversee the development and production of their home-grown SST. The Soviets had already proven their capabilities in passenger jet transport with the introduction of the Tu-104 in the 1950s. That prompted a response within the Soviet establishment. In November 1962, France and Britain entered into an agreement to develop an SST – what would eventually become the Concorde program. The aviation industry had already seen rapid developments in aircraft capabilities after the Second World War, including increasingly higher speed breaking the sound barrier was seen as one of the next major peaks to conquer. Named, of course, for one of the pioneers in the country’s aeronautical history, Andrei Tupolev.Īnd this weekend – specifically, 26 June – marked the anniversary of the Tu-144’s last flight in 1999.Īs was the case with many spheres of technology in the Cold War era, the Soviet Union and the Western world (largely Europe and the USA) were racing to be the first to make supersonic transport a reality. That honour goes to the Tupolev Tu-144, from the famed Russian aircraft manufacturer JSC Tupolev. However, the Concorde wasn’t the first SST to launch commercial service. It captivated aviation enthusiasts and the general public at large over its period of scheduled passenger operations from 1976-2003, and remains the inspiration for future developments in the industry. When we think of the field of supersonic transport (SST), the Concorde is, very understandably, what comes to mind. (The jury is still out on whether this represents a genuine investment in the future of aviation or merely good PR, given that United is in no way locked into any firm order of an aircraft type that has a LONG way to go in its development cycle.) There has been a lot of buzz about supersonic passenger transport in recent months, boosted by news of United Airlines’ order with Boom Supersonic for its Overture airliner.

Boom aircraft