In 1961, both British and French started to build their first supersonic aircraft, Concorde. The Soviet Premier, of that time, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, heard about the Anglo-French aircraft and to compete against them in this technology, the Premier, gave instructions to the Soviet engineers to build a supersonic jet aircraft through which the Soviet can catch the whole supersonic aircraft market. Andrei Tupolev was the chief designer of that time and was given this unenviable task. Spring of 1963 and the spy network of the USSR was instructed to find out about the airframe and engines of Concorde. Information was recorded on microfilm and placed in towel dispensers, bins, cigar tins and toothpaste tubes in order to smuggle the valuble secrets back to the Soviet Union. It wasn't until 1964 that it was realised that the Soviets had penetrated the Concorde programme. The Soviets were laid behind until 1968, when the prototype was ready for its first flight. December 31st 1968. The giant aircraft took to the skies and passed over the airfield three times before landing. Tupolev and his sons were present to witness the spectacular show. Since the desing was copied from the West, the aircraft was nicknames "Konkordski". At the Paris airshow of 1973, the Tupolev 144 (Tu-144) was said to be cleaner, faster and ofcourse, bigger than the Concorde. On the third day of the show it was time for the two supersonic aircraft to duel against each other in the sky - a battle of the displays. Concorde flew first and performed a breathtaking display of the sort that we are now accustomed to from the big white wonder. Whilst on the runway, the pilot of the Konkordski was told that he now had only half the time in which to perform his display, his time had been cut. The Tu-144 took off and climbed to 4 000 feet - suddenly there was a violent change in the pitch of the aircraft and it fell out of the sky, the aircraft broke up at 1500 feet and feel onto the nearby village. All six crew and several civilians died from the accident.
Shortly before the Tu-144 took off, a French Mirage fighter launched from a nearby airfield. The Tu-144 crew were not informed of the Mirage, this was in breach of the airshow regulations. The Mirage climbed to 4 000 feet and began to film the canard foreplanes of the Tu-144. As the Konkordski climbed it was climbing towards the Mirage above them. The Tu-144 suddenly burst through the clouds and saw the Mirage, in a despirate attempt to avoid a collision the Tu-144 pilot performed a -1G dive. This manoevre caused thrust to be lost. The pilots despirately tried to windmill-start the engines as the plane fell out of the sky. The crew managed to virtually recover the plane, but tragically it was too late as the airframe was overstressed to destruction. This was why there was a cover-up and why the deaths of 8 people had no explanation...
Early in 1996 the Konkordski rose from the ashes thanks to U.S. and Russian cooperation. The Tu-144 is to be used as a testbed for the 2nd generation of supersonic transports. The competitors in this competition are the combined U.S./Russian project Vs. the European Son-Of-Concorde. The Americans and Russians are off the blocks first, one of the original Tu-144's has been refitted and stripped. The interior has had state-of-the-art instruments and recording devices fitted and is about ready for her first test-flight. The story isn't over for the Konkordski, it has only just began...
