Paris Air Show crash Tupolev Tu-144




flight profile of tu-144 , mirage iiir


at paris air show on 3 june 1973, development program of tu-144 suffered severely when first tu-144s production airliner (reg 77102) crashed.


at end of officially-approved demonstration flight, exact repeat of previous days display, instead of landing expected aircraft entered steep climb before making violent downwards manoeuvre. tried recover aircraft broke apart , crashed, destroying 15 houses , killing 6 people on board tu-144 , 8 more on ground.


gordon et al. state flight crew had departed approved flight profile display, serious offense in itself. under instructions excel concorde display means. during unapproved, , therefore unrehearsed manoeuvres, stability , control augmentation system not operating normally. if had been have prevented loads caused port wing fail.


a popular russian theory crash tu-144 tried avoid french mirage chase plane attempting photograph canards, advanced time, , french , soviet governments colluded each other, cover such details. flight of mirage denied in original french report of incident, perhaps because engaged in industrial espionage. more recent reports have admitted existence of mirage (and fact russian crew not told mirage s flight) though not role in crash. official press release did state: though inquiry established there no real risk of collision between 2 aircraft, soviet pilot have been surprised.


another theory relates deliberate misinformation on part of anglo-french team. main point of theory being anglo-french team knew soviet team planning steal design plans of concorde, , soviets allegedly passed ersatz blueprints flawed design. case, claimed, contributed imprisonment soviets of greville wynne in 1963 spying. wynne imprisoned on 11 may 1963 , development of tu-144 not sanctioned until 16 july 1963.








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