The Soviet Tu-144 Concordski Was Built to Beat the Concorde — It Broke Apart in Midair at the Paris Air Show and Killed Its Entire Crew

The Soviet Tu-144 Concordski Was Built to Beat the Concorde — It Broke Apart in Midair at the Paris Air Show and Killed Its Entire Crew

The Soviet Union built the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic transport to compete with the Anglo-French Concorde. The aircraft was nicknamed “Concordski” in the West. The Tu-144 was the first supersonic transport to exceed Mach 2. On June 3, 1973, the Tu-144 took off in front of thousands of spectators at the Paris Air Show. The aircraft was performing a demonstration flight at Le Bourget Airport. The Tu-144 entered an aggressive maneuver, climbed steep…