60 years ago, the Soviet passenger liner Tu-104 made its first regular flight

2024 Author: Matthew Elmers | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:49

On June 17, 1955, the Tu-104 jet passenger plane made its first flight in the Soviet Union. This aircraft largely determined the further development of passenger aviation on the planet, and its very creation became an important milestone in the history of world aviation. About a year later, on September 15, 1956 (exactly 60 years ago), the Tu-104 airliner of the Aeroflot company made its first regular flight on the route Moscow - Omsk - Irkutsk. This is how the history of domestic jet passenger transportation began.

The first jet passenger liners Tu-104 began to enter the civilian fleet in May 1956, and already on September 15, the first regular flight on the route Moscow - Omsk - Irkutsk was performed. The liner in this flight was piloted by the pilot E. P. Barabash. In 7 hours 10 minutes, with an intermediate transfer in Omsk, the plane managed to reach Irkutsk, covering a distance of 4570 kilometers. On October 12, 1956, pilot B. P. Bugaev made the first international flight on a Tu-104 on the Moscow-Prague route, and soon Tu-104 planes entered the lines that connected Moscow with Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Rome.

In those years it was impossible to imagine that a country that had just rebuilt from the ruins after the Great Patriotic War would be able to make such a technological leap ahead of the Western countries in its developments. In the period from 1956, when due to a series of air crashes, the flights of the British passenger jet De Havilland DH-106 Comet were suspended, and until October 1958, when the American jet aircraft Boeing 707 was put into commercial operation, the Soviet Tu-104 airliner remained the only operating jet passenger aircraft in the world. In September 1957, the Tu-104 flew to New York from Vnukovo Airport, which, as the Western press wrote, "confirmed the priority of the Soviet Union in the development of jet aircraft."

History of the Tu-104 jet liner

In 1953, the leadership of the OKB, headed by A. N. Tupolev, based on the positive experience of designing, testing and starting serial production of Tu-16 jet bombers, came up with a proposal to the USSR leadership to create a passenger aircraft on the basis of the serial Tu-16 equipped with turbojet engines - turbojet engine. Soon, Tupolev himself prepared and presented his proposal to the Central Committee of the CPSU. In the report, the attention of the state leadership was focused on the advantages of a modification approach to the design of the first Soviet passenger aircraft. Of the operational aspects, the new items stood out: high cruising flight speed (it was supposed to be three times higher than the flight speed of the main passenger aircraft of Aeroflot of those years Li-2 and Il-12); the ability to fly at high altitudes, without turbulence and shaking; high passenger capacity and carrying capacity with a sufficiently high comfort. For the first time in the Soviet Union, the talk was about the development of a mass aircraft of the "liner" class for the civil air fleet, which could turn high-speed air transport into a mass means of transportation.

At the same time, a significant economic gain, in the opinion of the Tupolev Design Bureau, should have been given precisely by a modification approach to the creation of a passenger aircraft on the basis of the Tu-16 long-range jet bomber, mastered by the Soviet industry and launched into series. At the same time, it was supposed to fully use the accumulated experience in the construction, refinement and operation of the prototype bomber, which was supposed to ensure the safety and high reliability of operation, which are so important for civil aviation aircraft. Also, the costs of sending the liner to mass production were significantly reduced, due to this, its cost was reduced and the economic characteristics of the machine increased. The problems of preparing ground and flight personnel for a new passenger airliner were also eased, primarily due to the use of specialists who had already been trained in the Air Force on military aircraft similar in design, operational and flight characteristics.

Even before the official decision on the construction of the aircraft, the Tupolev Design Bureau began work on its design. Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1172-516 on the creation of a long-range passenger high-speed aircraft Tu-16P (designation by the Tupolev Design Bureau is aircraft "104", then adopted as an official one - Tu-104, after which, in the official designation of Tupolev passenger aircraft, the four always stood last digit).

The new passenger aircraft was a low-wing twin-engine turbojet with engines located at the root of a swept wing and a single-fin tail. When creating the Tu-104, the designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau decided to leave part of the design of the Tu-16 jet bomber. In particular, the wing, tail unit, landing gear, cockpit layout and flight and navigation instruments were borrowed from the combat aircraft. At the same time, the fuselage and engine air intakes were redesigned for the passenger liner, having achieved greater spaciousness. The designers of the Design Bureau have created new units for the air conditioning system, shadowless interior lighting, electrical appliances for heating and cooking, radio equipment for passenger cabins.

In the course of work on the creation of the Tu-104 passenger airliner, the designers paid special attention to ensuring the high reliability of its design, as well as increasing the resource of the airframe of the aircraft and, in particular, its pressurized cabin. Knowing about the problems that the British faced with the passenger "Comet", during the implementation of the program for the creation of a Soviet jet liner, for the first time in domestic practice, its glider underwent cyclic tests in the new specially built hydro-basin of TsAGI. Carrying out these tests allowed the designers of the Tupolev Design Bureau to identify weaknesses in the aircraft structure, carry out the necessary modifications and ensure the necessary durability of the airframe.

Simultaneously with this, the search for rational layout schemes for the location of passenger cabins, utility rooms and kitchens was carried out for the Tu-104 aircraft. Work was underway on the design of comfortable passenger seats, shadow-free lighting of the liner cabins, the colors of the aircraft interiors and materials for the facing and upholstery of partitions and seats were selected. The interior of a passenger aircraft was originally designed on the premise that a sense of safety and comfort can be provided by creating a “home environment” inside the aircraft (implementation of the “salon - home” idea). Hence, there was a certain overload of the aircraft interior with elements of the traditional imperial style, as well as the fragmentation of the total volume and individual details, the use of structures and forms of carriage architecture, abundant walnut and gold finish. However, all these excesses and features in the interior were inherent only in the first prototype aircraft. Later, already in serial Tu-104s, the interior of the passenger compartment became much more "democratic", approaching the generally recognized world standards of those years.

Work on the project of the first Soviet jet passenger aircraft proceeded at a record pace: in December 1954, the state commission approved the layout of the future airliner, and in March 1955, the first Tu-104 prototype was fully prepared at the Kharkov Aviation Plant. The experimental passenger aircraft was immediately transferred to the Zhukovskaya flight test and development base, where the process of preparing the aircraft for a series of flight tests began.

On June 17, 1955, the crew of test pilot Yu. T. Alasheev performed the first flight on a new aircraft. As a result of tests, which lasted until October 12 of the same year, the Tu-104 airliner was recognized as fully suitable for mass production and subsequent voyage operation. On March 22, 1956, an experimental Tu-104 aircraft with Soviet diplomats on board flew to London, where at that time the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, NS Khrushchev, was stationed. The newest Soviet jet passenger aircraft was appreciated by foreign experts, who noted that the USSR coped with the task of developing a jet passenger aircraft brilliantly. It became clear to the entire world community that the aviation industry of the Soviet Union is aimed not only at the constant renewal of its fleet of combat aircraft, but also at the creation of first-class passenger airliners.

The production of the Tu-104 passenger aircraft was discontinued 5 years after the start of the serial production of the aircraft. In the early to mid-1960s, work began in the Soviet Union on the creation of second-generation passenger airliners equipped with more modern and efficient turbofan engines. By that time, the firstborn of Soviet jet civil aviation had become obsolete. Despite this, the aircraft continued to operate and performed regular passenger flights until 1979. In the course of production, the Tu-104 aircraft was repeatedly upgraded. Over time, the aircraft engines were replaced with more reliable and powerful ones, modifications of the airliner with an increased number of passenger seats were released, radio and flight technical equipment was constantly updated. A total of three serial aircraft plants (No. 135 in Kharkov, No. 22 in Kazan and No. 166 in Omsk) assembled more than 200 aircraft in the Tu-104, Tu-104A and Tu-104B modifications, which differed from each other in the number of passengers carried (50, 70 and 100, respectively), as well as some structural elements and equipment.

In the period from 1957 to 1960, the Tu-104 aircraft managed to set 26 world records for carrying capacity and flight speed, more than on any other passenger airliner of this class. The legendary aircraft was in operation until the end of the 1970s, after which it was finally withdrawn from regular Aeroflot flights. The last flight of the Tu-104 passenger aircraft was made on November 11, 1986, when one of the aircraft that remained in airworthiness, having taken off from the Kola Peninsula, successfully landed in Ulyanovsk, where the plane took an honorable place in the local museum of civil aviation.

Along with other Soviet jet passenger aircraft of the first generation Il-18, the Tu-104 airliner for a long time became the main passenger aircraft of the Aeroflot company. For example, in 1960, the Tu-104 aircraft carried out a third of all passenger air transportation in the Soviet Union. In total, over 23 years of operation, the fleet of Tu-104 passenger aircraft carried about 100,000,000 passengers, having spent 2,000,000 flight hours in the air and completed about 600,000 flights.

On the basis of the Tu-104 aircraft, a new passenger airliner was developed for the local airlines Tu-124, which belonged to the transitional generation of passenger aircraft. In particular, he has already received by-pass turbojet engines. However, this machine did not receive the necessary popularity and was discontinued. At the same time, the experience of creating jet passenger aircraft Tu-104 and Tu-124 was subsequently used by specialists of the Tupolev Design Bureau to create the Tu-134 passenger aircraft, a very successful airliner that has been in operation since 1963 to the present day.