Tupolev Tu-144 Russian Civil Aircraft

The Tu-144 was outwardly similar to the Aérospatiale / British Aircraft Corporation Concorde, under development at the same time, and there were frequent allegations that Soviet espionage played a key role, giving the Tu-144 the nickname "Konkordski" or "Concordski". The Tu-144 was Tupolev's only supersonic commercial airliner venture, as the company's other large supersonic aircraft were designed and built to military specifications.

The Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 was a supersonic airliner very similar in design and appearance to the Concorde. Although the Tu-144 actually flew first many joked about the ‘Concordski’. The Tu-144 was the first passenger airliner to break Mach 2. The last reported flight of one of the 16 Tu-144′s built was in 1987.
The Tu-144S went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977 and ran a semi scheduled service until the first Tu-144D experienced an in-flight failure during a pre-delivery test flight, and crash-landed with crew fatalities on 23 May 1978. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.

Shortly before the Tu-144 took off, a French Mirage fighter launched from a nearby airfield. The Mirage was fitted with reconnaissance photographic equipment. 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 as a result and the aircraft stalled. 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.