Russia In The Jet Age

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31112, 15 July 1966, Page 12

Russia In The Jet Age

Much less appears to be known about Russian competition in supersonic airliners than about the struggle in the West between the Anglo-French Concord and its United States rivals, Boeing and Lockheed. Western authorities have accepted for some time that the Russians have a high-speed airliner under development and that they may not be far behind either the Anglo-French partnership or the Americans in getting it into commercial use. It is thought, however, that the Russian aircraft industry is far from ready to become a major competitor in the Western airline markets. The United Kingdom, French, and United States Governments are committed to spending vast sums to meet the needs of the expanding North Atlantic market and are concentrating on jet aircraft designed to fly at speeds not a great deal in excess of those currently in use but capable of carrying twice as many passengers at a significantly lower seat cost It is known, for example, that among several important Anglo-French co-operative projects which the French Premier, Mr Pompidou, was to discuss during his London visit, progress with the Concord had a high priority. The project is believed to be right on schedule, and it is hoped that the initial flight of the prototype in France may still take place, as planned, in February, 1968. Up to the middle 19705, at any rate, it is not expected that either the Concord or the Russian Tu-144 will face any challenge from Boeing or Lockheed. Reliable reports suggest, however, that the Russians will not succeed in getting their aircraft operational ahead of the Concord. Last year, at the Paris air show, the Russians thought that the Tu-144, which is said to resemble the Concord strikingly, both in shape and size, would also make its first flight in 1968, and be in commercial use by 1971 at the latest These dates were never endorsed; and the Western reading of Russian caution is that progress has been slower than was anticipated, engine development certainly being behind schedule. The top Soviet designers, Tupelov, creator of the Tu-144, and Ilyushin, are not competing in this venture. On the contrary, a recent policy decision to concentrate all resources—research, development, and production —on a single supersonic design implies that they are co-operating, and that the intention is to regard the Tu-144 merely as a revolutionary jet which would be capable of still further improvement The second generation of Russian supersonic aircraft it is thought might be radically changed in design, depending on experience with the Tu-144 and with a projected long-range military aircraft which is expected to fly at up to three times the speed of sound. Plans for the replacement of Aeroflot’s existing sub-sonic fleet are believed to be well advanced now, with policy looking beyond 1970 to the need for a much enlarged passenger-carrying capacity. So far as is known, the question of sonic boom has not caused as much controversy in Russia as, for example, in Britain. A London newspaper suggested only last month that the Concord, regardless of its technical qualities, might be “ socially intolerable There is undoubtedly anxiety on this score, regardless of the tendency of experts to make light of the possibility of noise made on the ground as the giant jets pass overhead giving rise to grave social and psychological problems. It has already been suggested that the British Aviation Ministry’s current aircraft noise investigation at Heathrow should be enlarged to cover the expected intensification of sonic boom, as a step towards making the great supersonic airliners of the future in reasonable degree socially acceptable.