Soviet Concorde: How The Tupolev Tu-144’s Last Act Was As A Flying NASA Laboratory

While the Soviets were proud to have built the supersonic passenger Tupolev Tu-144LL and flown it before the West, the project was overall a colossal failure. It was rushed, could never be economical or competitive, and was unreliable and dangerous. Still, the Tupolev Tu-144 would go on to have a usual epilogue as NASA’s Tupolev Tu-144LL supersonic flying laboratory.