Tu-114 - the most Soviet airliner in the world

On September 15, 1959, there was a commotion at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. An official delegation from the USSR was expected to arrive. However, while Eisenhower waited for Khrushchev, aviation enthusiasts waited. his plane, the sky over america was cut with a roar. by a huge long-range turboprop plane the face of Soviet aviation hello sky theater here and today decades after that iconic flight we meet this giant again welcome to 2-114 the story of the plane that literally and figuratively raised so much noise began in In the early 1950s, aviation was undergoing a revolution. Gas turbine engines expanded aircraft capabilities and began to claim long-distance routes across continents and oceans.

Aviation leaders of that era had different needs but the goals were similar. The Dehaveland Comet was already flying in the The large Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8

airliner

s of the United Kingdom were created in the United States and in the USSR 2104 and Ill-18 conquered the sky, however, Soviet aircraft had a limited scope and working on the scale of the entire blue bowl was much more serious transportation was needed the right decisions did not take long to come already in 1955, when the younger brothers were just beginning their flights, the government commissioned the creation of a large passenger aircraft and spacious capable of non-stop flights at enormous distances for that time the task was ambitious and very difficult the matter was taken up by the design bureau that best knows heavy and long-range aircraft the team of andrei tupolev the development of the concept israelia 114 began the initially obvious idea of ​​​​creating an aircraft from scratch in The fact turned out to be not at all obvious.

A job of such magnitude would require large costs and many years of work, and deadlines were tight. On the other hand, it was also impossible to simply modify an existing aircraft, such an aircraft simply did not exist or did not really exist. but with a caveat, it was a bomber, the 295 strategic bomber made its first flight in 1952 and had been actively tested for several years, in addition, it had decent dimensions and range, but it was a bomber that cannot be converted into a bomber aircraft. passengers. Yes, someone will remember the 2-116, a direct modification of the 295 with a passenger cabin, but this plane was, let's say, very peculiar and was used only as a VIP transport with a capacity of only a couple of dozen seats, we are talking about a complete.

However, the designers decided to take the 295 as the basis for their main civil project, but while the 116 had a local modification when creating the 114, the design was modified very radically. This solution has pros and cons, some of which we will note that the

most

obvious advantage is that the work was carried out at a frenetic pace, engineers quickly implemented already tested solutions, and the freedom of resources was directed to the development of new ones. solutions, in addition, the 114 project was one of the first when the design bureau worked with Aeroflot, its main customer, from the first stages of implementation, which simplified the work of both and in the future promised to accelerate the launch of the aircraft to the airlines.

The work was accelerated by the general authority of Tupolev and the active support of the country's leadership. Khrushchev really wanted this aircraft and wanted it as soon as possible. The results didn't take long. The extremely complex project implemented in 1955 reached the flying prototype stage in 1957. The main controversial point of the 295's heritage was its power. plant the 214 became the largest turboprop

airliner

in the

world

and is still considered a soul by the way, but why would they make a turboprop at the dawn of the jet age? The point is not that engineers were too lazy to make a jet plane, but that there weren't many options, yes, jet power plants were more promising, but that was the 1950s.

Today, the big guys Turbofan engines are amazing, but at the time they were not powerful enough and more importantly had terrible fuel efficiency and reliability considering the urgency to create. the plane, the required jet engine was beyond the planning horizon, meanwhile there was the nk12 on hand, a 15,000 horsepower monster with counter-rotating coaxial propellers, yes it was terribly noisy, especially when the propeller tips They began to break the sound barrier and flight speed. was limited, but at the same time the mk-12 remained sufficiently powerful, reliable and economical, which in this case was essential: the 2-114 could take off with an engine failure and maintain flight for some time with a failure fingers.

In addition to being inferior to jet engines and turboprops feel better at low speeds, which provides an additional advantage to takeoff and landing performance, the 2-114 is a large and heavy aircraft, its maximum takeoff weight It is up to 179 tons and its airfield requirements were quite high. but if it were a jet plane, I fear there would be few runways in the

world

from which it could take off. The low speed of aircraft with such a power plant was partially solved in the 295. With the nk 12, the 214 acquired the capability. fly at altitudes of up to 12 kilometers and maintain a cruising speed of about 404 knots with a maximum of 475, an enormous figure for a propeller device that does not lag behind its jet counterparts, while the flight autonomy reached the 9,000 kilometers, enough for

most

routes along with the power plant, the 214 inherited almost the entire wing of the bomber with the exception of the elements of the central section and in the large flaps its total wingspan reached 51.1 meters there are four large engine nacelles on the wing the nk-12 is a fairly large engine plus the two engine nacelles located closer to the fuselage become the fairings of the main landing gear of tupolev aircraft at that time it was a fairly classic solution since the wing of the plane was swept to create a workspace for the propellers the engine the cells move far forward this workspace had become a challenge for the engineers the fact is that base 295 had a central wing that allowed to raise the engines higher the civil aircraft was supposed to be flying but in this design there was simply nowhere to lower the wing the fifteen foot propellers simply scraped the ground tupolev instead of lifting the wing raised the fuselage this is The main reason why the 214 is so tall is most noticeable when looking at the landing gear, while the main gear integrated into the wing migrated almost unchanged, the front leg, which was raised under the fuselage, stretched up to 5 meters, yes, 16 feet.

Now remember what the front legs of other airplanes, even larger ones, look like because of the way they look. I didn't forget another small gear in the tail section that acts as a protective shoe in case the tail hits the runway, the tail also migrated from the bomber but again with changes to the 295 the patties are cruciform the horizontal stabilizer is integrated into the fin base on the 214 the stabilizer went into the tail section and the design itself was redone to increase the balance and alignment range of the aircraft the tail turret was obviously also not needed the main design change is the fuselage The basic fuselage of the 295 was not suitable for carrying passengers.

A completely new and much larger version was needed and here the lower flight speed gave another advantage. The pipe could be made larger. There were many options, from the level of passenger aircraft of that time to the largest. Comparable in diameter to modern wide-body aircraft, they stopped at a diameter of 4.2 meters and a length of 54.1 meters in the 1950s, this was a lot. The airliners of that era, even the large ones, had much narrower and shorter fuselages, in fact, the 214 was the leader. in terms of size and weight until the arrival of the Boeing 747, of course, knowing the record dimensions of the fuselage, it immediately becomes interesting what is inside.

Climbing a tall staircase, we pass through the main door and find ourselves in a small hall. Here there are seats for the stewardesses as well as a couple of relatively standard toilets to the right of the front door is the path for passengers to the first cabin on the left is the pass for the crew to the cabin the door to the cabin is quite small and at the same time, the reason for this is the possibility of complete hermetic insulation of the cabin in an emergency. Next comes the first passenger cabin with seven rows of standard three plus three layout.

The two 114s are still a narrow-body aircraft, but it is the largest in this class, which affects the internal volumes, there is a lot of open space in the cabin, the roof is high and, instead of the usual modern luggage racks , there are open shelves with nets, which further improves the visual sensation of spaciousness, in addition the windows are round and quite large, filling the cabin with light. The design is excellent. Many fabrics and metals did not skimp on high-quality materials and its massive seats. without luxuries but with curious extras moving to the second cabin is similar in size but the decoration here is much more curious instead of standard seats there are sofas facing each other separated by tables more similar to the cabin of a train than to that of a an airplane sliding tables multicolored materials and a lot of wood in the finishes everything is great but it has exactly four disadvantages the cabin is located in the plane of the engine propellers whose noise became an absolutely thunderous roar partially solved a similar problem of the l18 by removing to the passengers in this part and placing a wardrobe there but with the dimensions of the 2-114 they had not had to place a wardrobe here but a whole boutique, as a result they tried not to put the passengers in their cabin, using it more often as a restaurant.

Okay, we passed this part of the plane, it's too early to look. in it and we find ourselves in another exotic section in the section behind the wing of the plane four rooms are placed like in a train three shelves a small table and of course isolated from the rest of the cabin they could accommodate 12 people with maximum comfort and if it is necessary to place 24 people on the lower shelves, an elegant solution of its time, a legacy of luxurious piston aircraft cabins that most people only saw in the movies, considering the trend, a normal cabin, a cabin like on a train, rooms like on a train, next to us.

It should be a palace like on a train, but instead we find another quite ordinary passenger cabin, here there are also classic aviation seats with a slightly different upholstery. Nine rows in a three-plus-three layout, but the fun doesn't end there. Then comes a large cloakroom, another hall with a back door and bathrooms, the creators of the story clearly the bathrooms were not limiting themselves, there are two large rooms, yes, two for women and men, each one has two cabins, sinks, mirrors and illuminated tables, they were placed From the layout point of view of passenger aircraft, of course, it is a big waste of space, but in terms of appearance and comfort, this is a luxury that is more like to the bathrooms of a restaurant than to an airplane. the exotic is over so it's not time for dessert we return to the section near the wing between the second cabin and the sleeping compartments there is a kitchen here thermos boilers sinks niches for bottles and shells for all kinds of tasty things there are two large windows in the ceiling, the question immediately arises where the food is, if there are only bottles of sweets and kettles on the buffet.

Well, the food was cooked in the kitchen downstairs. The dimensions of the 214 allowed the designers to place additional rooms on the lower deck, nearby. At the buffet there is a full staircase leading down. There is a crew rest cabin here, as well as the galley where all the food is prepared and sent upstairs to the galley. The trays were raised on special elevators while bottles and other small things could be passed. through a niche under the stairs in the first years of operation even a cook was among the crew members, of course, looking at all this luxury a logical question arises several classes of service a restaurant cabin sleeping compartments a Cook, isn't that too much? pompous for a Soviet airliner here there are several nuances it was the 1950s an era of rapid development of aviation that was in the center of public attention each new aircraft was presented as a flying palace and the larger it was, the more palatial The flagships were considered to have cabins, bars, restaurants and recreation areas.

Soviet aircraft manufacturers were no exception to this trend and in some cases allowed themselves to play with the interior design, in addition to the aircraft we are looking at,It is not at all common in the exhibition of the aviation museum in Monuna. there is the USSR plane l5611 yes, this is the same plane that participated in exhibitions and made many sensational international flights, often transporting high political delegations, in fact, a government plane and a demonstration of achievements could not be common because of this, The seating density in a cabin of the size was very modest, only 170 seats, naturally, not all 114 were like that.

Production aircraft began with similar designs, but quickly transitioned to regular cabins with a capacity for 220 passengers, not as luxurious but much more economically efficient in this regard. We were lucky that the first The plane had such a cabin and managed to preserve it both during the period of operation and after decades of storage in the museum and, finally, the luggage, thanks to the location of the galley on the lower deck, we can access to the luggage compartments through it. two compartments in the plane, loading and unloading was carried out through the luggage doors in the tail and there were no sections of the fuselage, the solution is quite classic, in addition, access through the lower deck could be reached here during the flight In the early stages of the designers' work I had ideas to leave the vertical loading option according to the scheme used to equip the 295 with weapons but the idea was abandoned.

For civil aviation it was too exotic and fraught with operational difficulties, Finally we return to the nose and after passing through the small pressure door we find ourselves in the cabin, at first glance it is clear whose creation it is, the design is very similar to others. Tupolev civil aircraft of that time had a large number of instruments, large glass steering wheels and, of course, the navigator's cockpit in the nose - a kind of improved version of the 2104, but given the size of the aircraft, this update strongly affected the cabin dimensions. simply huge the interior space has grown a lot in comparison with it the workplaces of the pilots of most of their peers looked like the cabins of Bathurst calves the layout for Tupolev civil aircraft is quite familiar and is designed for five people two pilots in their places a flight engineer, a radio operator and a navigator, in addition, the navigator had an additional function due to the very high front leg, the plane on the ground raised its nose a little, which decreased the visibility of the pilots, so the role of the eyes during filming often decreased. the navigator, who had all the sights open, the aircraft made its maiden flight in November 1957 and gave rise to an epic test history with breaks for several demonstration flights in 1959, aircraft number l5611 which we now walk by took part in a trip around the world visited the international exhibition in brussels and then became the highlight of the

soviet

exhibition at the paris air show then made its first transatlantic flight bound for new york for an exhibition of the achievements of science,

soviet

technology and culture in new york in 1959 this arrival was a sensation in the idol wild airport services the current kennedy airport had to sweat it turned out that they did not have such high stairs to demonstrate the success of the aviation industry the turboprop plane more The second flight to the United States made this plane even more famous when in the fall of 1959 it was brought to Washington by the Soviet delegation led by the Soviet delegation. by Nikita Khrushchev Aeroflot greatly benefited from close cooperation with the design bureau the period of acceptance of the aircraft in the park was minimal some of the crews mastered the aircraft at the test stages and the training was carried out directly at the facilities from tupolev in kulibashev, modern samara, where the 214 was assembled, all this equipment soon became the The core of the 206 flight squadron Vnukova flew a new long-range aircraft.

Regular flights in the USSR began in 1961 and during the following years the planes also entered international routes, especially, of course, it is necessary to take into account the adventures of the 2-114 on flights to Cuba the Cuban missile crisis was in In full swing the Soviet and American militaries were waiting for the beginning of the brightest and shortest war in history and the civilian aviators had finally received the tool that allowed them to connect Moscow with Havana, I will note it right away that they were not the usual 114 those who flew there were installed two 114d where d means long range dalini the number of passengers was reduced to 60 part of the cargo volume gave way to additional fuel tanks and the takeoff weight reached 182 tons, this gave a additional range, however, Havana turned out to be almost at the limit point of the range of the 214d and, for security reasons, at first options for carrying out intermediate landings were considered, these were Africa, Guinea, Senegal, Algeria, but it was difficult working with them, everyone understood. that the planes did not take tourists to Cuba and given the transportation blockade by the United States, each flight became a political issue.

In the end, it was decided that it would be better to fly from its own territory. A route was developed from Murmansk. At first glance, this route may seem strange why mark north and then fly south, but it just so happens that the earth is round and the path from Murmansk was shorter than from Moscow, flying through the seas north of Greenland and along Along the east coast of North America it was adventurous too. The return trip was the same, just with some pretty rough takeoffs and steep climbs at Havana airport in hot and humid conditions, but the task was completed.

Transport connections were established and the aircraft successfully flew with cargo passengers without incident. Another interesting international experience for the 214. was cooperating with Japan when in 1967 Aeroflot and Japan Airlines opened a joint flight between Moscow and Tokyo. Two two-class planes with a capacity of 105 passengers flew with Soviet and Japanese stewards. The aircraft proved to be extremely reliable throughout the entire period of operation. There were no serious accidents for technical reasons at that time, a surprising indicator, however, it was not completely without disasters in February 1966 at Srimativa airport the plane crashed during takeoff the cause of the disaster was an urgent takeoff in bad weather conditions night from a runway that was not completely clear of snow, the 214 is a very reliable but demanding airplane, some senior officers forgot it.

Another plane was lost in 1962 when, during ground maintenance, technicians accidentally folded the nose landing gear and overturned the plane. The plane hit concrete, severely damaging the fuselage. No one was hurt, but the case is tragically stupid. Kubochef Aviation produced the aircraft between 1957 and 1964. In total 33 aircraft were manufactured, two prototypes and 31 cereals, not much despite all the advantages of the 214 its life was short ironically the decisions that allowed it to accelerate its creation led to its short service the aircraft was created in minimal time by using bomber solutions but over the next decade these solutions quickly became obsolete turboprop engines were powerful economical and reliable, but jet engines quickly caught up with them in this regard, being much more comfortable in terms of noise and vibration levels, plus it became clear that the concept of such a large turboprop aircraft was a dead end in itself when people see a propeller.

They equate it with the old piston airplanes but it is one thing when it is a small regional airplane and quite another when it is the flagship of the country's fleet. The new times brought new, more pragmatic and efficient long-range airplanes and in the ussr was the ill-62 the 2-114 quickly began to cede air routes to it and, in the mid-1970s, when the time came for serious maintenance and upgrades, it was decided that these measures were too complicated and not justified By themselves, they didn't make sense either. To modify the giants into something more, the fleet was full of other, more optimal machines and the airliner's only brother was the 2-126, an airborne early warning and control aircraft.

In the end, in 1977, the operation of the 2-114 was completed in In the following years, most of the aircraft were scrapped, but some went to pedestals and museums. The first 2-114 arrived in Monuna and continues to enjoy the local sun to this day. Our great story about a great aircraft ends thanks to the Central Air Force. museum in monuna and its team of volunteers for preserving this unique aircraft and aviation fans like and subscribe to the channel and if you want to watch the videos early, see exclusive behind-the-scenes content or simply support the channel, consider joining our community from patreon fast flights and soft landings for you