Everything about Tupolev Tu-104 totally explained
The
Tupolev Tu-104 (
NATO reporting name:
Camel) was a twin-engined medium-range
turbojet-powered
Soviet airliner. After the British
de Havilland Comet, Canadian
Avro Jetliner, and the French
Sud Caravelle, the Tu-104 was the fourth jet airliner to fly, and the second to enter regular service. Its arrival in
London during a
1956 state visit shocked Western observers.
Design and development
At the beginning of the
1950s, the Soviet Union's
Aeroflot airline desperately needed a modern airliner with better capacity and performance than any other Soviet plane then in operation. The design request was filled by the Tupolev OKB, which based their new airliner on its
Tu-16 'Badger' strategic bomber, the first version was more similar to the Tu-16 and it got square windows like the early
De Havilland Comet, but this was later changed before the airplane made its maiden flight. The airplane was pressure tested in a watertank. The wings, engines, and tail surfaces of the Tu-16 were retained in the airliner, but the new design adopted a wider, pressurised fuselage to accommodate 50 passengers. The first flight of first production Tu-104 was on
November 6 1955 at
Kharkiv plant in
Ukraine. It was fitted with a
drogue parachute which could shorten the landing run by up to 400 meters.
By the time production ceased in
1960, about 200 had been built. Aeroflot didn't retire the Tu-104 from civil service until 1979, the aircraft continued to serve in
in the Soviet Air Force until
1981 when a crash deemed it unsafe, last
flight of the type was in 1986 a ferry flight to a museum.
CSA Czechoslovak Airlines, the
Czechoslovak national airline, bought six (four new and two used) of Tu-104As configured for 81 passengers.
Following its removal from civil service, several aircraft were transferred to the Soviet military, which used them as staff transports and to train
cosmonauts in
zero gravity.
Variants
- Tu-104 - initial version seating 50 passengers.
- Tu-104A - Continuing improvements in the Mikulin engines permitted significant growth in the Tu-104 resulting in a 70-seater variant. The Tu-104A became the definitive production variant.
- Tu-104D - Tu-104A airframes rebuilt to accommodate 85 passengers
- Tu-104V - Tu-104A airframes rebuilt to accommodate 100 passengers
- Tu-104B - Further improvements were attained with the stretched Tu-104B fitted with new engines, the Mikulin AM-3M-500 turbojets, and able to accommodate 100 passengers.
- Tu-104E - Record breaking version.
- Tu-104LL Flying testbed. Armed heavy Air-Air missiles tests.
- Tu-107 - Military transport version with rear loading ramp and defense cannon turret.
- Tu-110 - Four-engined transport prototype.
Operators
CSA Czechoslovak Airlines - Six aircraft. Further Information
Get more info on 'Tupolev Tu-104'.
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