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XB-70A — Final Destination

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Published: 2017-05-21 16:08:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 1193; Favourites: 14; Downloads: 2
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Description 3rd June 1973, France : the Tupolev Tu-144S, NATO codenamed "Charger", is taking-off from Paris Le Bourget in the howling of its Kuznetsov NK-144A engines.
Fighting for the Supersonic transport first place against the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde during this 1973 airshow the crew tried to push the aircraft to its known limits while the team of Tupolev bureau deactivated the securities of the onboard computer to let the crew realized their maneuvers.
After having realized an impressive take-off and a low altitude passage over the field the crew re-engaged the afterburner to climb at full thrust. The aircraft later initiated a steep dive and while the crew tried to recover the aerodynamic and dynamic forces broke the right wing, making the aircraft spinning to its back where the forces destroyed its fuselage in thee main parts which finally crashed on the small town of Goussainville.

The crew of six and eight others peoples were killed in the tragedy.
This accident marked the death of the Tu-144 program which was already seriously threatened by its opponents within the Soviet airplane industry.

The crash site now got a stone placed along one of the town main road and which can be approached.
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Comments: 3

Artzbelg511 [2018-07-02 07:20:52 +0000 UTC]

i much prefer concorde, but still, good job!

👍: 0 ⏩: 0

ReinDerWorld [2017-08-03 20:44:35 +0000 UTC]

Tupolev TU-144 is one of my the most favourite aircrafts. Nice drawings of that.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

XB-70A In reply to ReinDerWorld [2017-08-03 21:40:21 +0000 UTC]

Thank you Rein' It also is one of my favorite since a long time and, even if I'm French, I always preferred it over Concorde. Wings with two different angles like if they were cut with a scythe, and these 8 tires on each main landing gear... a real beast! Brutal and beautiful.

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