Tupolev 104: the Russian reaction

Video from the channel Aero Masterclass about Tupolev Tu-104, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 5:04. Language: French. Video type: Documentary.

Brief lesson in French by a history-of-aviation PhD student who argues that the Tupolev Tu-104 deserves recognition as an essential, if little known in the West, aircraft among the first civil jets.

The aircraft derives from the Tu-88 bomber, whose first prototypes date back to 1948 and which left the production lines in 1952 with a laminar-profile wing and leading-edge de-icing. Stalin authorised the development of the civil version in 1953. To carry passengers, the fuselage was widened from 2.90 to 3.40 m, pressurisation was redesigned and lavatories were added; the cabin held two pilots, a radio operator, a mechanic and a navigator. It first flew on 17 June 1955, and on 22 March 1956 a prototype landed at Heathrow, when the British were still boasting of the Comet.

The Mikulin engine went from 6,750 kg of thrust on the bomber to 9,700 kg on the Tu-104. In September 1957 it set an altitude record by climbing to 11,221 m with a 20-tonne load. The Tu-104B, lengthened by 1.21 m, carried up to 100 passengers and flew on Aeroflot's Moscow–Leningrad route from 1959; the Tu-124 was a version about 25% smaller. It was produced until 1960, in around 200 units, and is estimated to have carried about 80 million passengers.