Tupolev Tu-114
The Tupolev Tu-114 Rossiya is a retired large turboprop-powered long-range airliner designed by the Tupolev design bureau and built in the Soviet Union from May 1955. The aircraft was the largest and fastest passenger plane at that time and also had the longest range, at 10,900 km. It has held the official title of fastest propeller-driven aircraft since 1960.
Due to its swept wing and powerplant design, the Tu-114 was able to travel at speeds typical of modern jetliners,. Although it was able to accommodate 224 passengers, when operated by Aeroflot, it was more common to accommodate 170 passengers with sleeping berths and a dining lounge.
The Tu-114 carried over six million passengers before being replaced by the jet-powered Ilyushin Il-62. Thirty-two aircraft were built at the Kuibyshev aviation plant in the early 1960s.
Development
In response to a directive No.1561-868 from the Council of Ministers and Ministry of Aircraft Production order No.571, issued in August 1955, the Tupolev Design Bureau was to create an airliner that had a range of 8,000 km, based on the Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bomber, powered by four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines driving contra-rotating propellers.The Tu-114 used the basic wing, empennage, landing gear, and powerplants of the Tu-95 bomber, mated to a totally new pressurized fuselage of much larger diameter. To cope with the increased weight, increased landing flap surface area was required, and the flap chord was increased compared to the bomber's flaps. The wing was mounted low on the fuselage, giving the Tu-114 a much higher stance on its landing gear than the bomber. As a result, a new nose landing gear strut was required, although the main landing gear remained unchanged.
The Tu-114 was able to reach speeds typical of modern jetliners, but its cruising speed equivalent to Mach 0.71 was markedly lower than equivalent jet airliners such as the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8, and Vickers VC10, which usually cruised at Mach 0.83. It carried up to 224 passengers in maximum carriage configuration, although a more usual number for long-distance transcontinental flights was 170 passengers, which enabled the planes to be fitted with such luxuries as sleeping berths and even a dining lounge for the upper-class cabin.
Design
The Tu-114 had several unique features for its time, such as:- Wings swept back at 35 degrees — the same angle as for the Boeing 707 and several other pure turbojet-powered airliners
- The most powerful turboprop engines to enter service on any aircraft, the Kuznetsov NK-12MV, each driving two AV-60H, contra-rotating, four-bladed, reversible-pitch propellers.
- Lower deck galleys. A dumbwaiter connected the galley to the upper deck; originally, a member of the crew was a chef.
- Lower deck aircrew rest area.
- Long landing gear due to a combination of a low wing and its large propeller diameter. Many destination airports did not have steps tall enough to reach the Tu-114's cabin door because of this.
On domestic flights all seats were sold at one price; there was no class difference in the USSR during the Tu-114's flying career. The most uncomfortable places on the plane were in the "restaurant" compartments, these were sold last. Three places in row 16, near the stair to the lower deck were equipped with baby bassinets. Maximum seating capacity of the Tu-114 in its "native" configuration was 170 passengers.
For international flights, sleeping places were sold as first class. In the early 1970s, sleeping compartments and the "restaurant" on most Tu-114s were dismantled and replaced with the usual passenger seats, with maximum seating reaching 200.
The design was not without shortcomings. Passengers on the Tu-114 endured high noise levels and vibrations from the propellers and engines.
Operational history
The first Tu-114, registration CCCP-Л5611, was first shown to the West in 1958 at the Brussels World Exhibition. It later carried Nikita Khrushchev on his first trip to the United States in September 1959, the first such visit by any Soviet leader. The Tu-114 was still in the testing phase and had completed its first long range flight only four months earlier, after which postflight analysis found that hairline cracks had formed in the engines. Trusting the Soviet leadership to a still experimental aircraft was risky, but the only other option for a flight to the United States would be the short range Il-18 which would require multiple fueling stops. Although the Central Committee, Minister of Defense Malinovsky, and Khrushchev's personal pilot all considered it too risky to use the new aircraft, the Soviet premier insisted and aircraft designer Andrei Tupolev felt confident enough to put his son Alexei on the same flight. During Khrushchev's flight, a group of engineers were aboard the plane, operating diagnostic equipment to monitor the engines and verify that they were functioning correctly. Khrushchev later said, "We didn't publicize the fact that Tupolev's son was with us" for "to do so, would have meant giving explanations, and these might have been damaging to our image". When it arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, the ground crew found that the aircraft was so large and its landing gear so tall that they had no passenger steps high enough to reach the forward hatch. Khrushchev and his party were obliged to use the aircraft's own emergency escape ladder. The last flight of this particular plane was in 1968, and it is now on display at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino, outside of Moscow. Similar issues were experienced when the plane first landed at London and Paris airports, neither of which had hosted a plane of this size.The Tu-114 entered regular Aeroflot service on flights from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to Khabarovsk on 24 April 1961. It was subsequently used for Aeroflot flights to international destinations including Copenhagen, Havana, Montreal, New Delhi, Paris, Belgrade and Tokyo.
Flights to Havana via Conakry in Guinea began on 10 July 1962. After the United States government placed political pressure on Guinea, landing rights were denied after four flights, and the Tu-114 service had to be routed through Dakar, Senegal, instead. Further American pressure to isolate Cuba resulted in denial of landing rights after three flights, and the route was changed to Algiers, Algeria, instead. After three more flights, Algiers was also closed to the Tu-114. To overcome this, the Tu-114 was specially modified into the long-range Tu-114D variant, with seating reduced from 170 to 60, and 15 extra fuel tanks added. These aircraft refuelled at Olenya near Murmansk, in the far North of the Soviet Union, and then flew via the Barents Sea to Havana. Usually, this fuel load was enough, but in case of strong headwinds, an emergency refuelling stop in Nassau in The Bahamas was necessary; this was an American military field. All planes operating this route were converted back to normal specifications after the jet-powered Ilyushin Il-62 began flying the Moscow–Havana route.
Aeroflot first appeared in the OAG registry in the January 1967 issue, which shows:
- a weekly Tu-114 from Sheremetyevo to Montreal, scheduled 11 hours 50 minutes
- two weekly Tu-114s to Havana in 19:20, returning in 16:25
- one weekly Tu-114 to Delhi in 7:00, returning in 7:40
Ilyushin 62s took over the Delhi and Montreal flights in 1967. Ilyushins took over the Tokyo flight in May/June 1969 and Havana, probably sometime in 1969.
With the increasing use of the Il-62, the Tu-114s were shifted to long domestic flights from Domodedovo to Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk. Tu-114s were also used for charter operations for senior officials of the USSR and various official delegations.
The Tu-114 had a short commercial service life compared with other Soviet airliners, being operated on regular flights from 1961 to 1976. The fatigue life of the airframe was set at 14,000 flying hours. Most of the aircraft passed this point in 1976. By the summer of 1977, Aeroflot decided to scrap 21 aircraft at the same time. A few continued in use by the Soviet Air Forces until 1991.
Although the time in service was relatively brief, the Tu-114, during its time in service, managed to earn an excellent reputation for reliability, speed and fuel economy. Tu-114 burned 5,000-5,500 kg/hour of fuel at cruise flight, which is comparable to a modern wide-body twinjet, such as a Boeing 787 Dreamliner or Airbus A350 XWB. Its safety record was rarely matched: there was only one accident involving fatalities, but the plane was not airborne at the time. It was only withdrawn from service after the introduction of the Il-62 and after carrying over six million passengers with Aeroflot and Japan Airlines.