History of the creation of Tu 104. Russian Aviation

Back in 1953, the government of the Soviet Union entrusted employees of the Tupolev design bureau with a responsible task. The essence new job was to create a new passenger airliner. It was from this event that the history of the creation of the legendary Tu-104 began.

It was not in vain that the choice fell on this design bureau, because this Soviet aircraft manufacturer a little earlier managed to successfully complete the construction of the Tu-16 missile-carrying bomber, the flight characteristics of which were noted by many world aircraft manufacturers.

Airplane Tu-104

The Soviet aircraft developer decided not to create new project future airliner, but to construct a Tu-104 passenger aircraft based on a previously involved project used for the production of a bomber. Considering that this solution helped the designers save a lot of time, the first project on paper was presented by engineers literally a year later. The Ministry of the Soviet Union studied and approved the draft version. The approval received allowed the design bureau employees to begin developing the first Soviet airliner, the Tu-104, in the summer of 1954.

According to the initial project, the designers were supposed to equip the passenger jet airliner with two power units developed at the Mikulin Design Bureau - AM 3M 500. Taking into account the technical characteristics included in the project by the engineers, the future airliner had to accommodate at least 50 passengers, the airliner could lift into the sky a cargo weighing up to 1200 kg, and the maximum speed limit of the aircraft should reach 1000 km/h.

Of course, the design engineers did not borrow all the components from the prototype. The following elements were manufactured exactly as originals to equip the passenger airliner:

cockpit;
power unit nacelles;
tail unit;
wing and landing gear.

It was also decided to equip the air transport with flight and navigation equipment similar to the bomber, without the use of military devices.

The Tu-104 aircraft was equipped with a completely new layout, in particular we're talking about about a more spacious fuselage and air intake for power units.

The best employees of the design bureau took part in the design process. A very fast pace was chosen for the work, which helped aircraft manufacturers at the end of 1954 of the last century to present a finished project for evaluation and approval. After reviewing the results of the work, representatives of the state commission approved and approved the model of the future passenger airliner presented by the engineers.

Construction of the first model of the legendary air transport was completed in the spring of 1955 at the Kharkov Aircraft Plant (KhAZ). Testing of the aircraft at the plant began in the summer and continued until the end of autumn. Having received excellent initial results, the airliner was subjected to mandatory state tests.

Probably the most significant time period for the new model of passenger airliner was 1956. In the spring of this year, the Tu-104 aircraft joined the arsenal of the civilian Soviet fleet, and in the fall it took to the skies as a passenger scheduled carrier. For the first time, a passenger airliner had to serve the route from the Moscow pier to the Irkutsk air pier, making a transfer at Omsk airport.

Soviet design engineers, together with the Kharkov Aviation Plant, managed in a record short period of time to create and put into operation the first model of a jet passenger aircraft, the technical characteristics of which were superior to all previously operated analogues. It took Soviet developers only 3 years to create a completely new passenger airliner.

Salon Tu-104

“Cons” and some features of the new model

Unfortunately, experts also noted several negative aspects regarding the jet passenger airliner:

Insufficient comfort for those on board. This is clearly visible in the photo of the Tu-104 interior. This inconvenience was especially pronounced at altitudes exceeding 10,000 meters, as soon as the pressure reached 0.45 atmospheres. In order to protect passengers, it was decided to make certain changes to the design of the airliner, in particular, to install between the cockpit and passenger compartment sealed partition. A photo of the Tu-104 aircraft will help you visually familiarize yourself with the changes made.
The expert commission also noted that if air transport is too overloaded, then if one of the engines fails, the plane will not be able to continue flying.
In turn, the pilots also noted some omissions, in particular, they were talking about difficult piloting by air at an altitude exceeding 10,000 meters. Design engineers who analyzed the shortcomings noted by the crew again had to make changes to the design of the airliner. First of all, it was decided to reduce the angle of the previously installed stabilizer, which in turn helped to expand the range required by pilots at the moment of deflection of the steering wheel. The attitude indicator was also replaced with a more sensitive and soft model used to equip military fighters.

Subsequently, aircraft developers had to solve the problem associated with the landing gear, which quite often fell out under significant overloads, which the designers managed to cope with perfectly. Numerous upgrades and elimination of shortcomings have helped to increase the performance characteristics of the jet passenger airliner.

Over the history of its existence, aircraft manufacturers produced only 29 Tu-104 models, and then began to create more advanced models based on the first jet passenger airliner.

It was the Tu-104 aircraft that was considered since 1956 as the main aircraft owned by famous airline Aeroflot, served by the most popular destinations from the Moscow pier. Moreover, the Tu-104 passenger aircraft was the first to serve international flight to New York in 1957.

Updated models

Design engineers continued to work on modernizing the passenger jet airliner. Thanks to the well-established work, at the beginning of 1957, an updated Tu-104A model was created with an increased passenger capacity of up to 70 people. Engineers also equipped the new model with a more powerful RD 3M power plant and new navigation devices.

About a year later, the developers presented another development, which was given the name Tu-104 B. The length of this model reached 40 meters, and up to 100 passengers could be accommodated on board. It was this model that was first decided to be equipped with a kitchen, allocating space for this room in the forward salon.

This model was not the last long list passenger jet ships created by the hands of Soviet engineers. After all, almost every year talented designers presented updated versions of jet aircraft. Some projects were never approved due to the presence of numerous shortcomings, while others are currently being used for their intended purpose.

In contact with

On June 17, 1955, the first flight of the Tu-104 aircraft took place. The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft, the Tu-104, had an extremely controversial history. On the one hand, this particular car was the first to seriously think about the comfort of passengers, creating optimal conditions for them.

On the other hand, the firstborn of a jet civil aviation The USSR has the worst reliability indicators among all domestic passenger airliners— 37 major air accidents in which 1,140 people died. 18 percent of all Tu-104s built ended their lives in plane crashes.
Andrei Tupolev (left), Alexander Arkhangelsky (second from left) and the commander of the crew of the TU-104 aircraft that returned from London, Anatoly Starikov (center right).
In the post-war period, when the Soviet Union began to seriously think about creating a powerful civil aviation fleet, two leading domestic design bureaus, Andrei Tupolev and Sergei Ilyushin, became involved in solving this problem.
By the mid-1950s it became clear that passenger aircraft Piston engines cannot cope with the tasks of modern times. Tupolev and Ilyushin approached the issue of creating new technology from different positions.
Ilyushin was convinced that it was necessary to create a fundamentally new aircraft, and began to develop a passenger airliner with a turboprop engine - the future Il-18. Andrey Tupolev saw the solution in the creation passenger aircraft on the basis of already existing and well-proven military.

A bomber turned into a "flying house".

In 1953, Tupolev turned to the country's leadership with a proposal to develop a passenger jet plane based on the Tu-16 long-range bomber. Tupolev's idea was received favorably, and on June 11, 1954, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N 1172-516 was issued on the creation of a long-range passenger high-speed aircraft Tu-16P.
The development of the project at the Tupolev Design Bureau began even before the official government decision was made. The design bureau called the project “aircraft 104.” Subsequently, the “four” was fixed in the name of all passenger cars created by the Tupolev Design Bureau.
A wider fuselage was designed for the Tu-104 (3.5 meters instead of 2.9 meters for the Tu-16). The Tu-104 had a pressurized cabin from the fuselage nose to the tail section.
The design of the aircraft changed: instead of a mid-wing aircraft, the aircraft became a low-wing aircraft, and the center section and engine nacelles were redesigned accordingly. From the serial Tu-16 the following were used: detachable wing parts, wing engine compartments, landing gear, horizontal tail, vertical tail and landing gear nacelles. Initially, the Tu-104 was designed for 50 people, although from the very beginning a further transition was envisaged, if the project was successful, to modifications for 70 or more passengers.
Along with the development of the aircraft itself, work was also going on on the interior design. The interior of the aircraft was designed on the premise that a sense of comfort and safety can be ensured by creating a “home environment” in the aircraft (the “cabin-home” idea). The first prototype, built under personal control Andrei Tupolev, and was completely distinguished by the luxury of decoration, which even looked somewhat excessive. Serial Tu-104s acquired a more “democratic” appearance.
It was necessary to develop from scratch such things as air conditioning units, electrical appliances for cooking and heating food, interior lighting, and radio equipment for passenger cabins.
Tupolev treated the Tu-104 as his favorite child. The designer even had a direct connection to the development of menus for future passengers. With his light hand, the passengers of the Tu-104 were pampered with cognac and sandwiches with caviar.

Checkmate, English gentlemen!

The experimental Tu-104 made its first flight on June 17, 1955. At this time, work was already in full swing to prepare for mass production of airliners of this type. The first production Tu-104 of the so-called “zero” series took off on November 5, 1955, that is, less than six months after the flight of the first prototype.
State tests of the first prototype Tu-104 took place from January to June 1956. The new product was presented to Nikita Khrushchev, who, being very pleased with the new achievement of Soviet aircraft designers, decided to fly it on an official visit to London.
The specialists grabbed their heads - the machine was “crude”, not fully tested, and such a flight looked too dangerous. Reluctantly, Khrushchev abandoned his intentions, but nevertheless ordered the Tu-104 to be brought to the capital of Great Britain.
On March 22, 1956, the Tu-104 arrived in London without Khrushchev, but with a group of Soviet diplomats preparing Khrushchev's visit.
The appearance of the Tu-104 in the UK had the effect of a bomb exploding. The fact is that it was in Great Britain that the world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, began operation in January 1952.
But both British and Soviet aircraft manufacturers were still unaware of many of the pitfalls associated with the use jet aircraft in civil aviation. A series of unexplained Komet disasters, the causes of which became clear much later, led to the decommissioning of this airliner. All the more unpleasant for the British was the appearance of the “Russian Comet”, which intercepted the laurels of the English plane.
The fact that the Tu-104 also has serious flaws will become clear later. And then the Soviet Union enjoyed its victory over its Western competitors.
Touched to the quick, British journalists reported “sensational news”: the Russian Tu-104 exists in a single copy, and to enhance the impression, they repaint the side numbers to create the impression that there are many such machines.
Andrei Tupolev was offended by this, and he gave the command to send three Tu-104s to Britain at once, lining them up in a row at London airport. After this, even the most zealous skeptics capitulated, recognizing the success of the USSR.

From service to space.

On September 15, 1956, the Tu-104 made its first regular flight on the route Moscow - Omsk - Irkutsk.
The new aircraft revolutionized domestic civil aviation. With its advent, the construction of new runways and air terminals began, the now familiar baggage check-in and ticketing systems, buses for air passengers, airfield service vehicles (refuelers, tractors, self-propelled ladders, and so on) appeared. Tickets for Tu-104 flights sold out instantly. Among civil aviation pilots, working on the Tu-104 was considered extremely prestigious.
In addition to use in civil aviation, the Tu-104 was actively used by the military and scientists. Thus, in 1961, the first observation of a solar eclipse from an airplane in the Soviet Union was carried out from a Tu-104.
And for the needs of the space program, a so-called “zero-gravity pool” was equipped on board the Tu-104, in which a state of weightlessness was created for several tens of seconds during the flight. The first Soviet cosmonauts, including Alexei Leonov, who was the first to go into outer space, practiced their skills in working in space on board the Tu-104.

The feat of Harold Kuznetsov.

But, as we know, there are no revolutions without victims. Operation of the Tu-104 soon revealed serious shortcomings of the vehicle. The pilots noted that the airliner was unstable in flight, heavy, and prone to rocking—the so-called “Dutch step.”
But the most terrible phenomenon that the Tu-104 crews encountered was “catch.” When “caught,” the aircraft is rapidly thrown up 1-2 km within a few seconds with a large increase in the angle of attack. Then the plane loses speed, falls into a dive and dies.
In the era of the appearance of the Tu-104, “pickup” was a practically unknown phenomenon. The experience of piston passenger aircraft flying at much lower altitudes could not help here.
On August 15, 1958, a regular Tu-104 crashed near Khabarovsk. 64 passengers and crew members were killed. The pilots insisted that something strange was happening to the plane. The designers, including Tupolev, objected - the problem was with pilots who could not control the aircraft.
The situation was changed by the crash of another Tu-104, which occurred on October 17, 1958 in Chuvashia, near the village of Kanash. Experienced ship commander Harold Kuznetsov, faced with a “catch,” fought to the last to save the vehicle, but was unable to prevent a disaster in which he and 79 other people died. However, the fact that Kuznetsov transmitted information to the ground about what was happening until the very end allowed the designers to understand the cause of the tragedy.

“Camel” was replaced by “Simp”.

Improvements were made to the design of the Tu-104 to prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy. In addition, a restriction on flight levels was introduced for the Tu-104, which from now on should not exceed 9000 meters.
At factories in Kharkov, Omsk and Kazan, 201 copies of various modifications of the Tu-104 were built. Its production ceased in 1960.
This was due to two circumstances. Firstly, in 1959, the turboprop Il-18 entered service - more unpretentious, reliable and easier to pilot. It is not for nothing that in NATO codification it was called “Simp”, in contrast to the more pretentious “Camel”, as the Western military called the Tu-104. Secondly, the world was already developing second-generation passenger jet airliners, and the Soviet Union did not intend to lag behind in this matter.

Operation of the Tu-104 in Soviet civil aviation continued until 1979, in the Armed Forces - until 1981, when almost the entire top management died in the Tu-104 crash at the military airfield in the city of Pushkin Pacific Fleet USSR, including 16 admirals and generals and about 20 captains of the first rank.
On November 11, 1986, one of the surviving Tu-104 samples flew to its eternal parking at the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Museum. Thus ended the story of the pioneer of civil jet aviation of the USSR.

Two-faced Tu.

The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft, the Tu-104, had an extremely controversial history. On the one hand, this particular car was the first to seriously think about the comfort of passengers, creating optimal conditions for them. On the other hand, the first-born of jet civil aviation of the USSR has the worst reliability indicators among all domestic passenger airliners - 37 major accidents in which 1,140 people died. 18 percent of all Tu-104s built ended their lives in plane crashes.

Andrei Tupolev (left), Alexander Arkhangelsky (second from left) and the commander of the crew of the TU-104 aircraft that returned from London, Anatoly Starikov (center right).
In the post-war period, when the Soviet Union began to seriously think about creating a powerful civil aviation fleet, two leading domestic design bureaus, Andrei Tupolev and Sergei Ilyushin, became involved in solving this problem.
By the mid-1950s, it became clear that passenger aircraft with piston engines were not up to the task of the new era. Tupolev and Ilyushin approached the issue of creating new technology from different positions.
Ilyushin was convinced that it was necessary to create a fundamentally new aircraft, and began to develop a passenger airliner with a turboprop engine - the future Il-18. Andrei Tupolev saw the solution in creating passenger aircraft based on existing and well-proven military ones.

A bomber turned into a "flying house".

In 1953, Tupolev approached the country's leadership with a proposal to develop a passenger jet aircraft based on the Tu-16 long-range bomber. Tupolev's idea was received favorably, and on June 11, 1954, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR N 1172-516 was issued on the creation of a long-range passenger high-speed aircraft Tu-16P.
The development of the project at the Tupolev Design Bureau began even before the official government decision was made. The design bureau called the project “aircraft 104.” Subsequently, the “four” was fixed in the name of all passenger cars created by the Tupolev Design Bureau.
A wider fuselage was designed for the Tu-104 (3.5 meters instead of 2.9 meters for the Tu-16). The Tu-104 had a pressurized cabin from the fuselage nose to the tail section.

The design of the aircraft changed: instead of a mid-wing aircraft, the aircraft became a low-wing aircraft, and the center section and engine nacelles were redesigned accordingly. From the serial Tu-16 the following were used: detachable wing parts, wing engine compartments, landing gear, horizontal tail, vertical tail and landing gear nacelles. Initially, the Tu-104 was designed for 50 people, although from the very beginning a further transition was envisaged, if the project was successful, to modifications for 70 or more passengers.

Along with the development of the aircraft itself, work was also going on on the interior design. The interior of the aircraft was designed on the premise that a sense of comfort and safety can be ensured by creating a “homey environment” in the aircraft (the “cabin-home” idea). The first prototype, built under the personal supervision of Andrei Tupolev, was completely distinguished by its luxurious finishing, which even looked somewhat excessive. Serial Tu-104s acquired a more “democratic” appearance.

It was necessary to develop from scratch such things as air conditioning units, electrical appliances for cooking and heating food, interior lighting, and radio equipment for passenger cabins.

Tupolev treated the Tu-104 as his favorite child. The designer even had a direct connection to the development of menus for future passengers. With his light hand, the passengers of the Tu-104 were pampered with cognac and sandwiches with caviar.

Checkmate, English gentlemen!

State tests of the first prototype Tu-104 took place from January to June 1956. The new product was presented to Nikita Khrushchev, who, being very pleased with the new achievement of Soviet aircraft designers, decided to fly it on an official visit to London.

The specialists grabbed their heads - the machine was “crude”, not fully tested, and such a flight looked too dangerous. Reluctantly, Khrushchev abandoned his intentions, but nevertheless ordered the Tu-104 to be brought to the capital of Great Britain.
On March 22, 1956, the Tu-104 arrived in London without Khrushchev, but with a group of Soviet diplomats preparing Khrushchev's visit.

The appearance of the Tu-104 in the UK had the effect of a bomb exploding. The fact is that it was in Great Britain that the world's first commercial jet airliner, the Comet, began operation in January 1952.

But both British and Soviet aircraft manufacturers were still unaware of many of the pitfalls associated with the use of jet aircraft in civil aviation. A series of unexplained Komet disasters, the causes of which became clear much later, led to the decommissioning of this airliner. All the more unpleasant for the British was the appearance of the “Russian Comet”, which intercepted the laurels of the English plane.

The fact that the Tu-104 also has serious flaws will become clear later. And then the Soviet Union enjoyed its victory over its Western competitors.
Touched to the quick, British journalists reported “sensational news”: the Russian Tu-104 exists in a single copy, and to enhance the impression, they repaint the side numbers to create the impression that there are many such machines.
Andrei Tupolev was offended by this, and he gave the command to send three Tu-104s to Britain at once, lining them up in a row at London airport. After this, even the most zealous skeptics capitulated, recognizing the success of the USSR.

From service to space.

In addition to use in civil aviation, the Tu-104 was actively used by the military and scientists. Thus, in 1961, the first observation of a solar eclipse from an airplane in the Soviet Union was carried out from a Tu-104.
And for the needs of the space program, a so-called “zero-gravity pool” was equipped on board the Tu-104, in which a state of weightlessness was created for several tens of seconds during the flight. The first Soviet cosmonauts, including Alexei Leonov, who was the first to go into outer space, practiced their skills in working in space on board the Tu-104.

The feat of Harold Kuznetsov.

In the era of the appearance of the Tu-104, “pickup” was a practically unknown phenomenon. The experience of piston passenger aircraft flying at much lower altitudes could not help here.
On August 15, 1958, a regular Tu-104 crashed near Khabarovsk. 64 passengers and crew members were killed. The pilots insisted that something strange was happening to the plane. The designers, including Tupolev, objected - the problem was the pilots who could not control the aircraft.
The situation was changed by the crash of another Tu-104, which occurred on October 17, 1958 in Chuvashia, near the village of Kanash. Experienced ship commander Harold Kuznetsov, faced with a “catch,” fought to the last to save the vehicle, but was unable to prevent a disaster in which he and 79 other people died. However, the fact that Kuznetsov transmitted information to the ground about what was happening until the very end allowed the designers to understand the cause of the tragedy.

“Camel” was replaced by “Simp”.

Operation of the Tu-104 in Soviet civil aviation continued until 1979, in the Armed Forces - until 1981, when almost the entire senior leadership of the USSR Pacific Fleet, including 16 admirals and generals and about 20 captains of the first rank.
On November 11, 1986, one of the surviving Tu-104 samples flew to its eternal parking at the Ulyanovsk Civil Aviation Museum. Thus ended the story of the pioneer of civil jet aviation of the USSR.

In June 1955, an experimental aircraft “104” developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau took off from the airfield in Zhukovsky near Moscow. Factory testing of the machine began, which by the fall of the same year would turn into the Tu-104 jet airliner - the third in the world, the second put into operation and the first in the USSR.

The very topic of the “104th” moved forward only after Stalin’s death, although proposals to create a jet passenger fleet were repeatedly put forward during his time. But the leader, with his characteristic economy and penchant for repeated reinsurance, inexorably “cut down” such ideas. The country had just overcome the post-war devastation and could not afford significant “non-core” expenses, and the reactive passenger aviation in the early 50s, it was still not a problem of prime necessity for the Soviet national economy.

There is a common joke among railway students: “Soviet carriages are not designed to carry passengers, they are adapted for it.” When creating the first Soviet jet airliner, the Tupolev Design Bureau used a similar principle, but seriously and competently. The successful Tu-16 bomber was taken as a basis (the “104” aircraft even at one time bore the designation Tu-16P - “passenger”) in order to gain resources and time for the overall development of the design.

Thus, the task of training flight technical personnel was also simplified, and savings were also made on ground maintenance and repair equipment.

As one of the arguments in favor of creating such an aircraft, A.N. Tupolev cited the possibility of flights to high altitude, “above the weather” - propeller-driven passenger aircraft, which had a small ceiling, suffered mercilessly from bumpiness. But it was there that the first jet airliner was guarded by a new, as yet unknown danger.

When it comes to a passenger aircraft, the first thing that seriously concerns potential passengers is reliability. Who in the USSR has not heard the black song: “Tu-104 is the fastest plane: it will take you to the grave in two minutes”? For all its offensiveness, it somehow reflected a harsh reality. The plane was made in a hurry. Accident rate new car exceeded reasonable - by today's standards - indicators. Over the entire history of operation, 37 vehicles suffered serious accidents - 18% of the total number produced. At the same time, it should be noted that the “104th” behaved much more decently in flight than its English competitor “Comet” from the De Havilland company (23% of lost vehicles), which had an unhealthy habit of falling apart in the air due to fatigue. loads in a carelessly designed fuselage.

The first Tu-104 aircraft flew in early November 1955. Thus, development took very little time. During this flight, there were problems: during the flight, the plane was unexpectedly thrown up, after which control of the machine was lost for some time. The pilots called this condition “catch.” The reason for this phenomenon could not be determined. Despite this, the operation of the aircraft continued, and testing did not stop.

Khrushchev liked the Tu-104 plane so much that he even decided to fly it to Great Britain in 1956. Since the problems with the plane could not be resolved, he was persuaded to abandon such a flight. But it was necessary to demonstrate to the world the successes of Soviet aircraft manufacturing. Therefore, by order of Khrushchev, the Tu-104 was driven to the British capital.

The arrival of the Soviet airliner, according to the British press, produced an effect comparable to the landing of a UFO. The next day, a second copy of the Tu-104, with a different number, arrived in London. A message appeared in British newspapers that it was the same plane, and the “Russian priests” were “repainting the numbers on their prototype plane.” "Russian priests" are Russian pilots dressed all in black. Chief designer A.N. Tupolev was offended and, firstly, ordered funds to be allocated for the pilots to dress in something fashionable and not black, and the next day - March 25, 1956 - to send three Tu-104s to London at once, which was done.

This was a triumph for the Soviet Union - after all, at that time, no other country in the world had operational jets. passenger airliners did not have.

The Tu-104 made its first regular flight on September 15, 1956. And in 1958, a bad streak began.

As further developments of events showed, the problems with “pickup” were not resolved. In August 1958, a Tu-104 plane lost control and crashed, killing 64 people. Designer Tupolev denied in every possible way that there were any problems, and the disaster, according to him, was the fault of the crew. There is a version that the plane simply did not have enough fuel. But after some time, the second Tu-104 crashed, going into a tailspin and crashing into the ground.

And two months later, exactly the same situation arose near Kanash.

On October 7, 1958, the new Tu-104A with tail number CCCP-42362, controlled by the crew of the most experienced pilot Harold Kuznetsov, flew the Beijing - Omsk - Moscow flight. The flight altitude was 12 kilometers. In the cabin there were mainly foreign citizens - a delegation of Chinese and North Korean Komsomol activists.

The weather in Moscow was bad, at the alternate airfield Gorky, too, and after flying over Kazan, the controller ordered to turn around and head to Sverdlovsk, which was suitable for landing. During a turn at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the plane most likely entered a zone of strong turbulence and a “pickup” occurred - a spontaneous increase in the pitch angle uncontrolled by the crew. Suddenly, the plane was thrown up sharply, and with such force that such a huge colossus flew up two kilometers, went up from the flight level, lost speed, fell onto the wing and went into a tailspin.

In the situation that arose, the crew did everything possible to save the plane. But the lack of elevator travel did not allow the vehicle to be brought out of death mode. Harold Kuznetsov, knowing that Birobidzhan history might be repeating itself, ordered the flight radio operator to broadcast his words to the ground.

Crew commander Harold Kuznetsov and co-pilot Anton Artemyev tried to level the plane, taking the helm all the way. But it did not help. Then the plane went down sharply, not obeying the controls. Thus, the plane entered a steep uncontrolled dive. On supersonic speed, almost vertically, the plane was rushing towards the ground.

Here the crew accomplished the almost impossible: commander Harold Kuznetsov, in two minutes of falling from a height of 13 kilometers, managed to radio the behavior of the vehicle. The connection worked almost until the moment of collision with the ground. The commander's last words were: “Farewell. We are dying."

The plane crashed in the Vurnar region of Chuvashia, a few tens of meters from the plane railway Moscow - Kazan - Sverdlovsk, near the village of Bulatovo. 65 passengers and 9 crew members were killed.

According to the results of the work of the state commission, the accident lasted no more than two minutes.

The information conveyed by Kuznetsov was of great value, since all previous incidents remained unsolved. None of the investigations conducted by specialists from the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet, the Air Force, the State Research Institute, as well as the Tupolev Design Bureau itself could shed light on what actually happened. Many assumptions have been made: technical malfunction, design defects, poor weather, crew errors.

All the cones, of course, fell on the heads of the pilots, since in technical specifications no one doubted the aircraft. But the information transmitted by Kuznetsov dotted the i’s. From the information received, the commission concluded that the plane was caught in a huge updraft. None of the designers could even imagine that this was possible at an altitude of more than 9 kilometers, since simple piston engines could rise to a much lower height. Therefore, such a phenomenon as turbulence was considered a trifle. Until tragedy struck.

Kuznetsov's crew found themselves in the very center of a vertical air flow. Later, in the process of reproducing the flight, the designers were able to determine its parameters: the width of the air flow was about 2 kilometers, the length was about 13, and the thickness was about 6 kilometers. At the same time, its speed was approaching 300 kilometers per hour.

It was urgently necessary to find a way to combat such a dangerous natural phenomenon. As a result, the maximum flight altitude was reduced, the design itself was modernized, and new techniques for centering the machines were developed, but the problem was still not completely solved. The high accident rate remained at the same level, but what was the reason - either design errors or unpreparedness of the pilots - was difficult to determine.

The information provided was enough to find and fix the problem. The rules for centering the aircraft were changed, the angle of installation of the stabilizer was changed and the elevator was modified. Has also been reduced maximum height flight. The aircraft's tendency to get caught has been greatly reduced.

After that, the Tu-104 carried passengers for another three decades, and although there were some disasters (after all, about 200 aircraft were built and flown), their reasons were already different. The Tu-104 became Aeroflot's main passenger aircraft for a long time: for example, in 1960, the Tu-104 carried a third of passenger air traffic in the USSR. Over 23 years of operation, the Tu-104 fleet has transported approximately 100 million passengers, spending 2,000,000 flight hours in the air and completing more than 600,000 flights.

Much of the credit for this goes to Harold Kuznetsov and his crew. Here are their names:

Kuznetsov Harold Dmitrievich - PIC instructor
Artemov Anton Filimonovich - PIC
Rogozin Igor Aleksandrovich - co-pilot
Mumrienko Evgeniy Andreevich - navigator
Veselov Ivan Vladimirovich - flight mechanic
Fedorov Alexander Sergeevich - flight radio operator
Smolenskaya Maya Filippovna - flight attendant-translator
Goryushina Tatyana Borisovna - flight attendant
Maklakova Albina - flight attendant

It is not surprising that the plane gained bad fame. In 1960, the Tu-104 airliner was discontinued, and its place was temporarily taken by the Il-18 turboprop airliners. And since a long runway was needed to accelerate the Tu-104, it was used on domestic flights infrequently.

There was a need to create new passenger aircraft. Tupolev decided not to retreat from the intended path. As a result, the first modification of the Tu-104 was created - the Tu-124, which also had a high accident rate. Therefore, another variant was created - the Tu-134. This aircraft was more successful, therefore, since the start of operation in 1967, it is still flying on domestic airlines. It was only in 1972 that the first Tu-154 jet airliner appeared, which was not converted from a military vehicle, but was originally designed as a passenger aircraft. This is one of the favorite aircraft of domestic experienced pilots.

Aeroflot removed the last Tu-104s from regular airlines only in 1979. But by that time the aircraft had firmly taken root in military aviation - it was used for training pilots of naval missile carriers, as a flying laboratory, for meteorological research and as a staff aircraft. The 104's flights were finally stopped only at the beginning of 1981, after an overloaded aircraft belonging to the USSR Navy crashed at a military airfield near Leningrad. The command staff of the Pacific Fleet almost completely died on it - 52 people, of which 17 were admirals and generals, including the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Emil Spiridonov, who was in possession of the ill-fated vehicle.

Such a bitter experience forced domestic designers to think of new aerodynamic shapes that could withstand air flows.

Officially, the last flight of the Tu-104 took place in November 1986. But some people claim that at the very end of the 80s they saw “104s” on the aprons of regional airports and even in flight. The son of a warrior and the grandfather of Soviet jet airliners did not want to retire, remaining a kind of kind ghost in the impoverished but comfortably lived-in castle of domestic civil aviation.

The very topic of the “104th” moved forward only after Stalin’s death, although proposals to create a jet passenger fleet were repeatedly put forward during his time. But the leader, with his characteristic economy and penchant for repeated reinsurance, inexorably “cut down” such ideas. The country had just overcome the post-war devastation and could not afford significant “non-core” expenses, and jet passenger aviation in the early 50s was still not a problem of prime necessity for the Soviet national economy.

Thus, the task of training flight technical personnel was also simplified, and savings were also made on ground maintenance and repair equipment.

As one of the arguments in favor of creating such an aircraft, A.N. Tupolev cited the possibility of flying at high altitude, “above the weather” - propeller-driven passenger aircraft, which had a small ceiling, suffered mercilessly from bumpiness. But it was there that the first jet airliner was guarded by a new, as yet unknown danger.

When it comes to a passenger aircraft, the first thing that seriously concerns potential passengers is reliability. Who in the USSR has not heard the black song: “Tu-104 is the fastest plane: it will take you to the grave in two minutes”? For all its offensiveness, it somehow reflected a harsh reality. The plane was made in a hurry. The accident rate of the new car exceeded reasonable - by today's standards - indicators. Over the entire history of operation, 37 vehicles suffered serious accidents - 18% of the total number produced. At the same time, it should be noted that the “104th” behaved much more decently in flight than its English competitor “Comet” from the De Havilland company (23% of lost vehicles), which had an unhealthy habit of falling apart in the air due to fatigue. loads in a carelessly designed fuselage.

This was a triumph for the Soviet Union - after all, at that time no other country in the world had operating jet passenger airliners.

The Tu-104 made its first regular flight on September 15, 1956. And in 1958, a bad streak began.

And two months later, exactly the same situation arose near Kanash.

Crew commander Harold Kuznetsov and co-pilot Anton Artemyev tried to level the plane, taking the helm all the way. But it did not help. Then the plane went down sharply, not obeying the controls. Thus, the plane entered a steep uncontrolled dive. At supersonic speed, almost vertically, the plane rushed towards the ground.

The plane crashed in the Vurnarsky district of Chuvashia, a few tens of meters from the Moscow-Kazan-Sverdlovsk railway, not far from the village of Bulatovo. 65 passengers and 9 crew members were killed.

According to the results of the work of the state commission, the accident lasted no more than two minutes.

All the cones, of course, fell on the heads of the pilots, since no one doubted the technical characteristics of the aircraft. But the information transmitted by Kuznetsov dotted the i's. From the information received, the commission concluded that the plane was caught in a huge updraft. None of the designers could even imagine that this was possible at an altitude of more than 9 kilometers, since simple piston engines could rise to a much lower height. Therefore, such a phenomenon as turbulence was considered a trifle. Until tragedy struck.

The information provided was enough to find and fix the problem. The rules for centering the aircraft were changed, the angle of installation of the stabilizer was changed and the elevator was modified. The maximum flight altitude was also reduced. The aircraft's tendency to get caught has been greatly reduced.

Much of the credit for this goes to Harold Kuznetsov and his crew. Here are their names:

It is not surprising that the plane gained bad fame. In 1960, the Tu-104 airliner was discontinued, and its place was temporarily taken by the Il-18 turboprop airliners. And since the Tu-104 needed a long runway to accelerate, it was rarely used on domestic flights.

Such a bitter experience forced domestic designers to think of new aerodynamic shapes that could withstand air flows.

Near Moscow, on the Kiev highway, at the turn to Vnukovo airport, a Tu-104B was met, standing on a high pedestal. As it turned out, this plane was installed in 2006; before it, there was another Tu-104B at Vnukovo, which, by someone’s stupid order, was cut down in 2005. The aircraft's tail number is not real; the number USSR-L5412 was worn by the first Tu-104 that performed its first flight with passengers.