Tupolev planemaker is designing a new supersonic transport. Some of its features have been disclosed, RIAN news agency reports.
According to Valery Solozobov, deputy CEO of Tupolev, the new plane will accommodate 30 passengers and fly at 1,500 to 2,200 km/hr which is two to three times faster than regular passenger planes’ speed. Its takeoff weight will be about 70 tons.
Earlier, Russia’s President Vladimir Putting noted a civil supersonic transport could be developed on the basis of Tu-160 strategic bomber. Tu-160 is huge in size and is the largest military supersonic aircraft in the world, which has a takeoff weight of 175 tons.
In the 1960s, Tupolev designed a supersonic passenger plane, Tu-144, which was the first supersonic liner in the world widely operated in the civil aviation. The other such a supersonic passenger plane was UK/France’s Concorde. Both planes were eventually unprofitable and so their production was curbed.
Tu-144 accommodated 150 passengers (five times more than the plane under development now) and had a takeoff weight of 180 tons (2.5-fold of the new liner).