Turns out Russia had a supersonic passenger jet before the French and British did. It was introduced at the 1973 Paris Air Show where, due to a mysterious mixup, it crashed into a village, killing 14. It was called the TU-144 and was immediately dubbed Concordski by London newspapers. It went into production, but only flew 55 scheduled passenger flights from 1977 to 1983 before it was mothballed due to safety concerns. It now resides in the back yard of a remote Russian Army base with its nose sticking over a fence. Studies began on what became the Concorde in the 1950s and it stopped flying in 2003 - but that’s by no means the end of the story.
© 2024 John Oliver
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