Concorde or Concordski? -幻の「未来の飛行機」-

It has been 19 years since Concorde completely disappeared from the sky. Concorde, a supersonic airliner, first appeared in 1969. Concorde took just about 3 hours to fly from London to New York. It was absolutely the advent of “the future airplane”.

It is, however, much less known that there used to be “another Concorde.” It was named Tu- 114 created by Tupolev, which called “Concordski” especially in the Western Bloc. Concordski was so similar to Concorde that it was believed to be an imitation of Concorde. But what should be noted is that Concordski achieved its first flight four months ahead of the Concorde.

Although they were both revolutionary development in the airline industry, their destiny was too crucial.

In 1973, during the flight at the air show, Concordski disintegrated in mid-air, killing everyone on board. In mid 80s, the Concordski development program was fully halted. On the other hand, Concorde's operations had been relatively successful. It was even expected to be the aircraft that would dominate the airline industry. In 2000, however, the world witnessed a very catastrophic accident of it. The Concorde damaged a tire, which in turn destroyed the fuel tank, causing it to crash. It coincidentally occurred in France, where the first Concordski accident occurred. Finally, Concorde finished its last flight in the spring of 2003. It was a farewell to “the future airplane”. Yet, they are still flying in memories of people, who fortunately had a chance to board them.