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93 Sqn Linebook No. 2 - Page 67 4th August 1958 - Cold War Moves to a Showdown.   "Diplomats debate in U.N. while Leaders Seek a Summit Talk"   "The greatest photographic adventure on earth..."   "Not a Pigeon."   "Get Things Moving - Get a Cine Camera."   "*When 'near enough' is good enough..."   "The first scheduled Moscow - Paris flight took place on August 4, an Aeroflot Tu-104 carrying 16 passengers non-stop in 3 hr 51 min."   (Thanks to RAF Museum.)

Tupolev Tu-104 Camel

In the 1950s the Soviet Union realised the necessity to modernize Aeroflot's passenger fleet both to reduce journey times and to compete with developments in the West.   Part of this programme involved the development of a medium-range jet airliner, and the task was placed upon a team led by Andrei N. Tupolev in 1953.   In order to rationalise resources, minimise costs and meet timescales it was decided to utilise significant elements of the Tu-16 bomber design, including the wing, nose, fin and initially the powerplant, which were all married in to a new pressurised fuselage design.   The result was the Tu-104 turbojet airliner, which first flew as the Tu-104G (G denoting civil) prototype on 17 June 1955.   This made it only the second jet airliner to enter service following the ill-fated de Havilland Comet 1.   The initial production version (simply referred to as the Tu-104) had a capacity for 50 passengers and was powered by two Mikulin AM-3 turbojets each rated at 66.18kN (14,881lb); like the Tu-16 these were mounted either side of the fuselage in the wing root, and the main undercarriage retracted in two large fairings on the trailing edge.   The effect of the Tu-104 in service was radical with some domestic journey times more than halved in comparison with the precedimng Ilyushin Il-12 and Il-14.   Moscow to Irkutsk, for example, was reduced from nearly 18 hours to six and half hours.   The visit of a prototype to Western Europe in the spring of 1956 caused a major re-evaluation of Soviet capability.   The Mikulin powerplant was later uprated to 85.29kN (19,180lb) thrust.   This version was designated AM-3M and it was subsequently used on the first higher capacity variant. the Tu-104A, which had a capacity of 70 passengers and entered service in 1958.   Further development of the Mikulin powerplant (to the AM-M500 as specified) resulted in the ability to stretch the Tu-104's fuselage by 1.21m (3ft 11.5 in); the resulting variant was designated Tu-104B and this version would eventually be capable of accommodating up to 100 passengers.   The Tu-104B entered service in 1959 as the final production development of the Tu-104, and it became the most common used aircraft in Aeroflot's international service network.   Production of the Tu-104 ended in 1960 with over 200 examples built, although the Tu-104 was the subject of a retrospective conversion programme that raised capacity to 100 persons in the Tu-104D (Tu-104B) or alternatively 85 persons in the Tu-104V (Tu-104A).   The only export customer for the Tu-104 was to be CSA of Czechoslovakia, which purchased six variants of the Tu-104A fitted in an 81-seat layout.   Other examples saw service with the Soviet space programme as research or transport aircraft.   However, the Tu-104s of Aeroflot and CSA became a relatively common sight in the West on scheduled flights in the 1960s, although progressively replaced by the Tu-154 during the 1970s.   During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Soviet Union made a great attempt to sell its Black Sea resorts to Western tourists in order to improve foreign exchange relations, and the Tu-104 was the type generally utuilised for these charters, which involved up to five flights a day from Western destinations on summer weekends.   After this service discontinued, the number of Tu-104s remaining in service steadily diminished, and the aircraft were largely used for internal flights, the last example being retired in 1981.   Specifications apply to the Tupolev Tu-104B.   Crew 3; Powerplant: two 95.10kN (21,397 lb) thrust Mikulin AM-M500 turbojet engines; Performance: max speed 950 km/h (590 mph) at 10,000m (32,810 ft); Range with maximum payload 2,650 km (1,647 miles); Service ceiling 11,500 m (37,730 ft).   Dimensions: wingspan 34.54 m (113ft 5in), length 40.05 m (131 ft 4.75 in); height 11.90 m (39ft 0.5 in).   Weight: 76,000 Kg (167,551 lb) maximum take-off weight.   Payload: 100 passengers in a high-density layout.
   (Thanks to "The Encyclopedia of Aircraft" by Robert Jackson).
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