Flying the Wodka Burner

[bernd1151]

The Tupolev Tu 114 was built, when the Americans had already entered the jet age. Its maiden flight was in 1961, but Nikita S. Khrushchov had used her already in 1959 for a state visit to Washington. That visit caused the Americans a bit of an embarrassment, because their passenger steps were all too short for the extra tall landing gear and it took them some 30 very long minutes before the Russian prime minister was finally allowed to leave his plane via the Tupolev’s own emergency escape ladder.

Although the plane was a late starter, it was nothing short of being quite remarkable:

Built for 140 to 220 passengers, depending on the plane’s configuration, the most powerful turboprops ever produced drove each two huge contra-rotating four-bladed reversible pitch propellers. They enabled a cruising speed of 430 knots at FL360 (B 707-300: 525 knots), a maximum speed of 520 knots and an operational range of 8,000 km or 4,320 nm with a payload of 15,500 kg or 34,170 lbs. Its max payload was 30,000 kg or 68,340 lbs. The plane’s length was 54 m or 177 ft and its wingspan 51 m or 168 ft (B 707-300: length was 46 m or 152 ft and wingspan was 44 m and 146 ft)

Between 1959 and 1965 a total of just 32 planes were built, but they all remained in Aeroflot service until 1976 (except one that crashed in Moscow hitting with one wing a large snow mound on one side of the runway). During some 50,000 flights on domestic and international routes they carried around 6 mill passengers.

The fuselage, props and engines are still in use today on Russians long distance bombers Tu 95 Bear (which was developed slightly before the Tu 114).

And Khrushchov by the way had used her only once. He had seen the B 707, when in the US. For him the trusted old, brand new Tupolev was an embarrassment. It was and still is the fastest propeller driven passenger plane, almost as fast as modern jet aircraft. But it didn’t matter, for Khrushchov it lacked jet engines.

I first saw the plane on one of my business trips to Russia, on display outside Moscow’s-Sheremet’yevo airport. It was majestic! In the late 1990 it was decided to dismantle the plane. It was gone, very sad!

The Tu 114 was developed for FS9 as freeware and is a joy to fly, although due to its size maneuvering needs careful planning ahead. Nuff said, let’s take the plane to the air on a short flight from Vancouver to Comox. Once airborne, we take out the Wodka bottles and I give you a tour of the plane.

With some 81,500 kg take-off weight when fully loaded, the Tupolev needs quite some real estate, before it gets off the ground

Here one can see, how long the plane is

Misty skies

The gauges are of course in Russian

Let’s tour the plane a lil‘ bit

We start in the rear in cattle class, where one has difficulties to see the door to the flight deck

If your Russian isn’t too rusty, I recommend to read the Prawda from 1959, highlighting the plane’s flight with Nikita S. Khrushchov on board to Washington (AAFB)

Higher ranking party officials had a couple of meeting rooms on this plane (which has the actual Khrushchov plane configuration)

And in case one needed some rest, bunk beds, pulled down from the ceiling, were available in each of these private rooms

Other executives could sit forward of the meeting rooms

Right behind the flight deck there was some more room for journalists or lesser officials

The flight deck sat four, plus a radio operator in the nose of the plane

On final to Commox

The best spot on the plane to watch your landings is in the nose section

Almost there

When parked between a Canadair and P3 Orion, one can see how long that plane was (and how high it rested on its landing gear)

I hope I did not bore you too much with my little Russian excursion.

[Iain Emms]

No mate i enjoyed reading about this plane and like the shots as well.

cheers

Iain

[Wolter van der Spoel]

для вашего здоровья

prosit !

[bernd1151]

haha my dear Wolter, spasiba bolschoi!!

[Markon]

Great screen shots and really enjoyed reading the info about this unusual flying machine

[tuisong]

What an interesting post. Thanks for posting it and the nice shots. I think the third to last must be the best seat in the house.

[hughp]

Yeah the radio operators post is the one to be at! And cattle class actually looks almost comfortably roomy to me...

What a great post, really enjoyed these shots and commentary on a fascinating aircraft. I used to have it back in FS9 but never tried it in FSX. Time to brush up my Russian!

[bernd1151]

Thanky you for your comments, gents, the plane surely deserves a bit of historical publicity. And cattle class in this plane is for sure better than what we are used to nowadays

On long haul flights, even within Russia, seating capacity was reduced from 220 to 140, as Aeroflot thought it would be more comfortable for the passengers. What a strange way to ensure that your pax are happy with you, don't you think so :

Ken, you can get the FSX version of the plane here:

http://www.surclaro....tail-19158.html

For your first touch and go flights you might want to choose an airport with a loooong runway. I tried my luck first at Edwards Airforce Base. And make sure that you have checked the take off weight, because for some strange reasons the plane comes with a higher than allowed load. Unfortunately you can only change the amount of fuel onboard, so no non-stop flight from Wladivostok to Cuba this time

[alan2]

One of those exotic creations that mystified me as a kid . Good post .

[bernd1151]

Thanks Alan, I appreciate it. I think it was in 2006 or 2007 in the good old FS9 VOZ days, when Qantas was about to be sold to some financial institutions (which at the end luckily did not happen). At that time I came up with the idea in a post here that three renegade Qantas pilots would venture into Russia, acquire and then fly an old dilapidated Tu 144 (they called it the Concordsky) over the Himalayas, India and Indonesia into Sydney to have it rebuilt by Qantas technicians, so that it could proudly fly under the Qantas flag. The reason behind my little story (which was quite lengthy actually) at that time was that an airline that would allow its chief pilots to go on such a mission and even worse: to spend company funds to buy such a plane, would be unfit to survive any serious takeover discussions. Mission accomplished :