Not to be outdone by their aviation rivals in the west, the Soviet Union built and briefly flew its own supersonic commercial jet, the Tupolev Tu-144. Sixteen were built and a handful remain. Only one ...

There is ample evidence of Soviet industrial espionage in the 1960s and 1970s, with the KGB specifically targeting the Anglo-French Concorde program. Networks of informants, typically mid-level ...

But you may not know the Soviets had their own version of the Concorde called the Tupolev-144. It was nicknamed the “Communist Concordski,” and it actually flew before the Anglo-French Concorde. But ...

When the first Tupolev Tu-144 thundered its way into aeronautical history 50 years ago, lifting off from Zhukovksy airfield on the last day of 1968, much of the supersonic programme remained cloaked ...