Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Yossarian
it was due to a rapid evasion maneuver to avoid the French fighter plane photographing it.

Huh?

8 posted on 10/02/2006 11:58:57 PM PDT by leadpenny
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]


To: leadpenny
The Soviets stole the plans for the Concorde in the 60's from the French, and thus were able to come out with a copy, the Tu-144, (nicknamed the "Concordeski) just barely ahead of the real Concorde. It was almost the same, just a bit bigger, a bit faster, and it had some interesting canards at the front of the plane.

When the 1973 Paris Airshow came around, the Communists of course had to show off their latest theft, er, "achievement". So they sent a Tu-144 to do a demonstration. The French, though, wanted a closer look at the one major change to their design done by the Soviets - those canards. So they assigned a Mirage jet the job of getting good photographs of the canards in action.

During the demonstration flight, the fighter jet got too close. The Concordski pilot had to take an emergency evasive action to avoid hitting it - and indeed, no collision occurred. However, all 4 engines stalled. To restart them, the pilot put the plane into a dive - apparently the jet engines had some kind of airstart propeller system installed.

Apparently, this worked as well - great piloting at work. The only problem was that by the time he got a restart, he was too low - after all, this was a flight to demonstrate the plane to people on the ground. When rapidly pulling out of the steep dive, the plane broke up, killing all aboard, as well as people in a village next to the airport.

At the time of the crash none of this was known - everyone thought it was just a case that the Concordeski was crap. The full story only came out years later. It was another case of French perfidy in action - even if it was to the detriment of Soviet a-holes.

13 posted on 10/03/2006 12:30:57 AM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

To: leadpenny
Oh, yeah, besides what I said in my previous post, you can actually see the video of the Concordski crash online, at this site.
17 posted on 10/03/2006 12:35:41 AM PDT by Yossarian (Everyday, somewhere on the globe, somebody is pushing the frontier of stupidity.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson