The Tu-144: The Soviet Union's Concorde

Future Mega Projects: Simon and all of his YouTube Channels.

You forgot to mention that you can visit both the Tupolev and the Concorde in the Technik-Museum in Sinsheim, Southern Germany. They had to tow the Tupolev there all the way from Russia.

When I was stationed in Berlin in 1971, I worked not too far from the East Berlin airport, Schoenefeld. It was about 1.5 miles away across the Wall. We had an obsolete tower with a steel mesh pad on top that stood about 100' tall on site. We heard about the Russian SST flying into Berlin on the way to the Paris Air Show, so we kept an eye out for it. Lo and behold, it turned up one day, and we got a really good look at it through our binoculars. It was a very pretty plane, even though we never saw it in the air. A very large helicopter, the Homer by NATO reporting name, was there, too. Just a bit of fun from the good old days.

Suggestion: American and Soviet spaceshuttles.

Similar to this, the US space shuttle and the Soviet Buran would be an interesting topic!

Next one: AN-225 "Mriya" How big plane do you need? YES.

i can imagine some British guy in his shed laughing thinking "we sent them all the wrong parts"

Thinking of these 2 planes, reminded me of the story of the Tortus and the Hare. The Concord was designed and built as a super-fast commercial passenger plane. The TU was designed to beat the concord for speed, and from the sounds of it, thinks like reliability, safety, passenger comfort, etc (everything that made the concord work for its brief life) were left out in order to win the speed race, and it shows.

US vs Russian cold war tech races are endlessly entertaining

"Extraordinarily successful failure" What a great way to describe that. Thanks Simon, and everyone who helped produce this. Love your work.

To be more specific, the cabin noise onboard the Tu-144 was quiet enough that you could just about talk to the person sitting right next to you. But it was also loud enough that if you were sat two seats apart, then you'd need to pass letter or use sign language.

Really enjoying this new channel/format. The laid-back business-blaze is where I go for some levity and this is just a great addition to my queue for the weekend of learning and information download (along with the rest of Simon's channels)

The Tu144 really is 2 planes. The prototype had so many issues the main production was pretty much a ground up redesign. Also interesting of note that Tupolev actually was against the aircraft as it was sucking up pretty much most of the Soviet aviation funds, funds that were desperately needed elsewhere!

Imagine telling your boss, "Yes, I know the program I designed was a huge failure, but you can't deny that it was the most successful failure though."

In Soviet Russia, sound barrier breaks you!

This is one of the best youtube channels i ever seen, and i'm here since the beginning. Thanks for this Simon, you are really a TEACHER.

I'd love to see one for the US space shuttle program vs USSR Buran! Great vid as always

Simon, maybe you could do a video on the first commercial aircraft to break the sound barrier? It wasn't the Concord or the Tu-144. It was in 1961 when a Douglas DC-8 was pushed to its limits. A man named Magruder took his DC-8 up to 52,000 feet and put it in a dive. At 45,000 feet it broke the sound barrier for some 16 seconds. The plane was escorted by Chuck Yaeger in an F-104.

I think the comparison videos are marvelous! Keep it up Simon, great work!!

I have listened to dozens of subjects across several of your channels and you just don’t screw up! Very impressive, young man!