Aircraft TU-134: specifications

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

One of the legendary Soviet aircraft took off in 1963.

Creating an airplane

The beginning of the sixties was characterized by a change in the generations of aviation technology. The transition from piston passenger aircraft to jet aircraft required the creation of new machines that expand the possibilities of air communication. In addition, increased mobility of the population and the development of the economy created a high demand for air transport services.

The most demanded directions were those already mastered by piston aviation, related by the modern classification to short-haul ones. It was this niche that the TU-134 jet passenger plane had to occupy.

General layout

The project was developed at the Tupolev design bureau based on previously implemented models. Rich experience in the design of large military, transportand civil aircraft ensured the successful application of design and engineering solutions. The work used the backlog of previously designed machines. They brought technical characteristics to the TU-134 aircraft, which ensured many years of successful service.

At the same time, the aircraft proved to be innovative in many respects. The capacity of the car ranged from sixty to eighty people, depending on the layout. Class-separated cars used on international lines had fewer passengers.

For domestic destinations, salons without passenger classes were designed, the capacity of which was eighty people. Depending on the modifications, the weight of the TU-134 aircraft varied somewhat in the range of forty-seven to forty-nine tons.

Engines

Two domestically developed turbojet engines were placed in the tail area. This position of the nacelles ideally corresponded to the need to start from unpaved and poorly equipped airfields, preventing foreign objects from getting inside the engines. The thrust of each engine reached seven tons, which made it possible to launch from short runways.

In the future, the engines were improved and replaced during the overhaul. The cruising speed of the TU-134 aircraft reached eight hundred and fifty kilometers per hour on the engines of the first version. With the installation of modified power units, it has increased by forty kilometers per hour.

A peculiar soundengine TU-134, close in sound to the growing whistle, contributed to the high recognition of the popular aircraft. The overall noise level produced by the engines during launch and climb was very high. This circumstance has led to problems with the operation of aircraft at foreign airports after the tightening of acoustic pollution regulations.

Development of the model

The car was very successful. The TU-134 aircraft showed the highest modernization potential and reliability. Operational flight characteristics also made an impression. The restrictions imposed on the TU-134 aircraft in terms of side and head wind during takeoff and landing turned out to be one of the most insignificant for aircraft of this class. This property of the machine made it possible to significantly improve the regularity of flights.

The big drawback of the first TU-134 models was the lack of engine thrust reverser, which significantly increased the stopping distance of the car. To compensate for the deficiency, braking parachutes and an aerodynamic brake were used. The development of the machine made it possible to eliminate features that had passed from the initial stages of the development of jet aviation.

Aviation export leader

TU-134 turned out to be a very popular aircraft not only on the routes of the Soviet Union, but also in foreign countries. Almost from the very beginning of production, he began to fly to foreign airports. The participation of the TU-134 in the 1969 international aviation exhibition in La Bourget also contributed to the expansion of awareness of the car. The aircraft demonstrated not onlythe level of development of the Soviet aircraft industry, but also a modern approach to the creation of a civil air fleet.

In addition to the states of the Soviet bloc, the machine was operated in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In many cases, the aircraft were part of the air forces of the importing states. After the collapse of the USSR, the car continued to serve the air transportation of the CIS countries.

Aviation long-liver

The first cars entered the airlines in 1966. The plane has been in the air ever since. Now this car has remained only with private carriers serving charter flights. But even before 2007, it was part of the staff of the airlines of Russia and the CIS, making regular passenger flights. Thus, the machine was used for its intended purpose for more than forty years.

In addition to carrying passengers on regular lines, modifications were made to serve high-level government officials. These boards were equipped with additional elements of increased comfort and safety. Special government communications systems were installed on them.

There were also military modifications of the TU-134 aircraft, intended for training pilots and navigators of military aviation. One of the versions, equipped with a characteristic nose cone, served for the training of long-range bomber pilots.

During the history of production, which lasted more than twenty years, almost nine hundred copies of machines of various modifications were produced. According to this indicator, the aircraft TU-134refers to the most massive samples of Soviet passenger aircraft.

Decommissioning

In addition to the technical and moral obsolescence of the machine, the increased noise level of the power plant played a big role in stopping its use. The new ICAO standards put an end to many international routes served by the TU-134 aircraft. The remaining areas could not ensure break-even operation of the model and competitiveness with more modern aircraft of foreign and domestic manufacturers.

Although the aircraft was produced until 1987, it was no longer used on regular airlines in 2008, replacing it with aircraft of other brands. Today, the withdrawal of machines of this model from other air transportation structures continues. However, time takes its toll, and the youngest aircraft of this brand is already over twenty-five years old. More than a hundred aircraft still remain in the airlines, but the end of the glorious history of the firstborn of Soviet passenger aviation is just around the corner.

Accidents and Incidents

The long years that the TU-134 spent in the air were not without accidents. But the plane continued to be considered a reliable and safe machine. The accidents of the TU-134 aircraft were rarely associated with the design of the machine itself, its components and assemblies.

The main part of the tragedies was the result of a combination of circumstances or a human factor. The aircraft was operated in conditions in which the required level of flight safety was not always observed not only in the USSR, but also indeveloping countries. The instrumentation of the machine met the standards of the era in which it was created, and required high qualification and responsibility of the crew and ground services.

For all the years of operation of the TU-134, for reasons not related to military operations, more than sixty-five aircraft were lost, in which up to one and a half thousand people died.