In a jointly funded activity by NASA's High Speed Research (HSR) program and the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group to obtain experimental flight data on the Tu-144 supersonic transport built by Russia, the Tu-144 was modified by the Tupolev Aircraft Design Bureau in 1995-1996 into the Tu-144LL Flying Laboratory to perform flight experiments as part of NASA's HSR Program. Knowledge gained from the flights will benefit NASA's efforts to develop the technology that may enable design of an efficient, environmentally friendly second-generation supersonic transport in this country.

This program involved eight experiments-six aboard the aircraft and two ground test engine experiments. Between November 1996 and February 1998 the Tu-144LL flew 19 research flights. The follow-on Tu-144LL program encompassed about eight flights, focusing on extensions of five experiments from the first project and two new experiments to measure fuel system temperatures and to define in-flight wing deflections.

TU-144LL Project Home Page

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