Sources:Soviet X-Planes by Yefim Gordon and Bill Gunston (2000)Aircraft of the Soviet Union by Bill Gunston (1983)http://www.airvectors.net/avbison.htmlhttp://www.testpilot.ru/russia/myasishchev/m/50/m50_e.htmhttp://www.testpilot.ru/russia/myasishchev/m/52/m52.htm
Flight Of The ConcordskiRFE By Tony WesolowskyIts maiden flight lasted for a little over half an hour and failed to reach the Mach speed it was engineered for. But when the Tupolev Tu-144 successfully took to the air on December 31, 1968, it gave the Soviet Union bragging rights as the first to put a supersonic airliner into flight, beating its Western competitor by two months.The sky appeared to be limit for the Concordski, the moniker given to the Soviet world-beater in a nod to its similarities to its luxurious rival, the Concorde.In a costly Cold War battle for technological supremacy that played out alongside the space race, the Tu-144 bested its British-French rival again in June 1969, when it reached supersonic speeds.The two aircraft were similar in appearance. Each featured a variant of the delta wing, and a downward sloping needle nose that drew comparisons to a swan’s neck. The most striking visual difference was the pair of canards, or winglets, behind the cockpit of the Soviet aircraft. Under their heat-resistant skins, designed to withstand airspeeds above Mach 2, the differences were more evident.The Tupolev was slightly longer (65.7 meters vs. 61.7) and heavier and, once a suitable and more powerful engine configuration was settled upon, could reach a higher maximum speed. The Concorde boasted more advanced engine and braking systems, and state-of-the-art air-intake and wing-shaping systems that were controlled by computer.