was not sanctioned until 16 July 1963. Yegoryevsk crash On 23 May 1978, the Tu-144 supersonic passenger jet was to make a test flight before delivery to Aeroflot. At an altitude of 3,000 m, a fire started at the APU located in the port wing. A turn was made to return to the airport and both engines located in the right wing (engines no. 3 and 4) were shut down and the aircraft began to lose altitude. Fire trailed the aircraft and the cockpit filled with smoke. Subsequently, the no. 1 (outer left) engine failed. Six minutes after the fire started, the crew managed to belly-land the aircraft in a field near Yegoryevsk. On impact, the nose cone collapsed under the fuselage, penetrating the compartment in which two flight engineers were seated, killing both. It was later determined that, 27 minutes prior to the ignition, a fuel line had ruptured, causing eight tons of fuel to leak into several compartments on the right wing. The fuel readings were judged incorrect by the flight engineers and thus were not reported to the commander. In addition to the two flight engineers killed on impact, six other crewmembers were injured. Specifications (Tu-144D) See also References Notes Citations Bibliography Bliznyuk, Valentin et al. Reality of supersonic passenger airplanes (in Russian: Близнюк В., Васильев Л., Вуль В. и др., Правда о сверхзвуковых пассажирских самолетах). Moscow: testpilot.ru, 2000. . Calvert, Brian. Flying Concorde: The Full Story. London: Airlife, 2002. . Gordon, Yefim. Tupolev Tu-144. Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK: Midland, 2006. . Gordon, Yefim and Vladimir, Rigmant. Tupolev Tu-144. Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK: Midland, 2005. . Gordon Yefim, Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack: The Russian Answer to the B-1 (Red Star 9). Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK: Midland Publishing, 2003. . Kandalov, Andrei and Paul Duffy. Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft.. Warrendale, Pennsylvania: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1996. . Melik-Karamov, Vitaly. "Life and Death of the Tu-144", (in Russian: Виталий Мелик-Карамов, "Жизнь и смерть самолёта Ту-144"). Огонёк (Flame), No. 3, январь (January) 2000. Moon, Howard. Soviet SST: The Technopolitics of the Tupolev-144. London: Orion Books, 1989. . Wright, Peter and Paul Greengrass. Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer. London: Viking, 1987. . Wynne, Greville. The Man from Odessa. Dublin: Warnock Books, 1983. . Taylor, John W.R. Jane's Pocket Book of Commercial Transport Aircraft New York: Macmillan, 1974. . External links TU-144 SST fan site NASA video clip Tu-0144 1960s