The pride and joy of Soviet commercial aviation, the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic airliner, took off on its commercial flight on this day, 44 years ago, on December 26, 1975, beating Concorde by a few weeks time. Seemingly, that was the only highlight of its flying career.
The Russian answer to the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 families, the Irkut MC-21, took another step forward in flight tests as a fourth airframe completed its first flight test, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) announced.
