Thomas Ruth Tu-144 v2

The Tupolev Tu-144 (also known as �Concordski�) was the world's first supersonic transport aircraft (SST). A prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two months before Concorde. Although the Tu-144 looks a lot like Concorde, there were significant differences in the control, navigation and engine systems. Also, it provided seating for 126 passengers, the Concorde's for 100 passengers. It had also a higher cruising speed of Mach 2.285 versus Concorde's Mach 2.02. However, the Tu-144 needed continuous afterburning on cruising speed, consuming much more fuel than Concorde. This problem was taken care of with the Tu-144S and Tu-144D. The Tu-144 was one of the last commercial airplanes with a braking parachute, which was required due to poor braking performance. The Tu-144 was not very successful due to the high operating cost and after the second crash on 23 May, 1978, the one and only supersonic passenger service (Moscow - Alma Ata) ceased to exist. Several Tu-144s were donated to museums in Moscow Monino, Samara and Ulyanovsk, and at least four Tu-144s remained in open storage in Moscow Zhukovsky. One Tu-144 is on display at the Auto & Technikmuseum Sinsheim in Germany, where it now stands, in its original Aeroflot livery, on display next to an Air France Concorde.

The only Tu-144 for FS2004 is developed by Thomas Ruth and Claudio Mussner. The package contains 4 different models (Standard, improved, NASA version and a never completed
modernized version), liveries, panel, virtual cockpit, sounds and manuals. The exterior looks great and there are many customized XML animations like vortices, condensation, braking parachute and smoke effects. Many cockpit systems are simulated including realistic sounds. The 2d panel is equipped with INS, autoland and many other features. There are also many animations on the 2d panel, like moving yoke, rudder pedals, cooling fan, nose/visor and window wipers (which can be turned on manually, but will automatically start moving when it's raining).

The virtual cockpit is a bit simple, many low resolution textures are used, so it looks a bit blurry. Most of the buttons and knobs are clickable. The animations mentioned on the 2d panel are also visible in the virtual cockpit. All 4 models have their own load editor which is located in the aircraft folders.

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