In terms of network architecture, modern transportation is a wheel and spoke, not a network. Over the past couple of years, the development of airport technology and infrastructure has changed the economy of flights so that it became possible not to bring passengers to large hubs, but to carry them directly between small and medium airports. Tu-134 did something similar back in the 70s in the USSR. The short-haul aircraft linked small airfields directly.
This is the most recognizable "carcass", since more than 850 units were produced with all modifications, mainly for the countries of the socialist camp. After the end of testing in 1964, the aircraft is still in operation. I would like to tell you about why it is so beautiful from an engineering point of view, and show you photographs of a conventionally civil aircraft of the Cosmos airline.
Tu-134A-3 of the airline "Cosmos"
Background
The first Soviet jet passenger aircraft was the Tu-104, which made its first flight in 1955 and since 1956 has already performed regular flights. In parallel, Sud Aviation developed the SE210 Caravelle in France. The first flight of the "Caravel" also took place in 1955, and the first flight with passengers - in 1959. A distinctive feature of this aircraft was the unusual arrangement of the engines - on the sides of the tail section of the fuselage on pylons.
Picture from Wikipedia, what the Caravel III looks like
In 1955, the president of the South-Eastern French Society for the Construction of Aircraft J. Herail proposed to conclude a contract with the USSR for the supply of Caravels. Although at this time the USSR was already preparing for the serial production of the Tu-104, the "Caravel" was more perfect in terms of equipment, comfort and efficiency. And its purchase made it possible to adopt the advanced technologies of the West, especially if it was possible to observe the production, assembly and testing.
Correspondence on this topic was conducted until 1961, but the deal never took place. But the story did not end there.
In January 1960, N.S. Khrushchev paid a state visit to France, and there he was rode a Caravel. The head of the Soviet Union was impressed by the low level of noise and vibration in the cabin, since in a similar Soviet aircraft Tu-104 the engines were located in the wing near the fuselage and the vibration from them was felt in the cabin more than from the engines on separate pylons in the tail of the Caravel. When he returned, he met with Tupolev and gave instructions to start work on a similar aircraft.
Just at this time, the Tupolev Design Bureau was finalizing the short-haul Tu-124, similar to the smaller Tu-104. It was one of the first passenger aircraft in the world to be powered by turbojet bypass engines. The Tu-124 made its first flight in March 1960 (it began operating in 1962). And the decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 846-341, instructing OKB-156 to create a new BMS similar to the Caravel, was issued on August 1 of the same year. To simplify the task, the Design Bureau decided to make a new aircraft based on the Tu-124. That is, the Tu-124 is outdated before it went into production.
The new aircraft received the designation Tu-124A. The fuselage with the glazed navigational cockpit was almost entirely taken from the Tu-124. The engines were placed as on the "Caravel", but the tail unit was made T-shaped, not cruciform.
This is how the tail unit and engines look on the Tu-134.
Why move engines to the tail
This arrangement of engines had many advantages:
- Aerodynamically clean wing. This allowed for the maximum use of the wingspan for flap placement, increasing the aerodynamic quality of the wing.
- Improved lateral stability and handling characteristics. They were achieved due to the fact that the wing could be placed at the desired angle of the transverse V.
- With this arrangement, the engine nacelles and their pylons worked as an additional horizontal tail.
- The efficiency of the horizontal empennage increased, as it turned out to be carried out of the flow slope behind the wing.
- The efficiency of the vertical tail is also increased due to the installation of the horizontal tail at the top.
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USSR-45075
The main units of the first prototype were manufactured at the Kharkov aircraft plant No. 135, where the Tu-124 was serially produced. The final assembly of the aircraft with serial number 00-00 took place at the Moscow machine-building plant number 156. The aircraft received registration number USSR-45075. The first two digits of the number indicated the type of aircraft, where 45 corresponded to the Tu-124, although on February 20, 1963, by order of the OKB, the Tu-124A was renamed Tu-134.
The first flight of a prototype Tu-134 took place on July 29, 1963 in Zhukovsky. The crew commander was the Hero of the Soviet Union, honored test pilot A.D. Kalina, co-pilot - honored test pilot E.A. Goryunov.
The passenger capacity of the first sample was up to 56 people with a crew of 4-5 people.
Factory tests ended on November 6, 1964. In 225 flights, the first prototype flew 274 hours.
USSR-45076 The
second prototype No. 00-01 USSR-45076 was assembled in the summer of 1964. It was longer, heavier, with additional fuel tanks and a passenger capacity of up to 64 people.
An automatic control system BSU-ZP was already installed here, which provided an automatic landing approach according to the meteorological minimum of ICAO category I.
The first flight of the USSR-45076 took place on September 9, 1964. Factory tests were carried out from February 20 to April 7, 1965 (36 flights, 60 hours), and in June of the same year, this board was already presented at the Le Bourget International Air Show. Immediately after the salon, USSR-45076 flew to Berlin, Warsaw and Prague to receive orders from foreign airlines.
In July 1965, the factory tests of the USSR-45076 were completed, and the board was transferred to the Air Force Research Institute for testing. During tests on January 14, 1966, the plane crashed due to a gross violation of flight rules. At speeds above 0.84 M, the Tu-134 showed a rollback response to rudder deflection, which was not familiar to the pilot who conducted the tests. Having brought the aircraft to a maximum speed of 0.86 M and deflecting the rudder to a maximum angle of 25 degrees, the pilot created a strong roll in an unusual direction, which turned into a slip on the wing and a dive. The small area of the elevators did not allow the aircraft to be taken out of the dive. After this incident, an operational speed limit of 0.82 M. was established. And a spring mechanism was installed on the aircraft, limiting the deviation of the rudder in cruise flight to 5 degrees.
Serial samples
Serial production of the Tu-134 began in 1966.
On July 21, 1966, the Tu-134 USSR-65602 took off - the first copy with new D-30 engines and a take-off weight of 44 tons.There is no typo in the number, it really started with the USSR-65 ***, this is already Tu-134 from Kharkov assembly. The previous two aircraft USSR-65600 and USSR-65601 flew around in August 1965, but they still had old D-20P-125 engines.
By October, the USSR-65602 was finalized, increasing the area of the stabilizer by 30%. This decision was made after the crash of the British BAC 1-11. The cause of the catastrophe was the peculiarity of the scheme with engines in the rear and horizontal tail from above - at high angles of attack, the stabilizer fell into the wake stream from the wing, and after leaving it, it fell into the wake stream from the nacelles. After this incident, all firms that made aircraft of such a scheme began to increase the horizontal tail.
Since 1977, the automatic landing approach system ABSU-134 appeared on production copies, which made it possible to land at the meteorological minimum of the II category of ICAO.
All serial copies were built at the Kharkov plant number 135. Serial production continued until September 1984. The last regular flight Tu-134 made on May 21, 2019. Now the plane continues to be used, but for official purposes.
Crew
The crew at work.
The aircraft crew consists of four people:
- Aircraft commander. Sits in the cockpit to the left of the flight.
- The co-pilot sits on the right.
- For the navigator, a workplace is equipped in the nose of the aircraft. The nose of the Tu-134A is transparent for the navigator to provide visual orientation in flight.
- Flight mechanic - located in the aisle between the pilot's seats.
In the cockpit there is an additional workplace for the radio operator (pilot) - in the aisle between the navigator and the pilots.
Navigator's workplace.
During the flight, passengers are served by two flight attendants. Seats for them are located in the crew lobby, front lobby and at the end of the passenger cabin.
Cabin
Better to see once than read a hundred times.
Placement of elements of control systems of the first pilot. On the left is a scan of the book “Tu-134 aircraft. Design and operation »
Dashboard of the first pilot. On the left is a scan of the book “Tu-134 aircraft. Construction and Operation ".
Medium dashboard. On the left is a scan of the book “Tu-134 aircraft. Construction and Operation ".
Upper cockpit electrical panel. On the left is a scan of the book “Tu-134 aircraft. Construction and Operation ".
Dashboard of the co-pilot. On the left is a scan of the book “Tu-134 aircraft. Construction and Operation ".
Rescue equipment
Emergency exits
Here is what the aircraft was equipped with in case of an accident:
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In the process of serial production, several modifications appeared:
Tu-134K
K means comfort. The government of the USSR flew on it. And not only. For example, the governments of Hungary and Iraq flew on export Tu-134Ks.
Tu-134A
Tu-134 variant with an elongated fuselage, increased passenger capacity and an extended front luggage compartment. The crew was reduced by one person - the radio operator was removed, and the pilots were responsible for radio communications. The rescue equipment added rescue ropes at the emergency hatches and the vents of the pilot's lantern.
The Tu-134A, produced before the end of March 1978, had a landing flap under the fuselage, which made it possible to approach with a glide path of up to 9 degrees. With the advent of automatic approach systems, the flap was no longer needed, since the automatic glide path has an angle of 3 degrees.
The Tu-134A had its own modifications:
• Tu-134AK
The main difference from the Tu-134A is an additional entrance door with a folding gangway in front of the left engine. Ahead of the plane was a pair of cabins "for the main passenger", in the tail - common cabins. The radio operator's workplace was returned to the pilot's cabin.
The same additional door with a folding gangway.
A salon for very important passengers.
• Tu-134A-1 with "Groza-M134" radar instead of the navigator's cabin
Produced for export only. This Tu-134A flew with a crew of three. The co-pilot performed the functions of the navigator. The Soviet pilots were in no hurry to abandon the navigator, and even the four of them continued to fly on the returned planes with the "Groza".
• Tu-134A-2
It was equipped with more efficient engines D-30-II (second series) with reverse, which made it possible to abandon the braking parachute. An auxiliary power unit TA-8, developed specifically for this aircraft, was installed in the vacant space.
• Tu-134A-3 with D-30-III engines
• Tu-134B
Here, the Groza-M134 weather radar was already standard equipment. The cockpit was also improved. The Tu-134B also had modifications:
- Tu-134B-1 increased capacity,
- Tu-134B-3 with D-30-III engines.
Non-passenger modifications
In addition to passenger modifications , specialized versions of the Tu-134 were also created, such as:
- agricultural Tu-134SKh,
- transport and sanitary Tu-134TS,
- training-navigator Tu-134Sh,
- Tu-134UBL (training similar to Tu-134B for training pilots)
- and many more modifications for various tasks.
Tu-134UBL, Vicky.
More interesting
- The first prototype Tu-134 USSR-45075 in 1968 became an exhibit at VDNKh, and in 1977 it was installed in the courtyard of the Moscow vocational school number 164. And stood there until 2013 (sawn in 2013).
- Soviet aircraft since the creation of the Tu-124A did not yet have reversible engines, so the Tu-124A had a braking parachute.
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Sources : Tu-134 aircraft. Construction and operation. V.A. Borodenko, L.V. Kolomiets. Aviation and Time magazine 2.2010. Wings of the Motherland magazine 11.1997. Part of the photos without my signatures, part Milfgard...