Saturday, June 15, 2019

Plane spotters spot a Concordsky

case in point: this clip about Russian plane spotters and aviation fans booking a flight around Moscow on the noisiest plane (Tu-134) that otherwise has genius features. So noisy it got banned at Euro airports.
They also landed at an airport housing a Soviet Tu-144, a Concorde equivalent that was also banned. The planes had the most powerful engines, which cannot be retrofitted, replaced, etc. and preclude all the chances of reinstating the planes that are otherwise the smartest and most innovative in a narrow-minded way. The point: the USSR was so bent on proving its intellect that they did not see far enough into the future, no strategic thinking, no multipurpose features, no parts interchangeable with anything else, no more parts available, all tailor made, one-time, one-model design.