With its giant delta wings drooping toward the ground, the Tupolev Tu-144LL is towed down a taxiway at the Zhukovsky Air Development Center near Moscow, Russia, in preparation for a high-speed research flight in 1998.
EC98-44749-15
With its giant delta wings drooping toward the ground, the Tupolev Tu-144LL is towed down a taxiway at the Zhukovsky Air Development Center near Moscow, Russia, in preparation for a high-speed research flight in 1998. Two NASA research pilots – Robert Rivers of NASA Langley and Gordon Fullerton of NASA Dryden – assessed the Tu-144LL’s handling qualities at subsonic and supersonic speeds during the first three flights in September, 1998. The follow-on series concluded after four data-collection flights in the spring of 1999.September 1998NASA Photo / Jim Ross› TU-144LL Project Description