A member of an aviation dynasty that could trace its heritage back to the Tu-16 bomber of the 1950’s, the Tupolev Tu-134 never served as the basis for another aircraft, as other members of the dynasty had.
Yet this wasn’t due to the failure of the Tu-134 itself – it was continuously produced for over 20 years and 854 examples of the type were built in total, including two prototypes – it was due to the economic stagnation of the 1980’s in the USSR and its collapse in 1991.
Background
In 1955, the Soviet Union shocked the world. That year, the Tupolev design bureau unveiled the Tu-104, the Soviet Union’s first jet airliner, thus making it one of only two in the entire world – the other being the de Havilland Comet.
Entering service with Aeroflot the following year, the popularity of the Tu-104 led to it being developed into the Tu-124, which entered service in 1960, also with the Soviet Union’s state-owned airline, Aeroflot.
In September 1959, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev embarked on a tour of the US, meeting American dignitaries and citizens alike. The following March, Khrushchev visited France, once again meeting French dignitaries and citizens, and debating the merits of France’s capitalist system and the USSR’s communist one.
As a part of this East vs West, Communist vs Capitalist debate, the French government decided to show Khrushchev some of the technology France had developed under a healthy capitalist system.
One of these French technologies showed to Khrushchev was a Sud Aviation Caravelle – the first French jet airliner and a rival to the Soviet-made Tu-104 and Tu-124.
The French even offered Khrushchev a flight on the Caravelle, which he accepted. Though made by a system Khrushchev was against, he was impressed at just how quiet the Caravelle’s cabin was, especially compared to the noisy turboprop-powered Tu-114 he’d arrived on. Not to mention the Tu-104 and Tu-124.
Indeed, Khrushchev was so impressed by the Caravelle that when he returned to the Soviet Union in April 1960, he ordered the Tupolev OKB to create what he called the Tu-124A. In essence, a quieter and more advanced variant of the Tu-124.
Development
Operational History
Airline
Current Operations
Military
Training
Research
VIP
Museum
Specifications
| Specifications | Tupolev Tu-134A |
|---|---|
| Length | 37.1 m (121 ft 9 in) |
| Wingspan | 29.01 m (95 ft 2 in) |
| Height | 9.02 m (29 ft 7 in) |
| Crew | 3 – 5 flight crew + 3 – 4 flight attendants |
| Passengers | 72-84 (max. 95) |
| Cruise Speed | 850 km/h (530 mph; 460 kn) |
| Range | 3,000 km (1,900 mi; 1,600 nmi) |
| Service Ceiling | 12,100 m (39,700 ft) |
| MTOW | 47,600 kg (104,940 lb) |
How Safe Was The Tupolev Tu-134?
Legacy
Communism
As with other Tupolev-made airliners of the Soviet era, the Tu-134 was used by dozens of countries within the Soviet sphere of influence – not just by their air force or navy, but by their state-owned airline too.
With all these communist countries using the same aircraft, communist propaganda ministers saw an opportunity to make a pretty obvious, and sentimental, connection: as they all used the same airliners, all communist countries were equal, regardless of size, population or wealth.
To that end, the 1970’s and 1980’s saw communist countries like the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, and Afghanistan issued postage stamps depicting the Tu-134 in flight – usually over a famous landmark in that country.
As a part of a wider propaganda message, the Tu-134 was also featured heavily in TV shows and movies, such as the Soviet Union’s Aeroport so sluzhebnogo vkhoda, Poland’s 777 and Czechoslovakia’s Čekání na Patrika.
It was so famous that even British and French movies and TV shows, such as Dangers dans le ciel, Heathrow Airport – 1940’s to 1970’s and Le fond de l’air est rouge.
Similarly, exploits of the Tu-134 – such as the addition of new routes or high-ranking members of the party traveling on the Tu-134 – were regularly publicized in the state-owned newspapers, radio and TV news.
Future Aircraft
Though it proved one of the most popular Soviet-made airliners of its era and was developed into numerous variants for a wide array of roles, the Tu-134 didn’t serve as the basis for another aircraft as its predecessors had.
Instead, the Tu-134 served as the impetus for a new generation of airliners in Russia.
You see, by the late 1990’s, the Tu-134’s design was well over 40 years – as it could trace its heritage back to the Tu-16 bomber of the early 1950’s – and was lagging behind the rest of the world. They’d moved on, Russia had not.
Wanting to claw back some semblance of Russian aviation superiority (which it had lost following the collapse of the USSR), aircraft engineers at Tupolev began designing the Tu-334, a short-haul, narrow-body airliner based on the Tu-204.
Though it initially seemed promising, the Tu-334 ultimately failed due to funding issues and an inability to meet target dates effectively, resulting in the project’s cancellation after only two examples were built.
But Russia were not done. Just as they were cancelling the Tu-334, Tupolev’s sister company, Sukhoi, was sitting down to develop the Sukhoi Superjet 100, which was not only larger, but also more economical and easier to maintain than the Tu-334.
Whilst it had its issues during development, it was introduced in April 2011 and has made quick work of replacing the Tu-134 with almost every airline!
What do you think about the Tupolev Tu-134? Have you ever flown it? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Dmitry Terekhov via Flickr.