Cruising speed tu 154 m. Russian aviation
Over the Black Sea, became the 73rd liner of this family, lost as a result of aviation accidents. The total number of deaths in such accidents over 44 years has reached 3,263 people. Portal Yuga.ru looked into the history of the operation of the aircraft and remembered the largest disasters with his participation.
Tu-154 is a passenger aircraft developed in the 1960s in the USSR at the Tupolev Design Bureau. It was intended for the needs of medium-haul airlines and for a long time was the most massive Soviet jet passenger aircraft.
The first flight was carried out on October 3, 1968. Tu-154 was mass-produced from 1970 to 1998. From 1998 to 2013, small-scale production of the Tu-154M modification was carried out at the Aviakor plant in Samara. A total of 1026 machines were manufactured. Until the end of the 2000s, it was one of the most common aircraft on medium-range routes in Russia.
The aircraft with tail number RA-85572, which crashed on December 25, 2016 over the Black Sea, was manufactured in 1983 and belonged to the Tu-154B-2 modification. This modification was produced from 1978 to 1986: an economy class cabin designed for 180 passengers, an improved automatic on-board control system. In 1983, the RA-85572 board was transferred to the USSR Air Force.
According to some Tu-154 pilots, the aircraft is unnecessarily complicated for a mass passenger airliner and requires highly qualified both flight and ground personnel.
At the end of the 20th century, the aircraft, designed in the 1960s, became obsolete, and airlines began to replace it with modern analogues - the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320.
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In 2002, the EU countries, due to inconsistencies in the level of permissible noise, banned the flights of Tu-154s that were not equipped with special noise-absorbing panels. And since 2006, all Tu-154 flights (except for the Tu-154M modification) in the EU have been completely banned. Aircraft of this type at that time were operated mainly in the CIS countries.
In the mid-2000s, the aircraft began to be gradually taken out of service. The main reason is the low fuel efficiency of the engines. Since the aircraft was designed in the 1960s, the developers did not face the issue of engine efficiency. The economic crisis of 2008 also contributed to the acceleration of the process of decommissioning the aircraft. In 2008, the entire Tu-154 fleet was withdrawn by S7, the following year Rossiya and Aeroflot did so. In 2011, the operation of the Tu-154 was stopped " Ural Airlines". In 2013, liners of this type were withdrawn from the air fleet by UTair, the largest Tu-154 operator at that time.
In October 2016, the last demonstration flight was made by the Belarusian airline Belavia. The only commercial operator of Tu-154 aircraft in Russia in 2016 was the Alrosa airline, which has two Tu-154M aircraft in its fleet. According to unconfirmed reports, two Tu-154 aircraft, including the oldest model of this family, released back in 1976, are owned by the North Korean airline Air Koryo.
In February 2013, the serial production of the liners was discontinued. The last aircraft of the family, released at the Samara plant "Aviakor", was transferred to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
The largest disasters of domestic Tu-154
02/19/1973, Prague, 66 dead
The Tu-154 aircraft was performing a regular passenger flight from Moscow to Prague, when, while landing, it suddenly went into a rapid descent, having not reached the runway 470 m, crashed into the ground and collapsed. Killed 66 people out of 100 on board. This is the first incident in the history of the Tu-154 aircraft. The Czechoslovak commission could not establish the causes of the accident, only assuming that during the landing approach the airliner unexpectedly got into a turbulence zone, which led to a loss of stability. The Soviet commission came to the conclusion that the cause of the disaster was the error of the aircraft commander, who, during the landing approach, accidentally, due to the imperfection of the control system, changed the angle of the stabilizer.
07/08/1980, Alma-Ata, 166 dead, 9 wounded on the ground
The plane, which was flying on the route Alma-Ata - Rostov-on-Don - Simferopol, crashed almost immediately after takeoff. The aircraft demolished two residential barracks and four residential buildings, injuring nine people on the ground. By official version, the disaster occurred due to a sudden atmospheric disturbance that caused a powerful downward air flow (up to 14 m/s) and a strong tailwind(up to 20 m / s) during takeoff, at the time of mechanization cleaning, with high takeoff weight, in conditions of a high-altitude airfield and high air temperature. The combination of these factors at low flight altitude and with a sudden onset of a side roll, the correction of which briefly distracted the crew, predetermined the fatal outcome of the flight.
11/16/1981, Norilsk, 99 dead
The liner was completing a passenger flight from Krasnoyarsk and was landing when it lost altitude and landed on the field, about 500 m short of the runway, after which it crashed into the embankment of the radio beacon and collapsed. 99 people out of 167 on board were killed. According to the conclusion of the commission, the cause of the crash was the loss of longitudinal controllability of the aircraft at the final stage of the landing approach due to design features aircraft. In addition, the crew realized too late that the situation was threatening with an accident, and the decision to go around was not made in time.
12/23/1984, Krasnoyarsk, 110 dead
The liner was supposed to carry out a passenger flight to Irkutsk, when an engine failure occurred during climb. The crew decided to return, but a fire broke out during the landing approach, which destroyed the control systems. The car crashed to the ground 3 km before runway number 29 and collapsed. The root cause of the disaster was the destruction of the disk of the first stage of one of the engines, which occurred due to the presence of fatigue cracks. The cracks were caused by a manufacturing defect.
07/10/1985, Uchkuduk, 200 dead
This disaster was the largest in terms of the number of deaths in the history of Soviet aviation and Tu-154 aircraft. The airliner, performing a regular flight on the route Karshi - Ufa - Leningrad, 46 minutes after takeoff at an altitude of 11 thousand 600 m lost speed, fell into a flat tailspin and crashed to the ground.
According to the official conclusion, this happened under the influence of a high non-standard outdoor temperature, a small margin in terms of the angle of attack and engine thrust. The crew made a number of deviations from the requirements, lost speed - and failed to pilot the aircraft. Widespread unofficial version: before the flight, the rest regime of the crew was violated, as a result of which the total wakefulness of the pilots was almost 24 hours. And shortly after the start of the flight, the crew fell asleep.
07.12.1995, Khabarovsk region, 98 dead
The Tu-154B-1 airliner of the Khabarovsk joint air squadron, flying along the route Khabarovsk - Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk - Khabarovsk - Ulan-Ude - Novosibirsk, crashed into Mount Bo-Dzhausa 274 km from Khabarovsk. The cause of the disaster, presumably, was the asymmetric transfer of fuel from the tanks. The ship's commander mistakenly increased the formed right roll, and the flight became uncontrollable.
07/04/2001, Irkutsk, 145 dead
While landing at the Irkutsk airport, the airliner suddenly fell into a flat tailspin and crashed to the ground. During the landing approach, the crew allowed the aircraft speed to drop below the permissible speed by 10-15 km/h. The autopilot, which was in altitude hold mode, increased the pitch angle as the speed dropped, resulting in an even greater loss of speed. Having discovered a dangerous situation, the crew added a mode to the engines, rejected the steering wheel to the left and away from themselves, which led to a rapid increase in vertical speed and an increase in roll to the left. Having lost spatial orientation, the pilot tried to bring the plane out of the roll, but by his actions only increased it. The State Commission called the erroneous actions of the crew the cause of the disaster.
10/04/2001, Black Sea, 78 dead
The Tu-154M airliner of Siberia Airlines was flying on the Tel Aviv-Novosibirsk route, but crashed into the Black Sea 1 hour and 45 minutes after takeoff. According to the conclusion of the Interstate Aviation Committee, the plane was unintentionally shot down by a Ukrainian S-200 anti-aircraft missile launched during Ukrainian military exercises on the Crimean peninsula. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk apologized for the incident. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma acknowledged Ukraine's responsibility for the incident and dismissed the defense minister.
08/24/2004, Kamensk, 46 dead
The plane took off from Moscow and headed for Sochi. During the flight over the Rostov region, a strong explosion occurred in the tail section of the liner. The plane lost control and began to fall. The crew tried with all their might to keep the plane in the air, but the uncontrolled liner crashed to the ground near the village of Glubokoye Kamensky district Rostov region and completely collapsed. The plane was blasted by a suicide bomber. Immediately after the attacks (on the same day, a Tu-134 aircraft flying from Moscow to Volgograd exploded), the Islambuli Brigades terrorist organization took responsibility for them. But later Shamil Basayev said that he had prepared the attacks.
According to Basayev, the terrorists he sent did not blow up the planes, but only captured them. Basayev claimed that the planes were shot down by Russian air defense missiles, as the Russian leadership was afraid that the planes would be sent to any objects in Moscow or St. Petersburg.
08/22/2006, Donetsk, 170 dead
The Russian airliner was performing a scheduled passenger flight from Anapa to St. Petersburg, but it encountered a severe thunderstorm over the Donetsk region. The crew asked the controller for permission to fly to a higher flight level, but then the aircraft lost altitude, and three minutes later it crashed near the village of Sukhaya Balka in the Konstantinovsky district of the Donetsk region.
“The lack of control over the flight speed and the failure to follow the instructions of the Flight Operations Manual (Flight Operations Manual) to prevent the aircraft from entering the stall mode with unsatisfactory interaction in the crew did not allow preventing the situation from turning into a catastrophic one”, - said in the final conclusion of the Interstate Aviation Commission.
04/10/2010, Smolensk, 96 dead
The Tu-154M presidential airliner of the Polish Air Force was flying on the Warsaw-Smolensk route, but when landing at the Smolensk-Severny airfield in heavy fog, the liner collided with trees, capsized, crashed to the ground and completely collapsed. All 96 people on board were killed, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria Kaczynska, as well as well-known Polish politicians, almost all the high military command, and public and religious figures. They were on their way to Russia on a private visit as a Polish delegation to the mourning events on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre. An investigation by the Interstate Aviation Committee found that all aircraft systems were working normally before impact with the ground; due to fog, visibility at the airfield was below the landing limit, which the crew was notified about. The causes of the disaster were called the wrong actions of the crew of the aircraft and psychological pressure on it.
This was a technical photo shoot for the PT-154B-2 project. Some of the photos were not taken by me, but with my camera. I can’t establish who exactly filmed in the cockpit - I just don’t remember. So I post everything on my own behalf. It was, I repeat, technical photography. No artistry here and does not smell. Don’t even look :) I’m spreading it so that you have an idea of what kind of cabin the Tu-154B-2 has 40 cockpit photos and appearance. I cut the data on the LP a little, removed the data on the engines, detailed data on the crew.Carefully! 40 photos, total weight 4.5 meters
DATA for aviation accident without human casualties with the Tu-154 aircraft No. 85327 of the Abakan OJSC of the Krasnoyarsk State Administration in the area of the Domodedovo airport on May 21, 1986
BRIEF CASE DESCRIPTION
On May 21, 1986, at 15:21, in the area of the Marino OPRS of the Moscow air zone, an accident occurred on a Tu-154 aircraft No. There were 164 passengers and 11 small children on board. While descending from the echelon to the cost center at an altitude of 3600 m, while avoiding the thunderstorm source, the aircraft got into the zone of heavy precipitation, accompanied by icing. When taking off from the Chelyabinsk airport, the crew did not turn on the heating of the PPD. At the entrance to the icing zone, the RPM was frozen and the indicated airspeed readings dropped to zero. The crew transferred the aircraft into a steep descent with an increase in the engine operating mode to takeoff. Then the plane was launched into level flight at an altitude of 800 meters. At the same time, the vertical rate of descent reached 100 m/s, the vertical overload was 3.2 units, and the estimated indicated speed was 813 km/h.
Subsequently, the crew approached according to the scheme and landed at Domodedovo Airport. The crew and passengers were not injured. The aircraft received residual deformation.
CREW DATA
KVS - Laptev Nikolai Petrovich
Year of birth 1945
1 class, 45x600, vzl.200
Aircraft types flown by Yak-12, An-2, An-24, Tu-154
Total flight time 13656 h, on this type 3305 h
(as pic 2247 h)
Co-pilot - Poptsev Alexander Nikolaevich
Year of birth 1949
1 class
Aircraft types flown by An-2, An-24, Tu-154
Total flight time 10762 h, on this type 938 h
Navigator - Pimenov Mikhail Petrovich
Year of birth 1953
Grade 2
Aircraft types flown by IL-14, An-26, An-24, Tu-154
Total flight time 6801 hours (of which as a navigator 4052 hours)
Flight Engineer - Akhpashev Emelyan Gavrilovich
Year of birth 1952
3rd grade
Types of aircraft on which the Tu-154 flew
Total flight time 2100 h, on this type 2100 h
AIRCRAFT DATA
VS - Tu-154
Release date, manufacturer 02/24/79, p / box B-2774
Operating time since the beginning of operation 11922 h 02 m, 4687 landings
Number of repairs 1
Date of last repair, plant 11/25/82, ARZ 400 GA
Operating time after the last repair 5381 h 40 m, 2020 landings
Resource before repair 7500 h, 3000 landings
Assigned resource 27000 hours, 9000 landings
Remaining life before repair 2148 h 20 m, 980 landings
METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION
During the period of 15-16 hours, the weather in the MVZ and at the airfields of the Moscow air hub was determined by a low-gradient area of low pressure with the passage of a diffuse occlusion front along the Sheremetyevo-Vnukovo line and further to the south and south-west. Powerful cumulus, cumulonimbus clouds of 4-6 points were observed in the east of the front zone, 1000-1500 m high, with an upper limit of up to 3-5 km. There is heavy icing in the cloud layer from a height of 2500 m to 4000 m. In cumulonimbus clouds - strong turbulence, electrification.
The air traffic controllers warned the crew about the presence of flashes in the cost center in the Maryino area with a recommendation to bypass them to the south.
ACCIDENT ANALYSIS
Conclusions 1. The flight weight and centering of the aircraft did not go beyond the established limits.
2. According to the flight documentation, the level of professional training of the crew complies with the requirements of the MCA, which regulate flight work. The crew was not prepared for this flight, because they did not comply with the requirements of the Flight Manual, as a result of which they made incorrect piloting actions in the conditions of a short-term distortion of the indications of the indicated airspeed indicators.
3. The crew did not comply with the following requirements:
- before takeoff, navigator Pimenov M.P. did not turn on the heating of the PPD, and the co-pilot Poptsev A.N. did not control their inclusion;
- when entering the icing zone and reducing the readings of the speed indicators on the descent of the aircraft, the crew did not check the inclusion and serviceability of the RPM heating (PIC, co-pilot);
- did not comply with the recommendations of the RLE in terms of maintaining the established mode of operation of the engines and monitoring the maintenance of the specified flight mode using other instruments (the attitude indicator, variometer, Doppler ground speed meter).
4. The co-pilot, who was piloting the aircraft, did not inform the crew about his actions and changes in indications of airspeed. PIC Laptev incorrectly assessed the position of the aircraft in space and transferred it to a steep descent with the take-off power of the engines, during the recovery from the descent created an off-design overload of 3.2.
5. Radio-technical means of control and flight support were in good order and allowed for safe control air traffic in the MVZ.
6. Meteorological support of flights corresponded to NMO GA-82. In the region of the OPRS Maryino, in the cloud layer from a height of 2500 m to 4000 m, intense icing, turbulence and electrification of the atmosphere took place.
7. The airframe and its systems, power plants, aviation and radio-electronic equipment of the aircraft were operational.
A short-term decrease in airspeed values according to standard indicators was the result of blockage of all three total pressure receivers in icing conditions due to the crew not turning on their heating.
8. Maintenance of the aircraft as a whole was carried out in accordance with the operational documentation. However, in MSRP-64, no malfunctions of the MU-615A elevator and RA-56 sensors were found.
9. Due to a significant excess of the maximum allowable flight speed and vertical overload, the main power elements of the airframe received residual deformation.
10. Aircraft Tu-154B-2 No. 85327, serial No. 79A327 for further
unusable and subject to write-off in the prescribed manner.
Conclusion The cause of the accident was the incorrect actions of the crew in piloting with distorted readings of the indicated airspeed indicators in icing conditions due to not turning on the RPM heating, which led to the aircraft being brought to off-design flight modes.
Middle console (from left to right): autopilot modes, throttle (Engine Control Lever). On the right side: one of the indications of the autopilot modes, the choice of indications for the co-pilot's PNP, automatic thrust
Middle console (left to right): Autopilot and NVU
Pilot board visor and top shield
Upper shield
Upper guard: RSBN, TKS, ARK, KURS-MP and VHF
Upper guard: on top of the gas station of consumers. The inclusion of all the necessary things in the household :)
Upper shield (bottom): wheel reversal, emergency slat extension, headlights, flaps, chassis emergency extension, landing gear (standard)
Top guard: ARC #2
Upper shield: KURS-MP No. 2
Co-pilot's side panel: HF radio and emergency landing gear extension from the second hydraulic system
Co-Pilot Sidebar: There Was a Watch
Co-Pilot Panel: BDK(?) and ICU
Co-pilot panel: PNP (flight and navigation instrument)
Co-pilot panel: PKP (flight-commanding instrument)
Again, consumers on the top shield wormed their way :)
Normally, the slats are extended automatically when the flaps are extended to 15°. This toggle switch is ONLY for emergency slat control
Middle console: what they show - I know what they are called, I don’t remember. :) Too lazy to climb into the RLE
KVS panel
Side panel FAC: transponder, communication with the cabin, height and depth control by pedals. Smoke mask (was - where the hole is)
FAC panel and right - center panel
KVS panel
KVS panel
Flap extended at 45°
Neighbors: Tu-22M2
Neighbors: Il-86 USSR-86003
Neighbors: Il-86 USSR-86003
Neighbors: IL-76
Neighbors: Il-86 USSR-86003
Neighbors: Il-86 USSR-86003
Neighbors: Yak-40 and An-24
Engine NK-8-2U No. 1. This is where 10.5 tons of thrust comes out
Engine nozzle NK-8-2U No. 2 and APU nozzle
Equipped with more economical engines. Designated Tu-154M, this aircraft was sold to many countries until the end of the Cold War, after which even better fuel-efficient aircraft became available to airlines.
The new Tupolev Design Bureau liner was announced in the early 1980s under the designation Tu-164, which was later replaced by the Tu-154M. By this time, about 600 Tu-154s of early modifications had already been ordered, 500 of which were received by Aeroflot.
Therefore, such a serious modernization of the three-engine airliner even then looked somewhat belated, especially since the Design Bureau was already considering options for creating a new aircraft, which later turned into the Tu-204. Although new version was outwardly similar to its predecessor, with the exception of a large fairing in front of the horizontal tail, bringing the already built machines to the Tu-154M standard was considered inappropriate.
The most important difference was the use of bypass engines D-30KU-154, more economical than the previously used NK-8. Although the takeoff thrust of the new engines (105.21 kN) increased slightly, the air consumption increased significantly, which required the use of new air intakes. The central engine received a new exhaust nozzle, and the side engines were placed in new nacelles, installed almost parallel to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft and equipped with thrust reverser flaps. The auxiliary power unit, previously located above the central engine, was moved to the middle part of the fuselage. The flaps were made smaller but more efficient, and the number of spoilers was increased from three to four on each wing console. As already mentioned, a new fairing in front of the horizontal tail became a noticeable external difference, although the latter also underwent improvements - while maintaining a span of 13.40 m, its area was increased from 40.55 m2 to 42.20 m2.
It is noteworthy that the operating weight (weight of the equipped empty aircraft) grew from modification to modification: from 49,500 kg for the Tu-154 to 50,775 kg for the Tu-154B and up to 55,300 kg for the Tu-154M. This growth reduced the carrying capacity and range of the vehicle, despite increased fuel supplies and new engines. The maximum takeoff weight of the Tu-154M was 100 tons, but if a conventional Tu-154 could carry 6700 kg to a distance of 6900 km with a navigation reserve, then for the Tu-154M these values were only 5450 kg and 6600 km.
Tu-154M preceded Tu-154B-2, equipped in Kuibyshev with D-30 engines. Flight tests of this aircraft began in 1980. Aeroflot received the first two serial Tu-154Ms on December 27, 1984.
One Tu-154, USSR-85035, was modified to use liquid hydrogen and methane as fuel and was designated Tu-155. The possibility of running out of the world's oil reserves makes hydrogen a very attractive fuel, but there are two serious problems. The low density of hydrogen forces the use of larger tanks. In addition, hydrogen already boils at a temperature of -253°C, which gives rise to a number of problems in its storage and use (although most of them have already been solved by the creators of rocket engines). The central engine of the USSR-85035 aircraft was replaced with a modified one, which received the designation NK-88. It was fed from a carefully insulated liquefied methane tank at the rear of the cockpit through a pipeline running outside the aft fuselage on the starboard side. Flight testing began on April 15, 1988.
Until the end of 2001, 320 Tu-154Ms were produced, and a total of 928 aircraft of all modifications were built. Variants of the Tu-154M that appeared in the 1990s included the Tu-154-100 with an Aviacor interior (Iranian Air ordered 12 aircraft, which later refused to purchase), the Tu-154M-LK1 (one aircraft for cosmonaut training) and Tu -154M-ON with side-looking radar for observation flights under the program " Open sky". The production of the aircraft continued into the early years of the 21st century, although later some new aircraft with removed engines and other equipment were stored in anticipation of buyers. The Tu-154 was gradually replaced by the Tu-204 on the assembly line. Various versions of the Tu-154 were supplied to airlines of countries friendly to the USSR, including Balkan, Cubana, Malev, Tarom, LOT, CSA, Syrianair, CAAC and the Nicaraguan Aeronica. Among the latest operators are the Iranian companies Iran Air Tours and Kish Air, which constantly use Tu-154s leased from Russian companies.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s led to the opening of air routes and the loss of Aeroflot's monopoly on air transportation. Aeroflot began to quickly get rid of some of its aircraft, and young companies were able to buy them for a very low prices. By the end of 1993, over 100 airlines were registered in Russia alone, and many more in other former Soviet republics. AJT Air International, formed in 1993, initially operated one Tu-154M (middle) and one Il-86 purchased from Aeroflot. Flying from Vnukovo and later from Sheremetyevo-1 and Sheremetyevo-2, AL was the first new airline to challenge Aeroflot's monopoly. Many of the new companies could not withstand the intense competition in the market and went bankrupt, while others took the path of mergers and rationalizations. Aeroflot was gradually moving away from its role as the only air carrier, giving way to new companies.
In 1997, the IRS Aego company was created, which used the Il-18 and this Tu-154 for passenger and cargo transportation, based in Moscow. To provide air transportation Azerbaijan organized its own airline based in Baku and operated one Tu-154M, if necessary, additional aircraft were leased. Aeroflot - International Airlines operated over 40 Tu-154s, and the last scheduled flight of this aircraft in the service of the company took place on December 31, 2009 on the route Yekaterinburg - Moscow. Aeroflot replaced 23 of its remaining Tu-154s with Airbus A.320s.
In November 2008, Siberia refused to operate the Tu-154M, in November and December 2009 GTK-Russia and Aeroflot, respectively. The reason is economic uncompetitiveness. From 2010 to 2014, UTair remained the largest civilian user of this type of aircraft in Russia - as of January 2012, it had 25 Tu-154M in its fleet. In 2014, Tu-154M aircraft continue to be operated by the airlines Alrosa, Belavia, Gazpromavia, Ak Bars Aero, Cosmos.
Design.
All-metal low-wing with swept wing and T-tail, three bypass engines in the tail section.
The fuselage is all-metal with the use of duralumin alloys, alloyed steels, and titanium. The inner surface of the skin, frame elements and the lower part of the fuselage are protected with anti-corrosion enamels, and the places that are particularly susceptible to corrosion are protected with sealants.
On the port side there are three doors and three emergency exit, on the right one door and two emergency exits. Doors open outward. Two cargo hatches opening inward. In the bow of the equipment compartment. Next is the crew cabin for 5 people. Then the passenger compartment. The layout depends on the modification and the operating airline, the number of seats is from 128 to 180. In each row there are 4-6 seats, located three (or two) on the sides, with a passage between them. Under the floor of the passenger compartment are luggage compartments, access to which is possible through hatches in the forward and middle parts of the fuselage.
Wing - all-metal swept in terms of shape. Sweep with an angle along the line of 1/4 chords - 35 °. The wing consists of a center section and two consoles. Power set in the form of a caisson - three spars, upper and lower panels between them and end ribs. The caissons are airtight and are used as fuel tanks. Ailerons, slats, flaps, spoilers are installed on the wing.
Engine - three turbojet bypass engines D-30KU-154-series 2 - 10500 kgf in the tail section. The central one is inside the fuselage, the rest are on pylons on the sides of it. The central engine has an air intake with an S-shaped channel. Fuel tanks in the caissons of the wing - three in the center section, two in the consoles, fuel capacity - 39750 kg.
Plumage - single-keel, swept T-shaped.
Chassis - tricycle, with a nose strut, retractable downstream. The nose strut retracts into the niche of the front fuselage, the main ones - into the gondolas on the wing center section. There are two wheels on the nose strut, six on the main ones, mounted on a trolley swinging in a vertical plane.
Control - irreversible steering hydraulic drives connected by hard wiring to the columns, pedals and steering wheels of the pilots, as well as to the servos of the ABSU-154 onboard control system.
Systems and equipment - three independent hydraulic systems with a working pressure of 210 kg / cc, an alternating current power supply system. Air-thermal de-icers on the toes of the wing, keel and stabilizer, engine air intakes. Electrothermal de-icers on slats, cockpit canopy windows. Navigation and flight complex NPK-154 with automatic driving along the routes and landing approach according to the first category of ICAO. VHF radio station "Lily of the valley-20", HF radio station "Mikron". TCAS stands for Collision Avoidance System. On the Tu-154M, produced since the late 1980s, the Jasmine navigation and flight system with the I-21 inertial system, complete with ABSU-154-3 (approach category 3A ICAO).
Modification: Tu-154M
Wingspan, m: 37.55
Aircraft length, m: 47.90
Aircraft height, m: 11.40
Wing area, m2: 202.00
Weight, kg
- empty aircraft: 54800
-maximum takeoff: 100000
Internal fuel, l: 47000
Engine type: 3 x turbofan D-30KU-154
Thrust, kgf: 3 x 10500
Cruise speed, km/h: 900-950
Range, km: 5200
Flight range with payload, km: 3900
Practical ceiling, m: 10900
Required runway length, m: 2500
Crew, people: 3
Payload: 158/180 passengers or 18,000 kg of cargo.
Aeroflot Tu-154M coming in for landing.
Tu-154M in the new livery of Aeroflot.
Tu-154M airline "Belavia".
Tu-145M airline "Alrosa in flight.
Tu-145M airline "Alrosa" on the run.
Tu-154M "Alrosa" after the famous landing.
Tu-154M in the parking lot. Photo by Maxim Holbreicht.
Tu-154M in the parking lot. Photo by Maxim Holbreicht.
In the early 60s on overhead lines Aeroflot with a length of 1,500 to 3,500 km, the well-proven Tu-104, Il-18 and An-10 aircraft have firmly established themselves. Of these, the Tu-104 and its modifications had the highest cruising speed and provided the best comfort. The An-10 had the best takeoff and landing characteristics, and the Il-18 had the greatest flight ranges and the best economic performance. As part of the domestic civil air fleet there were three completely different passenger aircraft of the same class, which led to difficulties in ensuring the normal process of technical operation of the fleet of aircraft that were structurally significantly different from each other.
Developing in the second half of the sixties the project of a new passenger liner, the team of the experimental design bureau of Academician A. N. Tupolev sought to combine in it best qualities three of these aircraft: the speed of the Tu-104, the range and efficiency of the Il-18, the takeoff and landing qualities of the An-10. And the designers succeeded in doing it. With a cruising speed of 900-950 km / h at an altitude of 11 thousand meters and a payload of 18 tons, the range of the Tu-154 exceeded 3200 km. At a speed of 850 km / h, the flight range was more than 4700 km.
The medium-haul passenger airliner Tu-154 is one of the best representatives of the second generation of Soviet turbojet aircraft. Work on its design in the Design Bureau of A.N. Tupolev began in 1963. The design bureau team was faced with the task of obtaining the maximum operational economic efficiency of an aircraft of this class. This machine embodies the latest achievements of science and technology, which were at the disposal of the Tupolev Design Bureau at that time.
Three powerful NK-8-2 turbofan engines with a takeoff thrust of 9,500 kg each make it possible to operate the aircraft in almost all climatic zones. The high power-to-weight ratio enables the Tu-154 to take off with a full load even from high-altitude airfields. In this case, two external engines were equipped with a thrust reverser.
Structural parts and pressed elements were widely used to increase the weight return of the machine. All this, together with other technological solutions and subject to the required strength standards, made it possible to reduce the weight of an empty aircraft to 51-55 tons, and takeoff weight is 98-102 tons.
| Specifications | ||
| Airplane | Tu-154B | Tu-154M |
| Crew, pers. | 5 | 3 |
| Engines | NK-8-2U | D-ZOKU-154 |
| Number of engines Х takeoff thrust, t | 3 x 10.5 | 3x11 |
| Maximum takeoff weight, t | 98-100 | 100-104 |
| 18 | ||
| Number of passengers | 164-180 | 164-175 |
| Cruise speed, km/h | 900 | 935 |
| Practical ceiling, m | 12300 | 12100 |
| The range is practical with full commercial. loading, km | 2650 | 3900 |
| Range with max., fuel | 3900 | 6500 |
| Fuel consumption per passenger-kilometre g/pass-km | 40,0 | 31,05 |
| Required runway length, m | 2200 | 2500 |
| Fuselage diameter, m | 3,8 | |
| Aircraft length, m | 47.9 | |
| Wingspan, m | 37,55 | |
| Wing area, m 2 | 201,45 | 202 |
| Aircraft height, m | 11,4 | |
| Empty aircraft weight, t | 51 | 55 |
| Fuel weight, max, t | 39,75 | |
Tu-154 fuselage - semi-monocoque type of round section. The bow and middle parts, in which the cockpit and two passenger compartments are located, are one fully pressurized cabin, separated only by light bulkheads.
The wide use of easily removable elements of the pressurized compartment equipment makes it easy to change the number of seats in the salons - from 128 in the mixed version to 158 in the main version and 174 in the tourist one. The fuselage volume exceeds 163 m³. The outer diameter of its cross section is 3.8 m. The width of the passenger compartment is 3.5 m, the height is 2.2 m.
In the aft unpressurized part of the fuselage there is a cargo room, an average engine and an auxiliary power unit.
The placement of engines in the tail section and their layout allowed the designers to mechanize the wing as much as possible, to achieve a reduction in the impact of sound pulsating loads from jet streams on the aircraft structure.
If one of the engines fails, the heeling and turning moments are very small. The aircraft freely continues its flight without loss of altitude. And at an altitude of 5 thousand meters, horizontal flight is possible even with one engine running.
The wing of the aircraft is three-spar, swept with an angle of 35 ° along the line of 1/4 chords. Its area is 201.5 m². The wing consists of a center section and two detachable swept parts. In addition to the ailerons, the wing has an aileron-spoiler, three-slotted flaps, slotted slats that occupy the wing toe almost along the entire span. The flaps are between the ailerons. The spoilers are located above the flaps in four sections on each half-wing. Ailerons provide normal controllability in cruising flight. At lower speeds, the outer sections of the spoilers are connected to help them, and their middle sections are used as air brakes.
The Tu-154 used swept tail T-shaped plumage, with the upper position of the movable stabilizer. Changing its installation angle during takeoff and landing is carried out by a special electromechanism. Rudders and elevators of honeycomb structure. In this case, the elevators are not connected to each other. The successful layout of the entire aircraft and its powerful engines provide a short takeoff run for this class of aircraft - 1000-1300 m and a relatively low landing speed - 212-225 km / h.
The Tu-154 aircraft is equipped with equipment that allows it to perform regular flights at any time of the day in simple and difficult weather conditions.
Already during the design and construction of the first prototype aircraft, the design bureau considered a cargo version designed to carry 25000 kg over a distance of 2000-2500 km with a cruising speed of 900 km/h. In the same period, a variant of the aircraft with an increased fuselage length for 240-250 passenger seats and a non-stop flight range of 2000-2500 km was in the preliminary design.
During the design, it was proposed to prepare three main versions of the aircraft: Tu-154A, Tu-154D and Tu-154B. Tu-154A - the main serial version; Tu-154D - long-range variant with reduced payload, increased fuel capacity and increased wingspan; Tu-154B - an aircraft with increased passenger capacity and payload due to the insertion of an additional section into the fuselage.
Tu-154 made its first flight on October 3, 1968. Serial production of Tu-154A aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 94 tons was started in 1970, at the end of the same year the aircraft entered Vnukovo. In May 1971, it began to be used to transport mail from Moscow to Tbilisi, Sochi, Simferopol and Mineral water. The liner entered the Aeroflot routes in early 1972. Tu-154 made its first regular flight Moscow - Mineralnye Vody on the day of the 49th anniversary of Aeroflot - February 9, 1972. The flight was performed by the crew consisting of the commander of the ship E.I. Bagmut, co-pilot A.V. Alimov, navigator V.A. Samsonov and flight engineer S.S. Serdyuk. At the end of 1975, a version of the Tu-154B was developed with a maximum takeoff weight of 98 tons.
The aircraft was produced at the Kuibyshev Aviation Plant, currently JSC Aviakor-Aviation Plant, Samara. A total of 930 Tu-154 aircraft were built.
On the basis of the Tu-154B aircraft, an improved modification, the Tu-154M, was created in the first half of the 1980s. The main advantage of this aircraft is fuel efficiency. It is equipped with more economical Solovyov D-30KU-154-II turbofan engines and the Jasmine flight and navigation system based on the I-21 and ABSU-154-3 inertial system. Together with the improvement of the aerodynamic properties of the wing and fuselage, this gave an increase in fuel efficiency by 30% and made it possible to significantly increase the flight range - the hourly savings were about a ton compared to the Tu-154B.
Three-slotted flaps were replaced with more efficient double-slotted ones - the third flap link was made one with the second and the maximum deflection angle was increased. A new 36-degree flap position was added to reduce landing noise. The maximum takeoff weight was 102-104 tons, depending on the brand of brakes. The production of this modification continued until 2012.
The Tu-154M aircraft entered service in 1986. Noise on the ground generated by the Tu-154M aircraft meets the requirements of Chapter 3 of the ICAO standard. The latest modification of the Tu-154M in terms of its flight and economic characteristics significantly exceeded the first modifications of the Tu-154.
The first production aircraft Tu-154M made its first flight on July 16, 1984 and was soon put into production. Tu-154 aircraft were actively exported abroad, in total 166 aircraft of various modifications were delivered abroad, of which 98 Tu-154M aircraft.
Read also: Let's go to the cinema to the "Crew"!
In the history of Soviet / Russian aviation there are tragic pages associated with the Tu-154 - just remember the crash of Tu-154B-2 USSR-85311 near Uchkuduk (Uzbekistan) on July 10, 1985, Tu-154M RA-85185 near Donetsk on August 22, 2006 or the crash of Tu-154B-2 RA-85572 while taking off from Sochi on December 25, 2016.
The liner was filmed in the film "The Crew" by Yuri Mitta in 1979. An episodic, but important and tragic role fell to this aircraft in the new film "The Crew", which was released in April 2016. The film "Yolki-2" in the story "Airplane" uses real events that occurred with the airliner in 2010.
On September 7, 2010, Tu-154M RA-85684 of Alrosa Airlines was operating a YM516 passenger flight on the Udachny-Moscow route. 3.5 hours after takeoff, there was a complete loss of power on board, which led to the shutdown of on-board navigation systems. The electric drive of the fuel pumps was also disabled, which meant it was impossible to reach the destination airport or a suitable alternate airfield. As a result, the crew made an emergency landing of the liner according to visual reference points in former airport Izhma in the Komi Republic on a runway that had long been decommissioned and unsuitable for aircraft of this type, which did not have lighting equipment and driving radio stations. After landing during the run, the plane rolled out of the runway by 164 meters and drove into the forest. None of the 81 people on board the plane were injured.
Photo (c) Mikhail Komarov, http://russianplanes.net/id29156 The aircraft was badly damaged and was initially declared scrapped. The argument was made that even in the event of a successful on-site repair, the aircraft would need a runway 2500 meters long to take off, while the runway at Izhma was only 1325 meters long. Then the Alrosa airline decided to restore the RA-85684 board, it was towed to the runway, where they began to prepare for departure. In particular, two engines were to be replaced on the spot, in which tree branches fell during landing. To take off from a short strip and fly to the place of the main repair of the liner, it was decided to involve test pilots.
On March 24, 2011, RA-85684 flew from Izhma to Ukhta. The takeoff run of the lightest aircraft with a fuel reserve of 11 tons was 800 meters. Due to the inability to check the landing gear on the spot after the repair, the flight was carried out with the landing gear extended. According to test pilot Ruben Yesayan, who piloted the board, the flight was planned at an altitude of 3600 meters at an airspeed of 420 km / h. The plane took off without incident, made a farewell circle over Izhma and headed for Ukhta. On the same day, after refueling, he was transferred from Ukhta to Samara for repairs at the Samara Aviation Plant Aviakor.
Later, the board RA-85684 received a proper name - "Izhma"
By June 16, 2011, the renovation was completed. The repaired liner was handed over to the Alrosa airline, in which it was operated until September 29, 2018.
Last flight September 29, 2018 / Alexander Listopad. Tolmachevo, Novosibirsk, https://russianplanes.net/id238851 On September 29, 2018, Tu-154M RA-85684 made its last flight from Mirny to Tolmachevo Airport. Here it will be set to station square next to the IL-86 for eternal storage.
Planes that have been skimming the skies for decades will inevitably retire. Such is the fate of any technology. Individual copies remain in museums, some arrange rides and bars, sometimes cinemas. Young people get acquainted with the aircraft familiar to their parents by running some kind of flight simulator game on personal computers. Tu-154 for a long time - four decades - was one of the most famous liners. Almost every Aeroflot passenger has been on board at least once (and most often - many times). Considering that in the Soviet years, most of the population of the USSR visited other cities using air transport, then any movie or pop star could envy the glory of the Big Carcass.
Sample - "Boeing"
In the early sixties, the American concern Boeing was able to create a very good passenger liner, designed for the three leading airlines that control most of the local lines from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska. The 727th model had an unusual layout. Jet engines were located in the rear fuselage: one inside, with an air intake in front of the horizontal tail, and two on the sides. In itself, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe rear placement of the power plant was no longer new - it was used on the Caravelle, but two engines were enough for the French. According to Soviet designers, the Boeing 727 was the best fit for countries with a large territory and a significant amount of domestic air traffic. It was not accepted to buy American samples in the USSR. It turned out to be easier and cheaper to create your own analogue, and make it the best. This is how the Tu-154 aircraft became.
Place in the ranks of civil aviation
It cannot be said that the Soviet middle highways were not provided technically. Excellent machines worked on them: Il-18, Tu-104 and An-10. Each of these types had their own merits. The Tu-104 had a high speed, inherited from the prototype - the Tu-16 bomber. Ilyushin was amazingly reliable. The An-10 cabin had a large width, and the upper wing arrangement guaranteed the convenience of boarding and disembarking passengers. In the mid-sixties, designers rarely thought about fuel economy, only in the aspect of practical range. An analysis of the flight performance data of the main types of airliners in operation led to the idea of replacing them with a single model that combines all their positive features. Unification had another plus: simplified Maintenance, repair, preventive maintenance and training of pilots. Thus, the Tu-154, already at the stage of conceptual design, was an exclusively civilian aircraft with high operational and flight characteristics.
Differences and advantages
It can be argued that the general layout scheme (monocoque fuselage, low swept wing, power plant and T-tail) was borrowed from the Boeing 727, but this is where the similarity with the ideological prototype ends. The Tu-154 aircraft has unique technical solutions in the field of designing the most important structural elements - from a highly mechanized wing to a stabilizer equipped with a three-position tilt system relative to the horizontal. The Tupolev liner accommodates more passengers, its landing gear is retracted into gondolas placed on the wing (Boeing hides them in the fuselage). In general, the Tu-154 is a completely new aircraft built in a technically advanced country at the modern level.
high rates
In 1965, design work began, which was led by S. M. Yeger, then A. S. Shengardt and the general designer A. A. Tupolev himself joined. In less than three years, the effort culminated in the construction of six prototypes, which were soon being tested. In October 1968, the first flight took place (test pilot Yu. V. Sukhov). The following year, the Tu-154 went into production at plant number 18 (Kuibyshev). At the same time, the "Russian Boeing" was shown at the Le Bourget aerospace show. In parallel with the construction of the first copies, further tests continued, aimed at identifying shortcomings, which lasted five years. Such a high rate of design and launch into production demonstrated to the whole world the enormous capabilities of the Soviet aviation industry and the engineering school.
Rough "horse"
The plane turned out to be beautiful, with excellent flight characteristics, but its control required special skills. The power plant has excess power, this decision was made consciously. In flight, after climbing, the engines run at reduced speed, which leads to a fair amount of fuel economy and reduces noise. But the "workhorse" turned out to be too frisky, and the pilot had to monitor various parameters very carefully. In combination with three positions of the horizontal tail, controlling pitch and pitch, any carelessness could lead to unpleasant and even tragic consequences. In the future, the designers managed to automate many controls, linking them together and simplifying piloting. A flight simulator developed at the Design Bureau - a simulator of the Tu-154 aircraft, played an important role in the training of pilots, but each machine, according to experienced aviators, had its own temper.
Unique Solutions
The aircraft can be attributed immediately to two generations passenger liners- to the second and third. The design of the airframe was ahead of its time in many ways. Part of the wing mechanization means (three-slot flaps, a three-position controlled stabilizer, three-axle bogies of the main landing gear, some ergonomic spatial issues of the cockpit, and much more) can be considered unique technical solutions. The Tu-154, like almost all Soviet aircraft, is very reliable due to the triple redundancy of all control systems. This means that in case of failure of electric and hydraulic drives, the device can be landed in the old fashioned way, on the same cable pulls. The DC power supply system operates on four batteries placed in pairs in the bow and tail sections. Unlike other Tupolev models, the radar took the place of the navigator, and he himself moved to the common cockpit, next to the flight engineer. Its work is also facilitated: the position of the aircraft is controlled by a specially designed navigation and computing device.
Control Features
The usual perception of most people about the work of the pilot is that his hands are on the helm during the entire flight, unless, of course, the autopilot is turned on. Approximately such a situation is assumed by a computer flight simulator. The Tu-154, however, after climbing is controlled not by the steering wheel, but by two small handles located on the front panel and between the pilot's seats. This is due to the fact that excessively vigorous interference with the flight parameters at cruising speed can lead to the aircraft stalling into a flat tailspin. The turn is carried out by an additional handle, the automation of the modes is such that the liner performs the approach itself, and then the descent occurs according to the control algorithm set by the ABSU. But this is all when the flight takes place completely in the normal mode ...
The cases were different.
In real life, situations sometimes arise that neither a training nor a game simulator can simulate. Tu-154 has been in various alterations over the years of operation. This plane happened to collide with an American flying tanker and land with a damaged plane (Manas air base, 2006). In another case, when landing, noticing snowplows, the pilot managed to raise the car and at an angle, on one landing gear, avoid mortal danger. The episode with the landing of an airliner with a completely de-energized on-board system on an abandoned airfield became very famous (Izhma, 2010). True, even then there was a human factor. The flight engineer, not noticing that one of the four batteries was out of order, connected it to a common circuit, causing a short circuit. It was possible to save the plane and passengers thanks to the highest qualification, courage and resourcefulness of the Tu-154 pilots. The landing was tough, but there were no casualties. Unfortunately, not all incidents ended so happily.
catastrophes
There is no perfect technology, plane crashes happen from time to time. Tu-154 in terms of accident rate has relatively good performance. The same "Boeing-727" for the period from the beginning of operation to 1984, 114 units were lost.
During the years of production (1968-2013), the plant in Kuibyshev (Samara) built 926 copies of various modifications (there were 22 in total), of which one and a half hundred were purchased by foreign air carriers. Of these, due to various flight accidents, 73 cars were lost, which resulted in the death of more than three thousand people. In most cases, Tu-154 crashes were caused by piloting errors and ground handling deficiencies. Largest number victims (two hundred) were recorded when the liner collided with the ground in the Uchkuduk region on July 10, 1985. The reason, according to the conclusion of the commission, was the overload of the aircraft and the high air temperature, combined with crew fatigue. On March 8, 1988, board number 85413 burned down during an attempted hijacking (Ovechkin family). Two aircraft were destroyed by anti-aircraft missiles (in 1993, Sukhumi, and in 2001 over the Black Sea). Blame for the downed Tu-154 Ukrainian side did not acknowledge it.
There are few left
Today, this machine, so famous and recognizable in the past four decades, can be seen in the sky less and less. It is known that, as of the beginning of 2014, the world fleet of Tu-154s consisted of only eight dozen copies. Thus, the probability of becoming a passenger of the "big Carcass" is becoming less and less, but even today it is not equal to zero. Several Russian airlines continue to operate machines whose resource has not yet been exhausted. One hundred copies are mothballed in flying condition.
The level of comfort of this liner is quite within modern ideas, especially considering that the duration of flights rarely exceeds an hour and a half.
Flight Conditions and Safety - Information for Probable Passengers
Ceiling over 11 thousand m allows you not to worry about " air pockets". Salons two. The arrangement of seats, as a rule, is two-row, three on each side of the aisle. There are two layout options seats. There are 164 of them in the economy class cabin, in the business class (in front of the car) there are usually fewer seats, but they are more spacious, and tickets are, accordingly, more expensive.
There is no reason to worry about flying on "junk". This aircraft continues to be one of the most reliable in the world. At least, there were no complaints from passengers who happened to use the services of Yakutia, U'Tair or Alrosa (the last Tu-154 operators), and no one has been expressing enthusiasm for airliners for a long time.
Flight characteristics
An ordinary passenger, as a rule, is of little interest in the technical details of an airliner device; he wants to know the price of a ticket and the flight time. The speed of the Tu-154 is approximately 900-930 km/h, which means that getting to and from the airport often takes longer than, for example, flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. All other medium-haul liners of this class fly just as fast. sound barrier passenger aircraft do not overcome today.
The fuselage is considered narrow, its diameter is 3.8 m, but this also does not affect the comfort level, as well as the ticket price. The height of the ceiling (in the truest sense) is more than two meters, and even the tallest passengers can move along the aisle without bending.
The dimensions of the aircraft are considerable: its length is almost 48 meters with a wingspan of 38 m. The take-off weight is about 100 tons. Range non-stop flight- from 2650 to 3900 km, depending on the degree of congestion. The thrust of each of the three D-30KU-154 engines is 11 tons. The crew, in addition to flight attendants, consists of four people (commander, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer). For an hour of flight, the Tu-154 burns approximately 5.5 tons of kerosene, which can be almost 40 tons in four tanks. The length of the runway required to receive ships of this type is at least 2.5 km.
Lost Opportunities
There are two main reasons why the last resting place of this outstanding and beloved - both by pilots and passengers - aircraft in the coming years will be only a game computer simulator. The Tu-154 consumes too much fuel, and its fleet is pretty worn out. Unfortunately, at a time when it was quite possible to modernize the liner (it was even successfully equipped power plant operating on liquefied gas), the country experienced enormous difficulties associated with the collapse of the USSR. New aircraft were practically not built, and the old ones were not always operated with high quality. Today, time has been lost, it is pointless to resume production of old types. The era of a new generation of liners is coming.
