To many, when they think of supersonic airliners, they instantly think of Concorde. The joint Anglo-French aircraft that served for nearly 30 years, ferrying people across the Atlantic at Mach 2.
When the first Tupolev Tu-144 thundered its way into aeronautical history 50 years ago, lifting off from Zhukovksy airfield on the last day of 1968, much of the supersonic programme remained cloaked ...