The Tu-154M passenger airliner, which became the most widespread jet aircraft in the Soviet Union , was conceived as a replacement for the Il-18 and An-10, which in the early sixties formed the basis of Aeroflot's air fleet. A new, faster, more economical and more comfortable car was needed, something like the American Boeing 727.
The similarity of technical requirements was dictated by a similar scheme - a monoplane with a swept low wing, tail unit with stabilizers above the elevator and three engines: one built-in central and two on pylon brackets on the sides of the rear of the fuselage.
In 1968, the Tu-154 was raised to the sky. Four years later, in 1972, commercial operation began on the Moscow – Mineralnye Vody line.
The first modification was called Tu-154 A. The improvement was mainly in the installation of NK-2-U engines - more powerful than anticipated in the initial version.
Since 1976, the liner was again modified, this time the changes were more ambitious, they were subjected to the mechanization of the wing, and the passenger compartment, and airborne equipment. In this form, the aircraft became known as Tu-154B and was produced until 1981. Although it was originally proposed to rename it the Tu-164, the design improvements were so significant. During scheduled repairs, early-release airliners were refitted to the technical level of the latest modification.
However, the stresses arising in the glider continued to cause complaints from technicians serving the aircraft. During each of the flights rivets fell out of the casing, they had to be restored. This shortcoming, as well as a number of other problems, was eliminated during the third main (and in total there were over two dozen) modifications.
In 1984, work on the creation of the Tu-154M was completed. These liners were built more than three hundred. The result was a great plane. The number of passengers increased to 180 people, and the reliability of the liner increased significantly. The proof of the "survivability" of the aircraft in difficult conditions was the expertly completed landing at an abandoned airfield near the city of Ukhta in 2010, when the pilots managed to save the lives of passengers with a complete failure of on-board electrical equipment. The Tu-154M aircraft has been restored, its operation is continued.
The crash of the Polish Air Force presidential plane in Smolensk that same year gave rise to talk about the unreliability of Soviet-made aircraft, but the investigation proved that it was caused by forcing the pilot to land in difficult weather conditions, in which any, the most modern, liner would have led yourself about the same.
In general, it is believed that the Tu-154 M motor resource allows it to serve for a quarter of a century or to be in the air for fifteen thousand hours. The cruising ceiling exceeds 12 kilometers and the speed is 900 km / h. Aircraft at the disposal of many airlines in Russia, near and far abroad, well-made and able to carry out passenger transportation, can be upgraded, equipped with digital avionics and even after some refinement use liquefied gas as fuel. Since the late nineties, KB them. A.N. Tupolev proposes to carry out work to extend the life of motor resources and bring the Tu-154M to the level of modern requirements for airliners. There are customers.