Today in History - December 31, 1968 - The Russian TU-144 is the first commercial supersonic airliner flown. Building on their supersonic military jets, the Russians developed the first supersonic commercial airliner called the Tupolev 144. Decades later the U.K. developed the Concorde supersonic passenger jet. Athough successful as a collaborative technical effort, it did not survive the marketplace; it was too expensive to maintain, demand was not high enough at the prices required and the public put many constraints on flight paths due to the noise pollution of the sonic boom.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on the Concorde, supersonic flight and aerospace engineering. Curricular resources and events can be found on the Aerospace Engineering Education Community site.