Tupolev Tu-334

Tupolev Tu-334
Tupolev Tu-334
Type:	Regional airliner
Design country:	Russia
Manufacturer:	Tupolev
First flight:	February 8, 1999
Commissioning:	not happened
Production time:	Series production not started
Number of pieces:	2

The Tupolev Tu-334 was a project of a passenger aircraft from the Russian manufacturer Tupolev . It was intended as a successor to the Tupolev Tu-134 and designed as a low-wing aircraft with a very short landing gear. The tail unit was T-shaped. The two engines were attached to the side of the stern.

With the merger of Russian aircraft manufacturers to form United Aircraft Corporation in 2009, the project was discontinued in favor of other developments.

history

Development of the Tu-334 began in the early 1990s under the direction of Igor Kolygin. The original concept, namely to develop a family of aircraft, ie a "reduced" Tu-204 with the same fuselage cross-section and as many components as possible, was changed in order to be able to offer a propfan drive that was supposedly promising at the time. For this reason, the engines were moved to the stern and a T-tail was used. The first prototype, at that time little more than a dummy without systems and other equipment, was presented to the world public in August 1995 at the Moscow Air Show. The first flight of the prototype took place on February 8, 1999.

Due to the difficult economic conditions in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union , the project continued to stall. The Tu-334 did not receive its type approval until December 30, 2003. In the meantime, according to a review in Novaya Gazeta , a competition for a regional civil aircraft had "surprisingly" taken place despite an existing state program ("Development of Russian civil aviation technology for the period 2002–2010"). Despite the firm place that the Tu-334 had taken up in the state program so far, the competition was won by Sukhoi's proposal, which appeared "out of nowhere" and which relied heavily on cooperation with Western manufacturers.

The series production should have started according to the planning during the type approval in 2007. By December 2006, 55 firm orders from 7 airlines and numerous letters of intent for the Tu-334 had been received. In November 2007 an order was placed for 6 Tu-334s (4 of them with VIP interiors) for the Russian government aircraft fleet. These should replace the older machines of the types Ilyushin Il-62 and Tupolew Tu-154 . According to the media, President Putin personally spoke out in favor of the Tu-334 because the Sukhoi was not a Russian aircraft.

The Russian government was also in negotiations with Iran about a possible license production of the Tu-334 and Tu-204/214 in Iran. The plans were to start production in 2011. After some declarations of intent at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, there were no further notifications on this before the Tu-334 project was discontinued.

At the end of 2008, the manufacturer Tupolev announced that a total of around one hundred airlines had expressed interest in the Tu-334; On July 31, 2008, Tupolev boss Sergei Ilyushenkov announced that series production should start in January 2009 at the latest. This deadline also passed without any progress being reported in preparing for series production.

In the course of 2009, the Russian aircraft manufacturers were brought together under the United Aircraft Corporation , with the aim of making the Russian aviation industry internationally competitive. In the course of this establishment, all existing and planned aircraft programs were examined for their potential. At this point in time, the Tu-334 program was several years behind the original schedule: ten years had already passed since the first flight of the Tu-334 and only two airworthy copies had been completed to date. In August 2009, while a Tu-334 was being shown to the public at MAKS in Moscow, it was announced that the Tu-334 project had been discontinued. In this size class, preference was given to the Antonov An-148 and the Sukhoi Superjet 100 , for which better sales opportunities were expected. Nevertheless, a definitive end was again written in 2018: With the foreseeable support for the development of a Russified version of the Sukhoi Superjet with 75 seats in spring 2018, a sale of the Tu-334 would become even less likely; As many western components as possible, including the engines, were to be replaced on the Sukhoi aircraft. At the same time, the engines of the Tu-334 were a big problem, as they came from the Ukrainian manufacturer Motor Sitsch.

Versions

The following versions were planned:

• Tu-334-100 - basic version
• Tu-334-100D - version with higher takeoff weight and greater range
• Tu-334-120D - Rolls-Royce BR715 equipped version of the Tu-334-100D
• Tu-334-200 - (also Tu-354 ) stretched short-range version with a range of 2,200 km
• Tu-334-220 - version of the Tu-334-200 / Tu-354 equipped with a Rolls-Royce BR715

Technical specifications

Parameter	Tu-334-100	Tu-334-100D	Tu-334-120D	Tu-334-200 (Tu-354)	Tu-334-220 (Tu-354)
Cockpit crew	2
length	31.26 m			35 m
span	29.7 m	32.61 m
height	9.38 m
Wing area	83.2 m²	100 m²
Wing swept	24.0 °
Empty mass	28,950 kg	31,920 kg	32,320 kg	33,975 kg	34,325 kg
Max. Takeoff mass	47,900 kg	54,420 kg	53,750 kg	54,470 kg	54,800 kg
Max. Passenger capacity	102			126
Cruising speed	820 km / h
ø range	3,150 km	4,100 km		2,200 km
Service ceiling	11,100 m
Engines	2 × Progress D436Т1	2 × Progress D436T2	2 × Rolls-Royce BR715 -56	2 × Progress D436T2	2 × Rolls-Royce BR715 -56

Web links

Commons : Tupolev Tu-334  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Manufacturer's website for the Tu-334

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Flight Global: "Russia's United Aircraft reaches Maturity" (August 11, 2009)
2. ↑ Paul Duffy, AI Kandalov: Tupolev: The Man and His Aircraft , Issue 173 of Reference Series, SAE Publishing, 1996, ISBN 978-1-56091-899-8 , page 180
3. ↑ Kuckuck , Novaya Gazeta, November 20, 2008
4. ↑ Florian Willershausen: Heavenly Hope , absatzwirtschaft.de , 2/2009, p. 22 ff
5. ↑ RIA Novosti: "Russia to launch production of Tu-334 airliner within 6 months" (July 31, 2008)
6. ↑ 85 billion on the wing , Kommersant , March 26, 2018