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 ...

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.

While the French and British were working together to create the Concorde, the Soviets had their own version of the supersonic aircraft, called Tu-144. In total, the Russian made sixteen aircraft, ...

There is ample evidence of Soviet industrial espionage in the 1960s and 1970s, with the KGB specifically targeting the Anglo-French Concorde program. Networks of informants, typically mid-level ...