Operational History
The first Tu-114, registration CCCP-л5611 was first shown to the West in 1958 at the Brussels World Exhibition. It later carried Nikita Khrushchev on his first trip to the US, the first such visit by any Soviet leader. When it arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, the ground crew found that the aircraft was so large and its landing gear so tall that they had no passenger steps high enough to reach the forward hatch. Khrushchev and his party were obliged to use the aircraft's own emergency escape ladder. The last flight of this particular plane was in 1968, and it is now on display at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino, outside of Moscow. Similar issues were experienced when the plane first landed at London and Paris airports, neither of which had hosted a plane of this size.
The Tu-114 entered regular Aeroflot service on flights from Vnukovo Airport in Moscow to Khabarovsk on 24 April 1961. It was subsequently used for Aeroflot flights to international destinations including Copenhagen, Havana, Montreal, New Delhi, Paris, Belgrade and Tokyo (in co-operation with JAL).
Flights to Havana via Conakry in Guinea began 10 July 1962. After the US government placed political pressure on Guinea, landing rights were denied after four flights, and the Tu-114 service had to be routed through Dakar, Senegal instead. Further American pressure to isolate Cuba resulted in denial of landing rights after three flights, and the route was changed to Algiers, Algeria instead. After three more flights, Algiers was also closed to the Tu-114. To overcome this, the Tu-114 was specially modified into the long-range Tu-114D variant, with seating reduced from 170 to 60, and 15 extra fuel tanks added. These aircraft operated from Murmansk, in the far north of the Soviet Union, and then entirely across the ocean to Havana. In most cases, this fuel load was enough, but in case of strong headwinds, an emergency refueling stop in Nassau in the Bahamas was necessary (ironically, this was located at an American military field). All planes operating this route were converted back to normal specifications after the jet-powered Ilyushin Il-62 began flying the Moscow – Havana route.
With the increasing use of the Il-62, the Tu-114s were shifted to long range domestic flights from Domodedovo to Alma-Ata, Tashkent, Novosibirsk and Khabarovsk. Tu-114s were also used for charter operations for senior officials of the USSR and various official delegations.
The Tu-114 had a short commercial service life compared to other Soviet airliners, being operated on regular flights from 1962 to 1976 (in comparison, the Il-62 was still in civilian service 45 years after its introduction, as at 2012). The fatigue life of the airframe was set at 14,000 flying hours. Most of the aircraft passed this point in 1976, by the summer of 1977, Aeroflot decided to scrap 21 aircraft at the same time. A few continued in use by the Soviet Air Force until 1991.
Whilst in service the plane was known for its reliability, speed and fuel economy. The Tu-114 had an excellent safety record rarely matched by any other airliner (there was only one incident involving fatalities but the plane was not airborne at the time) and was only withdrawn from service following the introduction of the Il-62 and after carrying over six million passengers with Aeroflot and Japan Airlines.
Read more about this topic: Tupolev Tu-114
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