The oldest Russian aircraft Design Bureau, founded and headed by Andrey Tupolev, is celebrating its 85th anniversary. More than 300 different models have been designed and manufactured, and over 18,000 planes have taken to the skies.

The Moscow-based design bureau has created military and civilian aircraft alike. 

“With the collapse of the USSR, like many others, we found ourselves in a crisis. But we have managed not only to survive but also to come up with the new prospective market proposals, like the further development of the TU-204 and TU-334 aircraft families,” Mikhail Aseev, the head of the design department, says.

In 1924, just two years after Tupolev was granted his own design bureau, his major gamble payed off. The world's second whole-metal plane, the ANT-2, became a flying success. It was followed by the ANT-20, the largest plane of the time. But it was the post-war era that brought true glory.

In 1955, the Bureau unveiled the first successful jet liner, the TU-104. They simply converted one of their strategic bombers for civilian use. And Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev promoted the plane by arriving on it in London in 1956. The later TU-154 model became the backbone of Russian civil aviation. It is still flying today. 

But the loudest triumph of Tupolev was TU-144. When you hear “supersonic passenger plane” – the first thing that comes to mind is the Concorde.  But it was Tupolev's and his son's plane that flew two months earlier than the Anglo-French version. With a maximum speed of over twice the speed of sound it also remains the fastest civil airliner.