them in anything so they went head to head with France and Britain to compete for supersonic transportation (SST). With little knowledge of supersonic flight, the Russians would turn to other methods to obtain their place in aviation history.France proved to be off to a good start. Their dual engines could reach speeds of 1,400 m.p.h. and break the sound barrier; their swoop down nose design for increased pilot visibility during landing were both signs that Frances Concorde was a capable candidate in the race (www.pbs.org). But keeping these advancements away from the competition would prove to be as easy as a trip to the drug store. Since France had started their project, the Russians had tried to steal plans away, and had spies with the French research centers. France aware of the spying, but not knowing who the spies were, set up a plan to feed certain people who were thought to be leaks false information. Ex-Scientist Howard Moon remembers, They brewed up in their laboratories, apparently, this marvelous rubber compound, something like bubble gum, previously unknown in the annuals of industrial chemistry, and gave it to the Frenchman to pass on to his Soviet contact. And Ive always had this picture of these poor Soviets out there in the steppes trying to reproduce this bubble gum and try to turn it into large tires for their SST and completely failing and being rather severely punished by their administrators and the entire system for their inability to make this stuff work.(www.pbs.org, p.3-4). But by this time, The Russians had already stolen so much information on Concorde that they could get theirs up and running before anybody even knew it existed. The Russians knew that Concorde was set to launch either February or March of 1969, to be first they would have to launch theirs by the end of 1968. So on December 31, 1968, the Russian SST, TU-144 took its maiden flight and with no media, and an audience made up of only a fe...
