Charter Tu-154

Aircraft description

Development of a new-generation Soviet medium-haul airliner to replace the Tu-104, An-10 and Il-18 began at the Tupolev Design Bureau in 1963 under chief designer S. M. Yeger. The Ilyushin design bureau's Il-72 project also entered the competition but was not developed further. The objective was a modern passenger aircraft comparable in performance to the Boeing 727 then being developed.

The aircraft proved successful and remains the most widely produced passenger aircraft in Soviet and Russian aviation. About 1,000 aircraft were built, and the design was upgraded many times.