Tupolev Tu-124


The Tupolev Tu-124 was a 56-passenger short-range twinjet airliner built in the Soviet Union.

Design and development

Developed from the medium-range Tupolev Tu-104, the Tu-124 was meant to meet Aeroflot's requirement for a regional airliner to replace the Ilyushin Il-14 on domestic routes. Resembling a 75% scaled-down Tu-104, the two were hard to tell apart at a distance but it was not a complete copy of the Tu-104. The Tu-124 had a number of refinements, including double-slotted flaps, a large centre-section airbrake and automatic spoilers. Unlike the Tu-104, the wing trailing edge inboard of the undercarriage was unswept.
The Tu-124 retained a drogue parachute to be used in an emergency landing or landing on a slippery surface and had low pressure tires to aid operation from unpaved airfields. As on the Tu-104 the engines were integrated into the wings, but the turbofan engines were more fuel efficient. The placement of the engines amplified vibrations, which affected the comfort of the passenger cabin, and also the fatigue lifetime of the wing assembly.
The standard seating of the basic version was 44 seats. The first of two prototype, SSSR-45000 made its first flight from Zhukovsky airfield on 24 March 1960. The second prototype, SSSR-45001, followed in June 1960. Two other airframes served as a static test cells. Testing was successful, and the aircraft entered production at Factory 135 at Kharkov, Ukraine, replacing the Tu-104 in production. Deliveries to Aeroflot began in August 1962, with the type operating its first scheduled passenger service, between Moscow and Tallinn in Estonia, on 2 October 1962.

Operational history

Aeroflot was impressed with the flight performance of the Tu-124 and used it on domestic routes from the end of 1962.
The improved Tu-124V, which could seat 56 passengers instead of the 44 of the original model, and which had increased range and maximum takeoff weight, came into service in 1964. An Aeroflot Tu-124V was exhibited at the 1965 Paris Air Show. Despite the aircraft's low purchase price and low operating costs, few were exported, with Československé Státní Aerolinie and the East German airline Interflug being the only airlines other than Aeroflot that bought the Tu-124 new, although ČSA sold its surviving Tu-124s to Iraqi Airways for use on VIP flights in 1973. Interflug used its three Tu-124s as an alternative to the Ilyushin Il-62, when the Il-62s were grounded due to mechanical issues. All three were sold back to the Soviet Union in 1975.
Three airframes were completed in 1966 in a VIP configuration, and designated Tu-124K. However, Aeroflot never placed them into service, and they were purchased by the Indian Air Force.
A number were also sold to military users, including the Soviet Air Force, which used them as navigational trainers, and to the Chinese Air Force.
A total of 164 Tu-124s were built. Issues with the safety of the Tu-104 affected the fate of the Tu-124, although the reliability of the Tu-124 was slightly better. Production ended in 1965 and Aeroflot decommissioned its last twelve Tu-124s on 21 January 1980. The Tu-124 continued in operation for some years with the Soviet Air Force and in Iraq, but all aircraft were withdrawn before and in 1990, The ones in Iraq military and Iraqi Airways were destroyed in early 1990s during the Gulf War.
Several Tu-124s have been preserved. One is in the museum of the Kharkiv State Aircraft Manufacturing Company, another is in China's Datangshan aviation museum in Beijing, another at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino outside Moscow. A Tu-124K is on display at New Delhi Airport and next to the State Museum at Lucknow Zoo. A sixth one is located at Ulyanovsk Aircraft Museum located in Ulyanovsk Oblast Russia.

Competition within the COMECON

The German Democratic Republic attempted to compete within the COMECON trade bloc with its own four-engined design called the Baade 152. The design was unsuccessful, leading Interflug to buy a rear-engined development of the Tu-124, the Tupolev Tu-134.

Variants

;Tu-124/Tu-124V
;Tu-124B
;Tu-124K/Tu-124K2
;Tu-124Sh-1
;Tu-124Sh-2
;Tu-127

Former operators

Former civil operators

A total of fifteen Tu-124s were written off in crashes during the type's operational career; another two aircraft of Iraqi Airways were destroyed on the ground during the Gulf War.
DateRegistration/
Tail number		LocationOperatorCasualtiesDescriptionRefs
21 08 1963CCCP-45021Leningrad, Soviet UnionAeroflot0/52The aircraft ditched in the Neva River in Leningrad after it ran out of fuel. The crew were distracted by problems with the landing gear. All occupants of the aircraft survived the ditching.
08 03 1965CCCP-45028Kuibyshev, Soviet UnionAeroflot30/39The aircraft, operating as Flight 513, crashed shortly after taking off from Kuibyshev Airport on a flight to Rostov, after the pilots lost control of it at an altitude of.
11 11 1965CCCP-45086Murmansk, Soviet UnionAeroflot32/64The aircraft, operating as Flight 99, crashed on a frozen lake after the pilot mistook lights on the ground for the runway lights.
13 6 1966CCCP-45017Minsk, Soviet UnionAeroflot0Overran wet runway on landing at Minsk-1 International Airport.
27 7 1966CCCP-45038Zaporizhia Oblast, Soviet UnionAeroflot1/90The aircraft, operating as Flight 67, went into a high-speed dive after entering storm clouds. The aircraft landed safely at Simferopol, but one passenger died and several more on board were injured during the incident. The aircraft was repaired and returned to service, but was involved in the crash of Aeroflot Flight 5484 in 1979.
07 03 1968CCCP-45019Volgograd, Soviet UnionAeroflot1/49The aircraft, operating as Flight 3153, crashed on takeoff after the pilot inadvertently activated the spoilers.
29 01 1970CCCP-45083Murmansk, Soviet UnionAeroflot11/38The aircraft, operating as Flight 145, struck a hillside while on approach, killing five on impact; six others died in the freezing temperatures while waiting for rescue.
18 08 1970OK-TEBZurich, SwitzerlandCzechoslovak State Airlines0/20The aircraft, operating as Flight 744, landed on its belly after the pilot, preoccupied with a pressurization problem, failed to hear the command to extend the landing gear.
02 09 1970CCCP-45012Near Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet UnionAeroflot37/37The aircraft, operating as Flight 3630, was at an altitude of about 40 minutes after takeoff when the crew lost control of the aircraft and it crashed. The reason for the loss of control is unknown.
9 7 1973CCCP-45062Kuybyshev, Soviet UnionAeroflot2/61The aircraft, operating as Flight 5385, suffered an uncontained failure of the right engine. Debris from the engine penetrated the fuselage, killing two passengers seated in row 12 and injuring another four. The engine was shut down and the pilots began an emergency descent. Panicking passengers moved towards the front of the cabin, causing the center of gravity to move forward, but flight attendants were able to get the passengers seated and the aircraft landed safely at Kurumoch Airport. The aircraft, although substantially damaged, was repaired and returned to service.
20 11 1973CCCP-45031Kazan, Soviet UnionAeroflot0Overran runway while landing.
16 12 1973CCCP-45061Near Moscow, Soviet UnionAeroflot51/51The aircraft, operating as Flight 2022, was at an altitude of when it had a short circuit in the elevator trim system, causing a movement of the trim tab that drove the elevators nose-down, which put the aircraft into a dive resulting in a spin. Although the crew were able to pull the aircraft out of the dive and regain control at an altitude of about, they lost control again due to flight instruments having failed when the aircraft was in the spin and it crashed.
23 12 1973CCCP-45044Near Vinniki, Soviet UnionAeroflot17/17The aircraft, operating as Flight 5398, had a turbine blade in one of its engines break off; the vibration from the out-of-balance engine caused a fuel pipe to break, which started an uncontrollable in-flight fire.
03 01 1976CCCP-45037Moscow, Soviet UnionAeroflot61/61
The aircraft, operating as Flight 2003, crashed following instrument failure and loss of control. One person on the ground also died when the aircraft struck several houses.
05 11 1977V643Near Jorhat, IndiaIndian Air Force5/10One of the three Tu-124K VIP variants, named Pushpak Rath, crashed in a paddy field near Jorhat Airport, Assam. The Indian Prime Minister at the time, Morarji Desai, was on board and survived, though five crew members died as a result of the crash.
53 redLugansk Airport,
Soviet Union		Soviet Air Force0Landed on its belly after the pilots forgot to lower the landing gear.
29 08 1979CCCP-45038Near Kirsanov, Soviet UnionAeroflot63/63The aircraft, operating as Flight 5484, broke apart in mid-air one hour into the flight and crashed due to an inadvertent flap extension. This crash is the worst involving the Tu-124, and Aeroflot removed it from service afterwards.
YI-AEYBaghdad, IraqIraqi Airways0/0Destroyed by bombs during the Gulf War.
YI-AELBaghdad, IraqIraqi Airways0/0Destroyed by bombs during the Gulf War.

Specifications (Tu-124V)