There have been two passenger airliners that were designed and built for supersonic travel.  The Concorde, an Anglo/French adventure and the Tu-144, a Soviet design.

Question:  Which airliner did Boeing participate in?

The answer after the fold . . .

This is a bit of a trick question.  The answer is Boeing.  Boeing was a major partner in a NASA program to operate one Tu-144 for super sonic testing.  The Tu-144 picked as modified into an “LL” model with four Kuznetsov NK-321 afterburning engines.  It also flew with Russian, not Soviet, colors.   Flying started in November of 1996 and the 27th and final flight was completed in February of 1998. 

Also of note:  In Joe Sutter’s book about the 747, titled ” 747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation”, Sutter talks about being instructed to have a meeting with the Soviets in the late 1960’s in Paris.  The knowledge he offered them is believed to have assisted them with their Tu-144 work but it was done on Boeing and US State Department orders and they got critical information from the Soviets regarding things like working with titanium.

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