Tupolev Tu-154

The Tupolev Tu-154 is a Soviet narrow-body airliner that entered service in 1972 as the standard medium- to long-range jet of Aeroflot and the wider Soviet and Eastern Bloc civil aviation network, filling a role broadly comparable to the Boeing 727 in the West. Powered by three rear-mounted engines and built with robust, simple systems and sturdy landing gear intended for the often poorly maintained regional airfields it served, the Tu-154 became the most widely used Soviet-built passenger jet, with more than nine hundred examples produced. It remained a mainstay of Russian and post-Soviet domestic aviation for decades after its introduction, only gradually retired from mainline passenger service in the 2000s and 2010s as Western-built jets became more widely available.