Tupolev Tu-444

The Tupolev Tu-444 was a Russian project for a supersonic business jet, designed by the Tupolev design company in Moscow and later cancelled before any aircraft was built. It was meant to succeed the earlier Tu-344 proposal and to compete with the Sukhoi SSBJ, and design work began in the early 2000s, with preliminary sketch design under way from 2004. The planning figures call for two pilots and a flight attendant, six to ten passengers, a range of about 7,500 kilometres and two AL-32M turbofan engines, with a first flight once planned for 2015. Tupolev revealed the concept at the MAKS-2003 airshow. Development stalled because the new technology it needed required large investment that could not be raised, and the project is absent from the state aviation industry programme adopted in 2012.