MAKS International Aviation and Space ShowSaturday, July 22, 2017
Al Fursan is the aerobatics demonstration team of the United Arab Emirates Air Force. It was formed in 2010 with Italian-built Aermacchi MB-339NAT jet aircraft. The team has a total of seven aircraft, all seven of which are used for performances. They are the only aerobatic display team in the world that uses Black Smoke.The Russian Knights is an aerobatic demonstration team of the Russian Air Force. Originally formed on April 5, 1991 at the Kubinka Air Base as a team of six Sukhoi Su-27s, the team was the first to perform outside the Soviet Union in September 1991 when they toured the United Kingdom. The team now performs with eight Su-30SM.The Tupolev Tu-144 is a Soviet supersonic passenger airliner designed by Tupolev and in operation from 1968 to 1999. The Tu-144 was the world's first commercial supersonic transport aircraft with its prototype's maiden flight from Zhukovsky Airport on 31 December 1968, two months before the British-French Concorde. The Tu-144 first went supersonic on 5 June 1969, four months before Concorde, and on 26 May 1970 became the world's first commercial transport to exceed Mach 2.Despite the similarity in appearance of the Tu-144 to the Anglo-French supersonic aircraft, there were significant differences between two aircraft. The Tu-144 is bigger and faster than the Concorde. Concorde's designers used fuel as coolant for the cabin air conditioning and for the hydraulic system. Tupolev also used fuel/hydraulic heat exchangers, but used cooling turbines for the cabin air.
