Tupolev Tu-104

To bring Aeroflot into the jet era within two years, the Tupolev bureau took the wing, tail and powerplant of the Tu-16 bomber and married them to a pressurised passenger fuselage. The first flight took place in June 1955, and in September 1956 the Tu-104 opened scheduled Moscow to Irkutsk services. After the grounding of the Comet and until the Boeing 707 appeared, the Soviet airliner remained for two years the only jet passenger aircraft in service. It cut travel time across the country threefold and forced airports to build new runways and aprons. On display is the nose section of a Tu-104B with the flight deck and an early-series cabin restored to the original Karelian birch veneer finish.