At the end of 50's the idea of creating a supersonic passenger plane was taking form. Based on the success of military planes, many different projects were developed in USA, Europe and USSR.

When in the earlier 60's the Anglo-French “Concorde” became a reality the Council of Ministers of the USSR gave authorisation to develop the first generation of SST with the designation of Tu-144 and equipped with NK-144 engines.

Works began at MMZ “Opyt” plant near Moscow in 1965 until all sections were transported to the assembly plant in Zhukovsky. At the end of 1968 the prototype “044” registered as CCCP-68001 was ready for the first flight.

The late day of 1968, with pilot E.V. Elyan in the cockpit and without international observers, the prototype aircraft performed the first ever flight with a duration of 37 minutes. The crew reported that the aircraft proved to be flexible and easily piloted. Half a year later, on June 5, 1969 she exceeded Mach 1 and on May 26, 1970 go into history as the first civil aircraft that reached Mach 2.

In 1969 was presented to the world in Moscow and in 1971 flew to Paris to take part in the XXIX Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport where she met with the “Concorde” for the first time.

Studies and works developed on test flights with Tu-144 “044” shows different problems like enhanced vibrations level and tail fuselage heating from the package of four engines. The next model needed an improvement of structure and engines, this did that the prototype Tu-144 remains as the only one of her type.