The Soviets came up with this one in 1968 to rival the European Concorde- western media aptly nick-named it Concordski. Due to technical difficulties and run-away cost the passenger service Moscow to Alma-Ata was stopped after only 55 flights. Later on a freight only service between Moscow and Khabarovsk brought the number on flights in revenue service to 102. In 1985 mothballed planes were recommissioned to train Cosmonauts for the Buran program. In 1997 NASA acquired one Tu-144 for use as a testbed- the program was sacked after 27 flights.