In 1955, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France held a summit meeting in Geneva.
The conference was the first highest-level meeting since the Second World War to discuss the German question and European security.
Although the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union had not yet started at that time, the contest between the two countries in various fields was already known to the world.
Khrushchev, who was the first general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee at the time, certainly did not want to be compared with the Americans on this stage of showing the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev's obsession with Soviet-made large passenger aircraft
In fact, however, as soon as Khrushchev arrived in Geneva, he was more shabby than the other countries attending the meeting because of the plane he was taking.
It turned out that although the Soviet Union at that time had a profound industrial heritage, it lagged behind the West in the development of civilian industry because it focused on the development of the military industry.
Therefore, although the Il-14 passenger plane that Khrushchev was flying at that time was the best passenger plane that the Soviet Union could get hold of, when it landed, it was still compared with the Lockheed L1049 plane that US President Eisenhower was riding.
The latter was one of the few large, long-range luxury airliners capable of crossing the Atlantic.
Khrushchev was a very face-saving man, and seeing that the plane he was flying in was only half the size of Eisenhower's Super Constellation, the Soviet leader was somewhat disgraced.
So after returning to China, Khrushchev, who was the supreme leader of the Soviet Union at the time, immediately ordered his subordinate units to start studying the matter of large passenger aircraft, and asked for benchmarking the Lockheed L1049 passenger plane of the United States.
Don't look at the USSR back then, it was among the best in the world in the field of military industry, but it was really not easy to build such a large passenger aircraft.
At that time, the United States and Western European countries had the world's most cutting-edge industrial manufacturing technology, and the cooperation of various countries had the most complete industrial chain in the world.
Therefore, large luxury airliners such as Lockheed L1049 have appeared, in fact, such large airliners are not the technology of the United States, but the industrial pearl made by inheriting the industry of the entire Western country.
However, Khrushchev did not care about this, and was stunned to use the industrial manufacturing capacity of the Soviet Union alone with the entire industrial technology of the industry of Western countries.
What the Americans could have, the mighty Soviet Union would certainly be able to make.
Just a few weeks after Khrushchev returned from Geneva, the Tupolev Design Bureau received an order from Khrushchev to design a large passenger aircraft capable of intercontinental flights.
Khrushchev, who returned to the Soviet Union, was on the same page as having an airplane.
So the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau at that time first modified a passenger plane for Khrushchev with the Tu-16, that is, the H-6 of our country, - Tu-104.
Although the Soviet Union said at the time that it was the world's first commercial transport aircraft to be put into operation, everyone knew that this was only a stopgap measure of the Soviet Union, and it was not much for such an aircraft to go around Europe, and it was indeed difficult for the United States to fly across the ocean.
Later, Khrushchev also knew that he was flying in these planes running all over Europe, which were actually the so-called "emperor's new clothes", so he again ordered the Tupolev Design Bureau to design a luxury airliner capable of intercontinental flights.
This really stumped the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau.
Because designing a passenger aircraft is not something that can be easily done by a strong national industry, the key is that after the commercial airliner is designed, there must be enough civil aviation companies to pay for it.
Otherwise, even if all the research and development funds of the Tupolev Design Bureau were exhausted, it would not be enough to use them for the research of such a large passenger aircraft, not to mention that the Tupolev Design Bureau was responsible for the research and development of military aircraft at that time, and the funds could not be transferred at all.
But Khrushchev didn't care about this, and just wanted Tupolev to accomplish this glorious and arduous task. After thinking about it, in the end the Tupolev Design Bureau came up with a plan.
That is, it was converted into a VIP airliner from the Tu-95 bomber, an intercontinental strategic bomber already in service in the Soviet Union at that time.
Scheme of the Tupolev Design Bureau
As soon as the plan came out, the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau were immediately praised by Khrushchev. This came as a bit of a surprise to the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau.
Originally, such a plan was formulated only to fool Khrushchev, thinking that it would not be long before Khrushchev would give up this idea. I didn't expect this plan to really be passed.
There is no technical problem in converting the Tu-95 bomber into a passenger aircraft, but the Tu-95 bomber was originally designed for intercontinental strategic deterrence, and most of the items placed in the aircraft are also weapons and ammunition for strategic bombing.
Of course, in terms of performance, such an air monster used to carry out intercontinental bombing missions far surpassed the Western airliners of the time in terms of performance.
Not only is the speed fast and the range long, but the aircraft's climb speed, maximum ceiling and other indicators are far superior to those of general civil airliners.
But the comfort of such an airplane cannot be guaranteed! After all, such a big guy is not designed to sail comfortably.
But Khrushchev didn't care about that, as long as it could be proved that the Soviet Union was stronger than the United States, even if the engineer told him that he could only get on and off the plane from the back of the plane like cargo.
So in this way, the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau made two modifications of the Tu-95 according to Khrushchev's wishes. That is, Tu-114 and Tu-116.
Both schemes are based on the Tu-95, the difference is that the Tu-114 is improved, and the main structure of the aircraft has been readjusted, which will have better comfort and airworthiness.
The Tu-116, on the other hand, simply and rudely dismantled the bomb bay, radar and other equipment on the Tu-95, and directly stuffed a luxurious cockpit into it.
However, since the Tu-95 was originally a bomber, it adopted a mid-mounted wing.
As a result, the front and rear nacelles of the aircraft were divided into two separate parts by the wings, making it difficult to modify without redesign, and the noise inside the aircraft could not be suppressed.
Thus, although the Tu-116 was first designed, no one ever got on the plane.
The plane also flew with cracks
In July 1959, Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to visit the United States. At that time, the Cold War relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were already clear, so Khrushchev decided that he had to show off in front of the Americans.
However, the simple and crude improvement scheme of the Tu-116 is really not available, and the Tu-114 is under development, and many key data have not been measured.
After listening to the reports of the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau, Khrushchev said that there was no problem and that he was completely fearless.
Khrushchev's "heroism" really made the engineers of the Tupolev Design Bureau pinch a cold sweat. In order to ensure a safe flight, a number of tests were carried out in an effort to succeed before Khrushchev's visit to the United States.
But after all, time is too tight, and the Tu-114 simply did not have time to go to the sky for flight tests.
What's worse is that due to the rush of construction, the engineers finally found that there were still some small cracks in the engine of the Tu-114 aircraft.
The engineers did not dare to hide it, and reported all these circumstances to Khrushchev.
I have to say that Khrushchev was really bold, even if he knew that the Tu-114 plane had not yet made a test flight, and he also knew that there were cracks in the engine, he preferred to take this plane to visit the United States.
In order to ensure Khrushchev's safety, the USSR made two insurance measures.
The first was to have the son of Andrei Tupolev, the designer of the design, work with him as a random pilot on the plane, so that he could respond to some problems during the flight.
And there is also a section under the cabin of the plane, in which several engineers are occupied.
The second option was to mobilize all of the Soviet Union's active warships and line up the Atlantic Ocean from the Soviet Union to the east coast of the United States.
In this way, even if the plane fell into the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the way, the search and rescue work for Khrushchev could be launched as soon as possible.
Finally, on September 15, 1959, Khrushchev visited the United States on a Tu-114 passenger plane developed by the Soviet Union.
However, there is one thing to say, after all, this Tu-114 passenger plane was modified from a bomber, and it completely crushed all the civil airliners of the Western camp that were operating at that time in terms of aircraft performance data.
As a four-engine propeller airliner, the Tu-114 had a staggering 870 km/h, which was faster than even some jetliners of the time.
And its design capacity reached 220 passengers, which was arguably the largest passenger aircraft in the world at that time before the appearance of the Boeing 747.
There is no suitable gangway
Although the Tu-114 plane arrived in the United States safely and smoothly, it finally allowed Khrushchev to make a foreign appearance when he got off the plane.
Since the Tu-114 airliner was modified from a strategic bomber, the design height of the aircraft door was not the international standard for the use of the aircraft.
The plane has a landing gear up to 9 meters high, so there is no gangway to match it at American airports.
As soon as the plane arrived in the United States, the staff at the American airport found out about the situation. So the spiral ladder was temporarily raised for Khrushchev to get off the plane.
But when the spiral ladder approached, people realized how laborious it was for Khrushchev's chubby figure to get down the temporarily raised spiral ladder.
Just as Khrushchev got off the plane, all the reporters present hurriedly captured this scene, if nothing else, it was indeed a bit funny to get off the plane in such a posture.
But then again, such a situation can be called a diplomatic accident. The US side did not make adequate preparations for Khrushchev's arrival, so it is also the fault of the US side in any way.
But it doesn't matter, Khrushchev's swaggering personality doesn't seem to be angry about this.
However, it is said that the conversion of the Tu-95 strategic bomber into a civilian airliner by Soviet engineers can be regarded as a major industrial miracle in human history.
Although the Tu-114 did not become a popular seller internationally, the Soviet Union proved to the world through it that such an industrial pearl as a large airliner could not only be born in Western countries!