Su-25 Frogfoot and Tu-144

The Sukhoi Su-25 (NATO reporting name: Frogfoot) is a single-seat, twin-engine jet aircraft. It was designed to provide close air support for the Soviet Ground Forces. The Tupolev Tu-144 (NATO reporting name: "Charger") was one of the world's only two supersonic transport aircraft (SST) to enter civilian service, along with the Concorde. A prototype first flew on 31 December 1968 near Moscow, two months before Concorde. The Tu-144 first broke the speed of sound on 5 June 1969, and on 15 July 1969 it became the first commercial transport to exceed Mach two. However, a crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show was a major setback to development. The Tu-144 was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost two years after Concorde, but was soon withdrawn after just 55 scheduled passenger flights due to potentially severe problems with aircraft safety and was not re-introduced to service.