POSTCARD N.53 - Russia

Postcrossing postcard sent on the 21st November; received on the 6th January
Postcard image: Tupolev 134B
____________________________________________________________________

This beautiful Tupolev 134B sent me inside cover #59, postcard is the second of this aircraft postcard series that I was sent by Julia, the first being that of an Ilyushin Il-14. Thank you so much!

Developed from the Tupolev 124, the Tu 134 was the world's first commercial jetplane with the now ubiquitous turbofan engine and it followed the design trend initiated with the French Sud Aviation Caravelle of mounting the engines on the sides of the rear fuselage, thus eliminating any disturbance to airflow on the wings caused by the engines, a solution that was also used by the contemporary DC9 and the BAC1-11.

Used in short to medium haul flights, the original TU 134 seated 50-60 passengers (single class or two class configuration) but later variants, would see an increase in  seating capacity, up to 96 in the Tu 134B, Crew would be composed of 3-5 members plus 4-5 flight attendants.

According to wikipedia, one of the main differences in the 134B was the relocation of the radar in the nose radome, thus eliminating the "glasshouse" up front. Still, the caption on my postcard identifies the aircraft therein depicted as a TU134B, so there might have been some aircraft of this variant that kept the old configuration (either that or the caption is wrong....)

According to Wikipedia, in 2019 three Tu134B were still active: one in Syria with Syrianair and two in North Korea, the type having been operated by airlines of at least 20 companies of the countries in the sphere of influence of the former USSR.