August 13 1996.

Russian and U.S. specialists on 12 August conducted the first ground tests of the modified Tu-144 supersonic transport at the Zhukovskii air base near Moscow, RIA reported. The Tu-144LL will be used as a flying laboratory during a six-month test program largely funded by the U.S. space agency NASA. Tupolev's chief designer, Aleksandr Pukhov, told Reuters that the plane could become the prototype of the "supersonic jet of the next century." Tupolev has designed an upgraded engine for the new venture. -- Doug Clarke