Tupolev was created by Andrei Tupolev in 1922 to design airplanes, both civilian and military. Over its 80+ years it has built more than 18,000 aircraft. Almost of all them have been bought and used in Russia and the eastern bloc countries or countries aligned with Russia. Whilst any claim of copying western aircraft might result in lawsuits Tupolev was not backwards when it came to introducing civil and military aircraft that looked remarkably like British or American models. In 1955 for example, Tupolev launched the Tu-104, a twin-engined jet passenger aircraft that, like the Comet, had its engines built into the wing/fuselage joints. It even, like the Comet, had square passenger windows !

In 1968 came the Tu-154, again looking remarkably like another aircraft, this time the Boeing 727 with its three rear-mounted jets. This plane became the mainstay of Aeroflot's USSR routes for many years flying 137 million passengers each year.

One major difference between the Tupolev aircraft and Boeing, for example, was that the Russian plane had many more tyres on its landing gear – to cope with the often poor quality of Russian airport runways and taxiways, some of them unpaved. Yet in many ways it was ahead of the 727 having higher thrust-weight ratios enabling it to take off and land on shorter runways. Another major difference on almost all Tupolev jet passenger aircraft was the fact that their main wings dipped downwards whilst on the ground, rather than upwards as with western aircraft – you can see this quite clearly in photos and on the models.

After the Tu-154 came a backward step in numbering though not technology with the Tu-144 – the Russian answer to Concorde which, to be honest flew on 31st December 1968, two months before the first Concorde left the ground. Once again it looked remarkably like Concorde and there were allegations of industrial espionage. An arrest was made following the discovery of detailed plans of some of the systems on Concorde but no charges were ever laid. Ironically the Tu-144 was technologically ahead of Concorde in several ways, though lacked its range. The Tu-144 programme suffered a major setback in June 1973 when the first production model, whilst involved in a flying display above the Paris Air Show, broke up in mid-air following an unusual manoeuvre and crashed, killing all six on board plus eight civilians on the ground. How ironic that it was to be another Paris crash that brought the Concorde project to an end !

But, undeterred, the Tu-144 went into service between Moscow and Alma-Ata (in Borat's favourite place, Kazakhstan) on test flights, carrying freight and mail; passenger services began in November 1977 but the following May another one crash-landed whilst on a non-passenger flight, killing several crew. June 1st 1978 saw the last scheduled Aeroflot supersonic flight. Much of the technology was later used in the Tu-160 supersonic bomber, which looked remarkably similar. The Tu-204 is a twin-engined heavy jet, similar in looks to the Boeing 757; the Tu-330, which is a high-wing twin engine smaller aircraft, not dissimilar in shape to the BaE 146, but designed as a cargo aircraft and able to operate from unpaved runways.

More recently came the Tu-334, an airplane in the same size and performance category as the MD90, for example.

The company is named after Oleg Antonov, its founder and head designer of the An-2, An-24, An-22 and other legendary planes. The company generally made transport aircraft for the USSR armed forces and branched out into a few civilian aircraft over the years, though not in as successful a fashion as the other major USSR manufacturers.

The company lacks facilities for full construction of some aircraft, a result of Soviet industrial strategy that split military production between different regions of the USSR.

Although this distribution minimised potential war risks, it prevented the various Soviet republics from developing self-sufficient economies. As a result, Antonov airplanes were often constructed by aerospace companies in Kharkiv (Ukraine), Novosibirsk (Russia), and Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

The Ilyushin aircraft company was founded in 1933 under the auspices of the Russian government and named after its leading light and designer, Sergey Vladimirovich Ilyushin. Its early aircraft were, if not exactly copies, perhaps loosely based on American civil aircraft produced by Douglas and other manufacturers. It also made a large number of fighters and bombers for the USSR air force.

It also made an aircraft that looked remarkably like a VC-10. Named the Il-62 it had four rear-mounted jets and was the USSR's first pressurised aircraft, making its maiden scheduled flight in 1967, from Moscow to Montreal.

It turned out to be a successful aircraft from a commercial point of view with 276 sold, to airlines including Egypt Air, Air India, CSA,Malév, TAROM, as well as Aeroflot and several other Russian-bloc airlines. The British-built VC-10 sold 54, by comparison, though whether the airlines buying the Russian "version" paid full price is a matter of debate.

Ilyushin is still in business, producing aircraft for the civil and military markets – its latest offering is the Il-114, a twin-engined turboprop for short routes. Ilyushin is in the process of merging with several other aircraft manufacturers in Russia (including Tupolev) to form the United Aircraft Company.