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> The USSR's nuclear espionage helped their bomb project, but it was not essential.

Definitely! They've steal US nuclear documents just for laughs, comrade!

Tu-144 flew before Concord. Try to explain to some people that it's hard to get a pure copy running before the original :) - I'm not surprised anymore, they'd still insist Tu-144 is merely a copy.

When Project Apollo uses Yu. Kondratyuk's (A. Shargey) staging calculations of course that's not a copying of a critical part.

> Tu-144 flew before Concord.

"The aircraft was introduced into passenger service on 1 November 1977, almost two years after Concorde, because of budget restrictions."

Yes, they've managed to "overcame bourgeous West" with Tu-144, but because design and production was rushed - they got Paris air show crash, postponed operational services and generally bad design, forcing earlier retirement for Tu-144.

That isn't what I said. The steps necessary for making a bomb were known to Soviet scientists, the information stolen saved them some trouble of discovering which methods worked best. Valuable, but not essential.

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