A Tupolev 144 supersonic jet, also known as the ‘Russian Concorde’, was transported on Scheuerle platform trailers from Moscow to its final destination at a museum in Germany.

The 4,000km journey from Russia to the Automobile & Technology Museum in the town of Sinsheim took 34 days in October and November 2000.

The journey began in Moscow where the plane was disassembled and loaded onto a barge to St Petersburg. From there, the plane travelled across the Baltic Sea to Kiel where it entered the Kiel Canal by barge.

The barge arrived in Rotterdam at the beginning of November and continued down the Rhine to Mannheim and then Heilbronn.

Once the convoy had arrived at Heilbronn, the body of the plane, weighing 60t and 59m long, was loaded onto Sheuerle Inter Combi trailers for the last leg of the trip.

The original route was to go through Karlsruhe, but this plan had to be abandoned because power parts of the aircraft were still onboard and intact, contrary to the plans submitted. Instead, the convoy had to go straight through Heilbronn. This meant a delay while parked vehicles and traffic lights were removed from streets along the new route.

For the last leg of the journey to Sinsheim, the aircraft attracted much publicity and the convoy was besieged by camera crews. As the plane arrived at the museum, Tupolev chief design engineer Alexander Poukjov was present to pay a final tribute to his creation.