The best passenger fight  Tupolev's Tu-154 tri-jet remains the standard medium range airliner on domestic flights in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union and to a lesser extent in eastern Europe and Iran.

The fight Tu-154 was developed to replace the turbojet powered Tupolev Tu-104, plus the An-10 and Il-18 turboprops. Design criteria in replacing these three relatively diverse speed aircraft included the ability to operate from gravel or packed earth airfields, to be able to fly at high altitudes above most Soviet Union air traffic, and nice field performance. 

Let meet these target the initial Tu-154 design featured three Kuznetsov  giving a relatively good thrust to weight ratio, triple bogie main heavy undercarriage units which retract into wing pods and a rear engine T-tail configuration.

The Tupolev's Tu-154 first flew on October 4 1968. The first production example was delivered to Aeroflot in early 1971, although regular aircraft commercial service did not begin until February 1972.