The Tu144 crash was not a fault of the designers. The 144 was to do the same amount of time in the air as the Concorde, but at the last minute, the french cut the time in half, and changed its route. Then, the pilot had to do emergency action to miss a french fighter jet that strayed into the path of the plane, the pilot could not recover, as the action was past the stresses of the airframe.
Source: Soviet SST, by Howard Moon, great book about the 144.
Why the hell would there be any other aircraft in the air anywhere near that airport during the airshow? Were the French deliberatly trying to sabotage the TU-144?