Putin Says we are better than you

[MachFly]

The Tupolev bureau was responsible for retro-engineering the B-29 into the Tu-4. Tupolev pored all that experience and technology into creating the Tu-85 prototype in 1949... Essentially a scaled up Tu-4:

(Image removed from quote.)

It never entered into production, but in 1951 Tupolev got approval to design a turboprop version designated Tu-95. By adding four 12,000 hp turboprop engines and sweeping back the wings the supersized B-29 copy became the Cold War icon we all know as the Bear.

If you look at them side by side the heritage is unmistakable.

(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)

I disagree. Your right that orijinally they started working with the Tu-4 but eventually ended up building something totally different.

Tu-95 - Tu-4 differences:
Different Cockpit (nose)
Swept back wings
Different type of engines
different horizontal and vertical stabilizers
no fuselage gun positions

The only thing that I find the same is the gear


Crappy picture but here is the nose:

I removed the refueling boom from the picture

[BrownBaron]

I did not say they were the same. I said they were similar.

It's like comparing a Hawk and a Humming bird. They both are quite unique, but have similar elements.

Hawk has talons, and agressive beak, while Humming bird has neither, yet their wing and skeletal structures are similar.

[MachFly]

See your not saying that F-22 is a copy of a B-25 because it has wings, 2 engines, 2 V stabilizers, and a cockpit. All airplanes will be similar because they can fly.

[MachFly]

I don't think we're getting anywhere with this. We're entitled to out opinion, lets just leave it at that.
I don't think there are any facts.

[BrownBaron]

I've never said they were copies, I would not have used the Hawk:Hummingbird analogy if that was the case.

At any rate, hijack over, you may have your thread back.

[Nemisis]

What was the origional topic? All the OP said is that the Ruskies had a new fighter, and left us to turn that into whatever the hell we felt like.

[MachFly]

I've never said they were copies, I would not have used the Hawk:Hummingbird analogy if that was the case.

rgr

[Die Hard]

Of all of the descendants of the Boeing B-29, the Tupolev Bear is the most remarkable. The Bear is a mainstay of Russia's strategic aviation forces and a key element in Russian naval strategy, being currently in production to support at least one of these roles. The new Bear H is Russia's first cruise missile carrier and as such has led the United States to deploy an immense network of Over-The Horizon (OTH) radars, quite a feat for a design of the Bear's age.

The origin of the Bear may be traced back to 1945, when several USAAF B-29 aircraft, severely damaged by Japanese defences, landed in Russian territory. While the crews were repatriated, the B-29s never left Siberia. Engineers from the Tupolev and Shvetsov bureaus, despatched from their plants, proceeded to strip the aircraft down to the last component, analysing and documenting all.

In 1945, Russian bomber design was at its worst for decades, the only production four engined bomber being of prewar design and hopelessly inadequate in comparison with the USAF's B-29 fleet. Russia needed a capable bomber to project its newly acqui red nuclear capability and copying the B-29 was the least painful way of getting one. It is to the credit of the robust B-29 that it could be successfully produced in an industrial infrastructure as obsolete as that of the USSR in 1949.

Hailed as a fully Soviet design, the Tu-4 Bull first flew in 1947 and entered series production in 1949, 1200 were eventually built. The Russians copied the airframe, powerplants, systems and the unique fire control system which remotely controlled the four gun turrets. The notable difference between the aircraft was in the Russian installation of NS-23 cannon in preference to the 50 calibre guns of the B-29.

While the Tu-4 provided Russia with a credible nuclear strike force, the US deployment of the B-50, B-36 and B-47 made it quite apparent that a more capable aircraft was required. The Tupolev bureau developed the Tu-4 design into the larger Tu-80 and Tu-85, eventually adopting the characteristic glazed nose and stepped forward fuselage used to this date.

Neither of these aircraft was considered successful and the Russians turned to their newly developed turbojets and turboprops, thus spawning two major families of aircraft - the Badger and the Bear.

The Tupolev Tu-95

The Badger and the Bear were both evolutionary and revolutionary in Russian aircraft design. The evolutionary aspect was in the design of the fuselage and systems, which directly illustrated their Boeing heritage. The revolutionary aspect was in the application of a swept wing and turbine powerplants.

The Tu-95 was designed in 1951/52 and first flew in 1955. The fuselage of the Tu-95 resembles that of the B-29 in many respects, it is circular in cross-section, with a pressurised shell fore of the wings, has substantial structure to support the thick wing roots below and behind which is situated a weapon bay. The fuselage behind the wing retains the general configuration of its ancestor, although it appears that only a single pressurised shell is used in most versions, below the vertical stabiliser; this contains the aft gunner/operators' stations. The tailplane is raised somewhat above the fuselage and a tail gunner's station is situated at the end of the fuselage. Unlike the B-29 with gunners stationed just aft of the wing, the Tu-95 gunner(s) have two large observation blisters below the tailplane. The Tu-95 did however retain part of the remotely controlled gun turret system of the Tu-4, with a retractable dorsal and a ventral barbette each containing a pair of 23mm NR-23 cannon.

The glazed nose of the aircraft housed the navigator/bombardier's station and is followed by a conventional flight deck with dual controls. The forward fuselage almost certainly houses additional stations for systems operators (eg. attack radar in later derivatives), a gunner and possibly a mission commander or political officer (this would not be a unique strategy, Japanese bombers such as the Betty carried a commanders' seat just aft and slightly above the pilots' stations and in view of the high degree of KGB control over nuclear systems during the 1950s and 1960s would almost seem the natural solution). The fuselage weapon bay is situated below and aft of the wing roots, it could fit several high yield nuclear devices. It is not clear whether the fuselage tunnel connecting the forward and rear pressurised areas as used in the Tu-4 was retained, although it would have made some sense given the expected duration of sorties.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yA8qDIdIKI&feature=related

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