The Tu-70, NATO code name ‘Cart’, was a one-off long range airliner development from the Boeing B-29/Tupolev Tu-4. The prototype, incorporating a B-29 landing gear, tail unit and engines, first flew on 27 November 1946, designed for crew of eight and 48 VIP passengers, but used with crew of six and 72 passengers as staff transport for air force. A new nose with conventional cockpit/flight deck instead of low-drag Superfortress-style nose was built.
Engines: 4 x ASh-73TK, 1770hp Max take-off weight: 51400 kg / 113318 lb Empty weight: 38290 kg / 84415 lb Wingspan: 43.05 m / 141 ft 3 in Length: 35.61 m / 117 ft 10 in Height: 9.75 m / 32 ft 0 in Wing area: 161.7 sq.m / 1740.52 sq ft Max. speed: 560 km/h / 348 mph Range: 4900 km / 3045 miles Crew: 6 Passengers: 48
At the end of the 1940s, Vladimir Dobrynin’s engine design bureau had developed a new air-cooled, twenty-four cylinder in-line piston engine, the VD-4K, which offered a 4,300hp supercharged power output. Dmitri Markov set about designing a very long-range strategic bomber with these engines. Starting from the Tu-80 he began by designing a high-aspect wing with increased span – now it was 55.94m compared to the 43.83m of the Tu-75 and Tu-80, and wing area was 273.6sq.m, compared to 162.7sq.m. Wing aspect ratio was 11.4:1.
This allowed the new aircraft to carry forty-four tonnes of fuel which would give it a range of 12,000km. He streamlined the fuselage, and provided accommodation for a second crew which would be needed with the aircraft’s twenty-six hour endurance capability. Normal crew was eight so the Tu-85 carried sixteen in a pressurised cabin. The Tu-85 was fitted with large four-blade propellers, and it was armed with five turrets each fitted with a pair of NR-23 cannons which could be remotely controlled by a gunner, who had a screen to show the arc of fire from each position a development of the B-29/Tu-4 system.
The Tu-85 was constructed at factory N 156 in 1949 and 1950. When completed, it was brought to Zhukovski aerodrome, reassembled and readied for flight. On 9 January 1951, Aleksei Pereliot was in command as it took off for the first time.
In factory and state tests, it gave excellent results. Although its empty weight was 55.4 tonnes and its normal take-off weight seventy-five tonnes, it could take off at 107 tonnes when necessary, allowing it to carry the enormous fuel load needed to achieve its 12,300km range with a five-tonne payload, or to increase its normal five-tonne bomb load to twenty tonnes. Cruising speed for maximum range was established at 450km/h, but maximum speed was much higher. At low level, it was measured at 563km/h, and at a level of 10,000m it reached 665km/h.
By now, turbine engines were establishing themselves and offering higher speeds with lower fuel burns. The Tu-85 was the end of the line for Tupolev’s piston-engined, and also for Soviet aircraft. Limited flight trials were undertaken but further development was later cancelled. Only one Tu-85, the prototype was built. It was the last large Tupolev aircraft without swept wings.
Engines: 4 x VD-4K piston engines, 3160hp Max take-off weight: 107000 kg / 235896 lb Empty weight: 55400 kg / 122137 lb Wingspan: 55.94 m / 184 ft 6 in Length: 39.31 m / 129 ft 12 in Height: 11.36 m / 37 ft 3 in Wing area: 273.6 sq.m / 2945.00 sq ft Max. speed: 665 km/h / 413 mph Cruise speed: 563 km/h / 350 mph Ceiling: 13000 m / 42650 ft Range: 13000 km / 8078 miles Crew: 11-16
At the end of 1948, just as production Tu-4s were beginning to be delivered to the VVS, Tupolev and Markov began work on a replacement. In a sense, it was an improved B-29 design, with a major programme to trim weight and thus to improve performance.
A new wing with better aerodynamic qualities and with a lighter but stronger spar was developed with integral wing tankage. The fuselage was lightened and the round Tu-4 nose of the same chord as the fuselage was replaced with one in which the cockpit was raised above the nose for improved visibility. A new, more angular tail was also built, with a distinctive dorsal fin. Its engines were four of Shvetsov’s ASh-73TKFNs, a Soviet-built turbocharged version of the original B-29 engines.
All these changes resulted in the Tu-80 being substantially lighter than the Tu-4, and this allowed it to carry more fuel. Its first flight was made on 1 December 1949 from Zhukovski. In state tests, its maximum speed was established as 640km/h. But the Tu-80 was just another step on the way to the Soviet Union achieving a long-range strategic bomber. With the coming of age of turbines, it was not developed beyond its test programme.
Engines: 4 x ASh-73FN, 1770hp Max take-off weight: 67200 kg / 148151 lb Empty weight: 41030 kg / 90456 lb Wingspan: 44.3 m / 145 ft 4 in Length: 36.6 m / 120 ft 1 in Height: 8.91 m / 29 ft 3 in Wing area: 173.1 sq.m / 1863.23 sq ft Max. speed: 650 km/h / 404 mph Ceiling: 11180 m / 36700 ft Range: 7000-8000 km / 4350 – 4971 miles Crew: 11
Another Tu-2 variant was the Tu-10. This was a four-crew aircraft fitted with inline Mikulin AM-39FNVs of 1850hp. Its first flight took place on 19 May 1945, and it proved to have perhaps the best performance of any Tu-2. At 8600m it attained a speed of 641km/h. Ceiling was 10,450m but range fell to 1,740km. A small batch was produced in Omsk between 1945 and 1947.
Three examples of the Boeing B-29 arrived in late 1944 (examples of which had made emergency landings in Russia during 1944 in the course of operations against Japan); one being dissected and analysed, and the other two used as crew trainers and evaluation.
The Soviet Union built the Tu-4 by copying them as a virtual exterior clone of the B-29 but with significant interior modifications. It was a heavier aircraft and did not possess either the pressurised tunnel linking the forward to midships crew locations or the integral fuel tankage of the B-29. The first of a 20-aircraft pre-production batch flew on 3 July 1947.
Placed in service in 1948, series production terminated after over 400 aircraft had been delivered in 1952, by which time the Tu-4 was in large scale service with the Soviet DA (Long-Range Aviation), being accorded the NATO reporting name ‘Bull’. Some were used as wingtip-to-wingtip inflight-refuelling tankers, others as conventional HDU-equipped tankers.
It is reported that about 1200 were built.
The type was exported to China where some were re-engined with Ivchenko AI-20 turboprops and were sporadically used into the 1990s as AEW and drone launching platforms.
Engines: 4 x ASh-90, 1705kW Max take-off weight: 61300 kg / 135144 lb Empty weight: 35000 kg / 77162 lb Wingspan: 43.1 m / 141 ft 5 in Length: 30.2 m / 99 ft 1 in Height: 8.5 m / 28 ft 11 in Wing area: 161.5 sq.m / 1738.37 sq ft Max. speed: 570 km/h / 354 mph Ceiling: 11000 m / 36100 ft Range w/max.payload: 5000 km / 3107 miles Crew: 11 Armament: 5 x 23mm cannons Bombload: 5000kg
The origin of the Tupolev Tu-2 lay in the ANT-58, ANT-59 and ANT-60 light bomber prototypes that came from the design bureau of Andrei N. Tupolev during 1938-40. Powered by two 1044kW Mikulin AM-37 V-12 engines, the ANT-58 made its first flight on 29 January 1941.
The ANT-60 was re-engined with the big and powerful 1104kW M-82 radials because of the relative unreliability of the AM-37s. The result was the definitive Tu-2 bomber that was to see service with the V-VS during the last year of World War II and well into the 1950s.
Soviet industry was still in a state of upheaval following the years of 1941-2, when the German army struck deep into Belorussia and the Ukraine. The Tu-2 was too complicated an aircraft for the conditions prevailing, and after many months in which the Tu-2 was modified and simplified for the mass production lines, the Tu-2S (Seriinyi, or series) appeared, flying for the first time on 26 August 1943. A small number of Tu-2s had previously been passed to front line regiments in September 1942, where their performance, armament and bombload had received general enthusiasm.
By January 1944 the first production Tu-2 and Tu-2S bombers had been passed to the regiments of the V-VS, but it was not until June of that year that Tu-2s saw action on a large scale. The sector was the Karelian (Finnish) front in the north where the V-VS forces, under the overall command of General A.A. Novikov, numbered 757 aircraft of the 13th VA (Air Army), the V-VS KBF (Red Banner Baltic Fleet) and the 2nd GVIAK (guards fighter corps). Of the 249 Tu-2 and Petlyakov Pe-2 light bombers in the Soviet order of battle, many came under Colonel I.P. Skok’s 334th Bomber Air Division which subsequently received a citation for its work. Reconnaissance work was now being carried out by Tu-2D and Tu-2R aircraft with modified mainplanes, nose glazing, and capacity for vertical and oblique cameras. Wartime production of the Tupolev Tu-2 and its sub-types amounted to 1,111. As a bomber it did not come into its own until the autumn of 1944. However, as German resistance stiffened on nearing the eastern borders of the Reich V-VS bombers, including Tupolev Tu-2s, were called up to attack strongpoints at Kustrin and other fortified ports and cities. September 1945 saw many Tu-2s in action against the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria before the final surrender.
Tu-2
Tupolev was awarded a Stalin Prize for his Tu 2 medium bomber, the only wholly new Soviet wartime aircraft to go into production.
Tu-2S Engines: 2 x ASh-82FNV, 1380kW Max take-off weight: 11360 kg / 25045 lb Empty weight: 7474 kg / 16477 lb Wingspan: 18.86 m / 62 ft 11 in Length: 13.8 m / 45 ft 3 in Height: 4.55 m / 15 ft 11 in Wing area: 48.8 sq.m / 525.28 sq ft Max. speed: 550 km/h / 342 mph Ceiling: 9500 m / 31150 ft Range: 1400 km / 870 miles Crew: 4 Armament: 2 x 20mm cannons, 3 x 12.7mm machine-guns Bombload: 4000kg
An attempt to produce a radar-equipped three-seat long-range night and all-weather fighter also suited for the escort mission, the ANT-63P, alias Tu-1, was one of a number of progressive developments of the ANT-61 (Tu-2S) bomber. Initially powered by two 1,900hp Mikulin AM-39F 12-cylinder liquid-cooled engines, the ANT-63P (the suffix letter indicating Perekhvatchik, or “Interceptor”) carried a fixed forward-firing armament of four 23mm cannon, two in the wing roots and two in the lower forward fuselage. The nose was intended to accommodate a PNB-1 Gneiss-1 airborne intercept radar based on the German FuG 220. First flown on 30 December 1946, the ANT-63P attained 680km/h and demonstrated a range of 2500km. Official interest in piston-engined fighters was waning by this time, and although the ANT-63P was re-engined with 1,950hp Mikulin AM-43V engines driving four-bladed propellers, being tested in this form in December 1947, no production was undertaken.
ANT-63P Engines: 2 x AM-43V Max take-off weight: 14460 kg / 31879 lb Wingspan: 18.86 m / 62 ft 11 in Length: 13.60 m / 45 ft 7 in Wing area: 48.80 sq.m / 525.28 sq ft Max. speed: 641 km/h / 398 mph Range: 2250 km / 1398 miles
