Tupolew Tu-16 | Odrzutowy Borsuk

Some time ago, I heard that it would be great if the channel featured some material devoted to Soviet bombers used by strategic air forces. Various suggestions were made, but I decided to start with the jet-powered Badger, an aircraft developed in 1948. The aircraft's history is closely linked to the design bureau's instructions to develop an aircraft that combined the capabilities of a jet engine with a very high payload, which was one of the hallmarks of the Tu-4 bomber, itself a copy of the American B-29 bomber. It's worth noting that the construction of the Tu-4 caused the Russians numerous problems, including the difficulty of converting imperial measurements to metric ones, which had a rather painful impact on the Tu-4s, but that's not the point today. As part of the development of a jet-powered bomber, work began on a project designated N, or Tu-88. The design team working on the new aircraft was headed by Dmitry S. Markov, who designed a twin-engine medium bomber, initially conceived as a vehicle to fill the gap between the Myasishchev M-4 and Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers. During development of the new aircraft, the Russians expected the Tupolev designers to be able to carry the largest FAB-9000 bomb then in use by the Soviet Air Force, weighing 9,000 kg. Naturally, this meant carrying this payload in the bomb bay, not on external suspension. Furthermore, the aircraft was expected to be able to carry a payload of 5,000 kg over a distance of around 5,000 km. A five-by-five, you might say. The central section of the fuselage received a distinctive narrowing in the area of ​​the engines, which minimized the cross-section and thus reduced drag. Tupolev himself intervened several times during the design process, including: He proposed the engine layout. A slightly modified swept wing designed for the Tu-82 was used, housing integral, large-capacity fuel tanks. However, there were also problems – one of them was the wing being too thin, which didn't accommodate the main landing gear, which consisted of four-wheeled bogies. Engineer Yudin proposed a solution, designing streamlined nacelles on the wing's leading edge. These nacelles later became a trademark of Tupolev designs. The Tu-88 prototype made its first flight in April 1952, equipped with AM-3A engines. The second prototype received the AM-3M powerplant and took flight before the end of the same year. Crucial to the development of the Mikulin M-209 engines, later designated AM-3 and RD-3. Before ordering two Tu-88 prototypes, tests of the new engines were conducted on the Tu-4LL. The Tu-88 first flew on April 27, 1952, and immediately proved to be quite good. In fact, it performed very well. Comparative tests with the Ilyushin Il-46, designed according to more conservative specifications, showed that the aircraft, designated Tu-88, performed significantly better, which gave the authorities pause. Ultimately, the decision was made to put the Tu-88 into series production under the Tu-16 designation. Production of the RD-3 engines began in Kazan in late 1953, and the following year, the aircraft were unveiled during a flyover of Red Square in Moscow. And if you like what I do and want to see more content on the channel, I invite you to buy me a virtual coffee. To do so, simply visit the link and make a transfer of your choice: https://buycoffee.to/balszoi Support this channel and receive these bonuses:    / @balszoi