The Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 strategic bomber was an unlicensed, reverse-engineered copy of the US WWII Boeing B-29 Superfortress heavy bomber. The Soviets used it in their first air dropped Atomic bomb tests and for launching anti-shipping missiles. It led the Soviets to produce more advanced aircraft including the Tupolev Tu-16 jet bomber and the Tupolev Tu-95 turboprop bomber of the cold war era which is still in service today.
The only bomber the USSR built during WWII of their own design was the Petlyakov Pe-8, a four-engine “heavy” bomber designed in the 1930s. Produced in limited numbers, it was used to bomb Berlin in August 1941. It was also used for “morale raids” designed to raise the spirit of the Soviet people by exposing the Axis vulnerabilities. Its primary mission was to attack German airfields, rail yards and other rear-area facilities at night. They were also high-value targets for the Luftwaffe’s fighter pilots. The loss rate of these aircraft, whether from mechanical failure, friendly fire, or combat, was high between 1942 and 1944. By the end of the war, only 93 had been built and the type was declared obsolete after the war ended.
Although the US and the Soviet Union were allies in the war against Germany, on 13 April 1941 the Soviets signed a Pact of Neutrality with Japan. The pact was valid for a period of five years and it stated that if either of the contracting parties become the object of hostilities on the part of any third powers, the other contracting party would observe neutrality throughout the duration of the conflict.
The US learned the consequences of the neutrality pact soon after the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942 when B-25B Mitchell Bomber, s/n 40-2242, of the 95th BS, 17th BG, with not enough fuel to reach China, made an emergency landing at Primorskrai Airfield (Primiori) near Vladivostok along the east coast of Russia. The bomber crew of five were interned for 13 months and the Soviets kept the B-25B bomber which they later scrapped in the 1950s.
In 1944, the Soviets realized they need the strategic bombing capability similar to that of the US Army Air Forces. The US was regularly conducting bombing raids on Japan, from Pacific air bases on Saipan, Guam and Tinian using the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which was state of art technology at that time. The US twice refused to supply the Soviets with B-29s under Lend Lease, so Joseph Stalin ordered the development of their own comparable heavy bomber.
During 1944, four individual B-29s made emergency landings in Soviet territory. In accordance with the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, the Soviets interned the bombers and the crews. Despite Soviet neutrality, the US demanded the return of the bombers, but were refused. The bomber crews were eventually returned to the US through Tehran, Persia (Today Iran) in January 1945.
| Mission Date | Bomber Model | Serial Number | Name | USAAF Unit | Bombing Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 July 1944 | B-29-5-BW | 42-6256 | Ramp Tramp | 771st BS, 462nd BG | Showa Steel Works, Anshan, Manchuria. |
| 20 August 1944 | B-29A-1-BN | 42-93829 | Cait Paomat | 395th BS, 40th BG | Imperial Steel & Iron Works , Yawata, mainland Japan. |
| 11 November 1944 | B-29-15-BW | 42-6365 | General H.H. Arnold Special | 794th BS, 468th BG | Omura aircraft factory, Kyushu Island, Japan. |
| 21 November 1944 | B-29-15-BW | 42-6358 | Ding Hao! | 794th BS, 468th BG | Omura aircraft factory. |
The bombers came from two different Boeing production lines, Boeing Wichita, Kansas (BW) and Boeing Renton, Washington (BN).
The B-29 Cait Paomat (Gaelic for St. Catherine) was severely damaged during the raid and unknowingly strayed into Soviet airspace. The crew opted to bail out of the aircraft. The Soviets located the crash site and the wreckage was collected for examination and for any spare parts.
When the other three B-29s entered into Soviet airspace, they were intercepted by Soviet fighters and escorted to Tsentralnaya-Uglovaya, where the Superfortresses made emergency landings. Tsentralnaya-Uglovaya (Central Corner) is an airfield in Primorsky Krai located west of the town of Artyom, Russia, 30 km (18.6 miles) northeast of Vladivostok on the east coast of the USSR, northeast of Korea.
Ramp Tramp, General H.H. Arnold Special and Ding Hao! all sustained some damage but were not written off. The three B-29s sat in storage at Tsentralnaya-Uglovaya where the USAAF insignia were replaced by Soviet red stars and Soviet-style serial numbers based on the aircraft’s original numbers (for example, 42-6256 was given the Soviet serial 256 Black, 42-6358 was given 358 Black and 52-6365 was given 365 Black). Later the B-29s were flown to Moscow and delivered to the Tupolev OKB (experiment and design bureau).
B-29 General H.H. Arnold Special in China 1944. The camels on the nose represent flights over the Himalayas which the crews refer to as flying over the “Hump”. Flying over the Hump was an extremely hazardous task for the crews. The air route wound its way into the high mountains and deep gorges between north Burma and west China where violent turbulence, 125 mph (201 km/h) to 200 mph (320 km/h) winds, icing, and inclement weather conditions were a regular occurrence.
B-29 General H.H. Arnold Special was disassembled and studied at the Central Aerodrome in Moscow.
B-29 358 Black (Ding Hoa!) was grounded and used as a reference aircraft.
B-29 358 Black at Izmailovo Airfield in Moscow.
B-29 Ramp Tramp after landing at the Tsentralnaya-Uglovaya airfield in July 1944. It remained flyable and later its engines were replaced with Soviet ASh-73TK engines to make the aircraft more maintainable. It remained in Soviet service for nine years.
Reverse Engineering
Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (10 November [Old Style: 29 October] 1888 to 23 December 1972) headed the Tu-4 project to reverse-engineer the B-29 Superfortress. Stalin ordered Tupolev to duplicate the Superfortress in as short a time as possible instead of continuing working on his own comparable ANT-64/Tu-10. The reverse engineering effort involved 900 factories and research institutes, which finished the design work during the first year, and 105,000 drawings were made. By the end of the second year, the Soviet industry was to produce twenty copies of the aircraft, ready for state acceptance trials.
To perform the replication, everything, right down to bolts and fasteners, had to be converted from English to metric units. Some immediate problems had to be solved. The main one was the thickness of the aluminum skin. The B-29’s skin was 1/16th inch which required an impractical 1.5875 millimeter thickness in order to be an exact duplicate, therefore a skin of varying thickness between 0.8 and 1.8 millimeters was used instead. The corresponding metric-gauge metal was of different thicknesses. Alloys and other materials new to the Soviet Union had to be brought into production. Extensive re-engineering had to take place to compensate for the differences, and Soviet official strength margins had to be decreased to avoid further redesign. Only one of the four interned B-29s had deicing boots, so it was used on the Tu-4 project. However despite the challenges, the prototype Tu-4 weighed only 340 kg (750 lbs) more than the US B-29, a difference of less than 1%.
The engineers and suppliers of components were under pressure from Tupolev, Stalin, and the government to create an exact clone of the original B-29 to facilitate production. Tupolev had to overcome substantial resistance to use equipment that was not only already in production but also sometimes better than the US version. Each alteration and every component made was scrutinized and was subject to a lengthy bureaucratic decision process. The engineers even needed authorization from a high ranking general to use Soviet-made parachutes.
Not an exact copy
The major differences were to the engines and the defensive weapons. The B-29’s 18-cylinder Wright R-3350 Turbo Cyclone engines were replaced with Soviet Shvetsov ASh-73 engines. The ASh-73 was a 18-cylinder, air-cooled, radial aircraft engine produced between 1947 and 1957 in the Soviet Union. It was a licensed development of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone 9 but was not otherwise related to the B-29’s later Wright R-3350 engines.
The remote-controlled gun turrets were redesigned to accommodate the Soviet Nudelman NS-23, a harder hitting and longer ranged 23mm (0.91 in) cannon.
| Position | Weapons | Ammunition |
|---|---|---|
| Front dorsal turret | 2 x NS-23 cannons | 275 rpg, 550 total |
| Front ventral turret | 2 x NS-23 cannons | 250 rpg, 500 total |
| Rear dorsal turret | 2 x NS-23 cannons | 275 rpg, 550 total |
| Rear ventral turret | 2 x NS-23 cannons | 500 rpg, 1000 total |
| DK-3 tail turret | 2 x NS-23 cannons | 275 rpg, 550 total |
A later model radio from lend-lease B-25s was used in place of the radio in the interned B-29s. Ihe identification friend or foe (IFF) system was omitted since the US IFF was unsuitable and the pressurized tunnel in the fuselage for the crew was also omitted. Instead of the integral fuel tanks of the B-29, the Tu-4 had flexible fuel tanks in the wings. Additional changes were made as a result of problems encountered during testing related to engine and propeller failures, and equipment changes were made throughout the aircraft’s service life.
Video: What America Got When It Thought it Was Safe to Land a B-29 in Russia
Video: “Ramp Tramp” The Story of the B-29 Reverse-Engineered by the Russians During WWII
The Tu-4 first flew on 19 May 1947 and was flown by decorated test pilot and lead engineer Nikolai Stepanovich Rybko (26 March [O.S. 13 March] 1911 – 28 August 1977). The Tu-4 was first displayed to the NATO nations during a flyover during the Tushino Aviation Day parade on 3 August 1947. At first, three aircraft flew over and the Western observers assumed that they were merely the three B-29 bombers which they knew had been diverted to the Soviet Union during WWII. Minutes later a fourth aircraft appeared. Western analysts then realized that the Soviets must have reverse-engineered the B-29. NATO assigned the code name “Bull” to the Soviet Tu-4 bomber.
Breaking the sound barrier
The DFS-346 (Samolyot 346) was a German rocket-powered swept-wing aircraft to be used for photo-reconnaissance runs over the UK which began development during WWII. It was designed by Felix Kracht at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS), the “German Institute for Sailplane Flight” to break the sound barrier. Originally designed in the winter of 1944, it was three years before the US Bell X-1 when Chuck Yeager exceeded the speed of sound on 14 October 1947. There were three prototypes, two unpowered gliders and one powered aircraft. The DFS-346 was incomplete at the end of the WWII. The Soviets recovered the three prototypes and the German design team and shipped them back to Russia.
The Soviet 346-P Glider was the first post-war build of this plane, and was completed in 1948 by the German engineers. Visually, the 346-P was identical to the earlier German design, except for a landing gear cowl which was removed primarily for lightening the air frame. The prototype also featured mounted under wing supports, to help stop the plane when landing. The second build, the 346-1, had a rocket engine mock up installed, and incorporated some minor changes in the rudder and tail design. The 346-2 was the same as the 346-1, but with rocket engines fitted. The 346-3 was the only plane that flew rocket-engine powered, and twice went trans-sonic. Like the US Bell X-1, the Soviet versions were carried aloft by an interned B-29 and dropped.
During 1948-51, the interned B-29 Ramp Tramp was used as the mother ship for underwing launching of the Soviet experimental 346 planes.
The Soviet 346-P Glider with landing skid.
Diagram of the Soviet 346-3 rocket-engine plane.
A total of 847 Tu-4s had been built when production ended in 1952, some of which went to China during the 1950s. The first Tu-4 regiment was activated in 1948 and the last Tu-4 regiment was disbanded in 1960.
| Heavy Bomber and Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiments | Service Years |
|---|---|
| 37th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1952 to 1956 |
| 52nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 3.1949 to 1955 |
| 111th Berlinskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 121st independent Guards Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment | 5.1953 to 1958 |
| 132nd Berlinskiy orders of Kutuzov and Aleksandr Nevskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1957 |
| 157th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1952 to 1956 |
| 158th Guards Bryansko-Berlinskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1958 |
| 169th Guards Roslavlskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 8.1951 to 1957 |
| 170th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 171st Guards Smolensko-Berlinskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 172nd Guards Smolensko-Budapeshtskiy Red Banner (x2) Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1955 |
| 175th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1959 |
| 182nd Guards Sevastopolsko-Berlinskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1955 |
| 184th Guards Poltavsko-Berlinskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1955 |
| 185th Guards Kirovogradsko-Budapeshtskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1949 to 1955 |
| 198th Guards Sevastopolskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 199th Independent Guards Brestskiy Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment | 1953 to 1956 |
| 200th Guards Brestskiy Red Banner order of Suvorov Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 7.1950 to 1955 |
| 202nd Guards Sevastopolskiy order of Suvorov Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1949 to 1955 |
| 203rd Guards Orlovskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1948 to 1954 |
| 208th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1952 to 1960 |
| 210th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 7.1950 to 1955 |
| 219th Independent Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment | 1953 to 1957 |
| 226th Guards Stalingradsko-Katovitskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1949 to 1955 |
| 229th Guards Roslavlskiy Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1956 |
| 238th Guards Sevastopolskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 250th Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1952 to 1957 |
| 251st Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1950 to 1956 |
| 260th orders of Suvorov and Kutuzov Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1960 |
| 290th Independent Long-Range Reconnaissance Aviation Regiment | 1953 to 1957 |
| 291st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1956 |
| 303rd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1957 |
| 341st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1956 |
| 362nd Rizhskiy Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1949 to 1956 |
| 402nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1954 |
| 444th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 9.1951 to 1957 |
| 477th Independent Aviation Regiment for Electronic Reconnaissance | 1951 to 1955 |
| 840th Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1951 to 1955 |
| 1225th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1956 to 1959 |
| 1229th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment | 1956 to 1959 |
A US spy plane photo of Tu-4 Bulls at Khorol airfield located 3 km (2 miles) east of Khorol, Russia.
Variants
Tu-4 was the main production version, originally designated B-4.
Tu-4 variants without special designations:
- Tu-4 ELINT (Electronic signals intelligence) and ECM (Electronic countermeasure)
- Tu-4 remotely controlled target drone converted from retired bombers.
- Tu-4 fuel carrier
- Tu-4 in-flight refueling test beds (four different systems were tested)
- Tu-4 radiation reconnaissance aircraft
- Tu-4 communications relay aircraft
Project Burlaki
Known in old Russia as burlaki, the crews of river barges manually dragged their barges against the flow of the river. Using bombers to tow fighters was first used by the Soviets during the first months of the Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR in 1941. Old Tupolev TB-3 bombers towed Polikarpov I-16 fighters with poor results. When the MiG-15 “Fagot” entered service in 1949, the Soviets decided to use this short-range interceptor as an escort fighter for the Tu-4 Bull bomber. The idea was that several Tu-4s would each tow a MiG-15 within a formation of several normal Tu-4s, allowing them to intercept the enemy fighters. The test aircraft was the Yak-25E-I prototype, an unsuccessful contender to the La-15 and MiG-15, which was towed by a B-25 Mitchell bomber. After nine union and separation tests of both models, the project was approved. Developed by Yakovlev using Tupolev and Mikoyan-Gurevich aircraft, the system consisted of a Tu-4 equipped with an 80 meter (262.5 feet) cable that connected to the MiG-15, equipped with a “harpoon” (garpun in Russian) which replaced the gun camera. When they were connected, the engine of the MiG was turned off and it flew like a glider. If enemy fighters were encountered, the Mig-15 would use a kit called the ST2-48 to start its engine and the Tu-4 would break the connection. The Burlaki system did not encounter any mechanical problems during testing. Other than incorporating the harpoon and the ST2-48, the MiG did not require any other modifications. One problem was that the MiG-15 pilot froze when he flew at high altitude with his engine off. Yakovlev was considering connecting the heating to an external electrical source but the project was cancelled. Another issue was that the MiG-15 was not equipped to carry enough oxygen for the entire trip and this problem was never resolved. Between 1951 and 1952, 5 Tu-4s and 6 MiG-15s made 142 test flights, 18 of them at night. The project was suspended in 1952 and then cancelled in 1956. While tests showed the system had some merit, the introduction of jet bombers like the Tu-16 Badger, and the introduction of aerial refueling, made the concept obsolete.
Tu-4 number 221001 with the Burlaki system mounted under the tail of the aircraft.
Tu-4s towing MiG-15s during a test flight.
Tu-4A
The Tu-4A was capable of dropping Soviet nuclear bombs. The standard Tu-4 was not capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Ten Tu-4s were converted for use as atomic bombers. The A was for Atomiy, “Atomic” in Russian. The bomber was equipped with a thermostatically controlled heated bomb bay, a suspension unit for the bomb, and biological protection devices for the crew were supplied. The Tu-4A was used to drop nuclear devices over test grounds at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan and at Novaya Zemlya archipelago in the Soviet Arctic.
| Atomic Bomb | Explosive Yield | Date | Detonation | US Code Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDS-1 | 22 Kilotons | 29 August 1949 | Ground level | Joe-1 |
| RDS-2 | 38.3 Kilotons | 24 September 1951 | Ground, atop of 30m tower | Joe-2 |
| RDS-3 (Marya) | 41.2 Kilotons | 18 October 1951 | Air-dropped from Tu-4A at 380m | Joe-3 |
There are several explanations for the Soviet code name of RDS, usually an arbitrary designation: a backronym “Special Jet Engine” (Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Spetsialnyi), “Stalin’s Jet Engine” (Reaktivnyi Dvigatel Stalina), or “Russia does it herself” (Rossiya Delayet Sama).
RDS-3 bomb on cart being towed to the Tu-4A bomber.
The RDS-3 (Marya) after release from the Tu-4A bomber during the test on 18 October 1951.
From air bases in the western USSR, the Tu-4A could deliver an atomic bomb to any of the original 1949 NATO capital cities in Europe. From eastern USSR, any of the US facilities in Japan and South Korea could have been hit, in addition to British Hong Kong. The Tu-4A did not have enough combat radius to strike any part of the USA (except remote parts of Alaska) and return home. Although the Tu-4A did possessed sufficient range to attack New York or Los Angeles on a one-way mission. A small number of the bombers were modified for in-flight refueling in an attempt to solve that problem.
Film: Weapon of mass destruction. Atomic test USSR, RDS-3, 1951
Film: RDS-3 Soviet atomic bomb test (1951)
Film: The First Soviet Air Dropped Atomic Bomb – RDS3 Test Footage
Tu-4D
From 1954 onwards, 50 basic Tu-4 bombers were converted into Tu-4D freight carriers. The sub-designation came from Desahntny’y, the Soviet army term for riding on the outside of a tank. The bomb racks were deleted and the bays were reconfigured to deliver cargo via PDMM-47 parachutes. These held 33 lbs (15 kg) and up to 168 could be carried. Alternatively 28 paratroopers could be carried (jumping through the bomb bay doors), or mixed cargo and troops.
A BD-5-4D pylon was fitted under each wing for cargo pods. These could be para-dropped if necessary, but Tu-4D would normally land and unload them on the ground. The common P-90 pod held up to 3528 lbs (1600 kg), including a WWII-era artillery piece and a light vehicle.
Tu-4K
Operated by the Soviet Navy, 50 of these missile carriers were built. They were armed with two KS-1 Komet missiles carried between the engines under the wings. Tu-4Ks carrying KS-1 missiles could attack US and NATO fleet ships (especially aircraft carriers) in the Pacific and the oceans surrounding Europe.
The caption states that this KS-1 is under the wing of a Tu-4K but it is actually the swept wing of a later Tu-16 Badger jet bomber.
A Tu-4K with KS-1 missiles in flight.
The Raduga KS-1 Komet (NATO code name: Kennel) was the Soviets first short range air-to-surface missile, primarily developed for anti-ship missions. It resembled a scaled down MiG-15 jet with the cockpit and undercarriage removed. Its main fuselage was cigar-shaped with swept wings and an aircraft type tail. The KS-1 weighed 3.25 tons and had a 15’ 7″ (474.98 cm) wingspan. It was propelled by a Klimov RD-500K turbojet engine, reverse-engineered from the British Rolls-Royce Derwent turbojet engine. Missile guidance was provided by an inertial navigation system in the mid course phase, and by a semi-active radar in the terminal phase which directed the missile to its target. A 600 kg (1322.8 lbs) high explosive armor-piercing warhead was carried. Range was 90 km (56 miles) up to 100 km (62 miles). Maximum speed was Mach 0.9 (666.98 mph, 1073.41 km/h).
During the Korean War, the Soviets did considered a plan to deploy a Tu-4 regiment with the first KS-1 missiles to China and launch strikes against the UN fleet (USN, RN and RAN ships) around Korea, but the plan was never executed. Only one division of Tu-4s had been equipped with the KS-1 when the armistice was signed in 1953. Two regiments of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet flew Tu-4Ks from late 1952 until 1958.
Film: Soviet Tu-4 firing anti-ship missile KS-1 Komet
Tu-4T
The Tu-4T was a Paratroop transport where 42 paratroopers were carried in a modified bomb bay. Only one prototype was built.
It was also able to carry:
- 2600 kg (5732 lbs) of cargo in PDMM-47 parachute bags in the bomb bay.
- 3000 kg (6614 lbs) of cargo in P-85 containers in the bomb bay.
- Two P-90 ejection pods to carry a 57mm or 76mm field gun and a GAZ-69B 4×4 vehicle.
- P-98 pods for transportation of ASU-57 57mm airborne assault gun under the wings.
Film: Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 dropping paratroopers
Chinese Tu-4s
On 28 February 1953, Joseph Stalin provided China with 10 Tu-4 heavy bombers which were operated by the Fourth Independent Regiment of PLAAF and later, in 1960, two additional aircraft were provided and served as navigational training aircraft. In 1966, they were refitted with Ivchenko AI-20K turboprop engines. The Tu-4s were used during the riot-suppression operations over the Tibetan Plateau as a gunship and in the Sino-Indo Border War, and sometimes bombing the frozen Yellow River to reopen shipping routes.
In 1967, China attempted to develop its first airborne early warning aircraft, based on the Tu-4 air frame to monitor US nuclear tests in the Pacific. The project was named KJ-1 and mounted a Type 843 rotor dome on top of the aircraft. However, the radar and equipment was too heavy, and the KJ-1 did not meet PLAAF’s requirements. The project was cancelled in 1971. The last PLAAF Tu-4 was retired in 1988.
Tu-4 Successors
The production processes and technology of the Tu-4 combined with indigenous industry efforts began a process of evolutionary changes that led directly to the Tu-95 Bear turboprop bomber and in part, the Tu-16 Badger jet bomber.
The Tu-95 Bear is still in service today. Tu-95MS/MSM bombers reportedly took part in the opening assault on Ukraine during the initial phase of the 2022 Russian invasion of the Ukraine on 24 February 2022. On 6 March 2022, according to Ukrainian sources, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers launched eight cruise missiles, presumably the Kh-101, at the Havryshivka Vinnytsia International Airport from the Black Sea area. On 26 June 2022, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yurii Ihnat reported four to six Kh-101 cruise missiles were launched by Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic bombers at Kyiv from the Caspian Sea area.
Today
Tupolev Tu-4 number 01 at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino, located 23 km (14 miles) east of Moscow, Russia.
Video: Tupolev Tu-4 at the Central Air Force Museum in Monino
A KS-1 Komet missile is on display with the engine amazingly still inside at the Peenemünde airport on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom, Germany. These photos were taken in 2013 and 2014.
The airport is north of Peenemünde. It belonged to the Army Research Institute and was later a military airfield. Today, sightseeing flights with small planes operate from the airport. The community is known for the Peenemünde Army Research Center, where the world’s first functional large-scale liquid-propellant rocket, the V-2, was developed. The island of Usedom can be reached in 2-3 hours by car from Berlin. The airfield is also easily to get to from every seaside resort on the island by train.
Historical Technical Museum, Peenemünde
Maritim Museum Peenemünde U-461
Chinese KJ-1 AEWC at China Aviation Museum.
Walkaround: Prime Portal Chinese Tu-4 Kong Jiang-1
Model Kits
1/72:
Modelist 7214 Tupolev Tu-4 Boeing B-29A – 200?
Classic Plane CPM 65 Tupolev Tu-4 Bull plus Chinese Turboprop Drone Carrier – 2000
Classic Plane CPM 66 Tu-4 Bull plus Chinese Turboprop Early Warning Version – 2000
Academy 12517 USAAF B-29A “Old Battler” – 2015
MP-Models 72100 KS-1 Kometa / NATO AS-1 Kennel – 2006
Amodel 72178 KS-1/KRM-1 (AS-1 “Kennel” NATO Code) – 2008
Amodel NA72003 RDS-3 Soviet Atomic bomb – 2020
A+V Models AV129 DFS 346 Version D (Soviet Union 1949) – 200?
Huma Modell 4002 Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug DFS-346 Überschallflugzeug – 199?
Mike's Research 