Profile – Tupolev Bear

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-TheHorizon (0TH) 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 acquired 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.

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