Stolen technology: the “flying fortress” of the USSR

The Boeing B-17 was the most popular heavy bomber since World War II, and its reputation was almost invulnerable to meeting with the Messerschmitts, exceptional survivability (the plane returned to the base even on one of four engines, with huge holes in the hull) and nine Browning machine guns M2 12.7 mm caliber made him a real legend. The first flight of the B-17 took place in 1935, and a decade later by the end of World War II it was already outdated. The bomber could only lift 2,200 kg of aerial bombs, and the first atomic bombs of Little Boy and Fat Man weighed 4,400 kg and 4,670 kg, respectively. Despite the appearance of the British heavy bomber Avro 683 Lancaster, a new aircraft was required for the Allied forces to invade Japan. This was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress strategic bomber.

By technical characteristics, the B-29 is superior to almost all bombers in the history of aviation, except for modern ones. Yes, the B-29 was slow, but only because jet engines were in their infancy in 1944. The bomber was a forgotten superweapon of World War II, and everyone - Japan, Germany, Great Britain and the USSR - wanted to get the same. Only the Soviet Union could go so far as to make its own B-29, with the help of reverse engineering of the technologies of the crashed aircraft and made an emergency landing on the territory of the USSR of American aircraft.

Like all countries in World War II, the Soviet Union needed a heavy bomber. The distance from Moscow to Berlin is 1600 km, and from Vladivostok to Tokyo - only 1060 km, so the Russians did not so much need a long-range bomber as a machine capable of carrying more than a dozen 250-kilogram bombs.


Petlyakov Pe-8, Soviet heavy bomber from World War II

At the beginning of the war, the most powerful Soviet bomber Petlyakov Pe-8 was inferior to any four-engine bomber of the Allied forces. The Pe-8 could deliver only 900 kg of aerial bombs over a distance of 1900 km, while the B-17 delivered 2700 kg at the same distance. The USSR was far behind, and although Berlin and Tokyo were a short distance away, a heavier bomber was clearly required.

Tokyo raids

The United States attacked Tokyo at the start of the war: Doolittle raid occurred in April 1942, but with minimal success. During the operation, 16 Mitchell medium-sized B-25 bombers were supposed to take off from aircraft carriers, fly over Japan and land in China. But for 15 aircraft, it was a one-way flight. Only one machine survived, and after the raid, the Japanese organized a large-scale operation in East China in search of surviving pilots. The damage to Japan from the bombing was negligible. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle himself thought he would be tried on his return to the United States. This did not happen due to the fact that the Doolittle raid proved that Japan was unable to defend its territory. This helped to increase morale, so the raid was recognized as successful.

Doolittle’s raid was never repeated, and the next attack on Japan took place only two years later. In the summer of 1944, the U.S. Air Force organized the Matterhorn operation , launching bombers from air bases deep in China to the Japanese-controlled Manchuria and Formosa (Taiwan), as well as the Japanese island of Kyushu. Although this operation can hardly be considered successful - the logistics of delivering fuel and air bombs from bases in India to Chinese air bases has become a real nightmare - it was she who provided the USSR with several B-29 corps for study.

Recovery B-29

The Soviet Union was an ally, but the United States refused to supply L-lease B-29 bombers. It’s not that the Americans didn’t want to help with the planes: the same P-39 Aerocobra fighters are generally more likely known as a Soviet plane: half of all produced vehicles were delivered to the USSR under Lend-Lease. Thousands of fighters were transported to Alaska, through Siberia to the Eastern Front. But the B-29 was special, it was the largest and most powerful bomber of its time, something that every country wanted to get, and what America did not want to share.

During several sorties during the Matterhorn operation, individual B-29 aircraft were damaged and landed on Soviet territory. One B-29 crashed, three others made an emergency landing. Experts predicted that the USSR would need five years to create its own long-range heavy bomber, and in 1944 there were no such plans at all. For Stalin, the arrival of the B-29 on Soviet soil was a real gift. He ordered an exact copy of the B-29, bolt-to-bolt, in two years.

The miracle of technology

The B-29 was a real technical miracle. Remote-controlled tower machine guns, high-precision Norden system bomb sights , airtight compartments and unusually powerful engines were the pinnacle of the technology of the 40s. There were other technological advances. For example, the B-29 was equipped with a huge chassis - such Soviet industry could not produce. The impressive transparent dome made of plastic on the nose of the B-29 also failed to copy in the USSR; Test pilots then often complained that Soviet acrylic panels were distorted and distorted.

The most advanced Soviet bomber installed fabric-covered ailerons on the wings, while the B-29 was all-aluminum. Copying the B-29 seemed an almost impossible task even in the best of times, but this task was shouldered by Andrei Tupolev, head of the USSR's largest design bureau.


Dismantling of the General HH Arnold Special bomber at the Frunze Central Airport in Moscow

Three B-29 bombers landed in Siberia after the Japanese raid, they were quickly transported to the Central airfield in Moscow. These aircraft are General HH Arnold Special , Ding How and Ramp Trampdisassembled in detail or used for training and test flights, or stored intact for the sample. For reverse engineering, the B-29 needed to make duplicates of more than 100,000 parts, and the Stalin directive required the manufacture of a perfect copy. This copy of the B-29 will later become known as the Tu-4.

This is easier said than done. The Soviet Union did not have the opportunity to produce many details, and even the B-29 used aluminum cladding 1/16 "thick, and in the USSR the metric system of units. Nevertheless, the cloning of the aircraft was successful. A group of designers and designers Tupolev even copied the color Interior layout and repair patch General HH Arnold Special .

The differences between the B-29 and Tu-4 were hidden inside. The powerful 2,200-hp Wright R-3350 engine found in the B-29 was unavailable. Tu-4 equipped with a variant of the copy of this engine, ASh-73TK with a centrifugal supercharger and two turbochargers. The first version of the engine was inferior in power to the Wright R-3350. Machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber from the B-29 could not be made, so the Tu-4 was equipped with air guns. The massive B-29 tires were beyond the power of Soviet industry, so agents were sent to the western military market to produce suitable tires.

Disclosure

Germany signed the act of surrender on May 8, 1945, and under the Tehran agreement, the USSR was obliged to enter the war with Japan within 90 days after that. However, on August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb in Hiroshima, and on August 9 - in Nagasaki, and the frightened Japan capitulated on September 2. By that time, the B-29 was completely dismantled at the Central Airfield in Moscow, although it took another two years for the USSR to first show its own new generation heavy bomber.

On August 3, 1947, during the celebration of Aviation Day, representatives of all the branches of the USSR Air Force gathered at the airfield in Tushino. There were supposed to show for the first time the Su-9 and Su-11 fighters- copies of the German turbojet fighter Messerschmitt Me 262. And suddenly, during an air show, three large bombers flew over the heads of the public at an altitude of just 200 meters. The characteristic streamlined shape, four roaring engines and a unique plexiglass nose made it clear to observers that these are the forgotten B-29s that were lost three years earlier. After them, another Soviet Tu-4 passed over the crowd, this time a passenger version of the aircraft. The world has now learned that the Soviet Union has brand new B-29s.


The last surviving Tu-4 is stored in the Central Museum of the Air Force in Monino

The B-29s were hardly used after the war: they were soon replaced by the massive B-36 Peacekeeper intercontinental bombers, and in 1955 they gave way to the stratospheric fortress B-52 Stratofortress. But the Tu-4 served in Soviet aviation for several decades.

A lot of myths have been created around the Tu-4, for example, that it is an absolutely exact copy of the B-29, right up to scratches on one of the wings of the anti-aircraft fire. This is actually not the case. The Tu-4 pushed the development of the Soviet aerospace industry, and only 10 years later the Soviet Air Force introduced the Tu-16, a jet bomber that is still in service with the Chinese Air Force, as well as the Tu-95 - the legendary turboprop strategic bomber, which until It is still in service with the Russian Air Force and plans to serve until the 2040s.

This is a great example of engineering, although much of the design is copied from a Boeing product. Not the first time the American design was copied by Soviet engineers. The first Soviet atomic bomb RDS-1, modeled on the American Fat Man, was dropped from the Tu-4 compartment.

Today, only one copy of the Tu-4 has survived, it is stored in the aviation museum near Moscow. Although this is not a very good indicator of survival, taking into account hundreds of manufactured specimens, it is a great demonstration of how Stalin pushed the development of the Soviet aerospace industry.