Tu-160(according to NATO Blackjack classification) – supersonic missile-carrying bomber, which has a variable sweep wing, was created by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1980s. It has been in service since 1987. The Russian Air Force currently has 16 Tu-160 strategic missile carriers.
This aircraft is the largest supersonic aircraft and variable-geometry wing aircraft in the history of military aviation, as well as the heaviest among all combat aircraft in the world. The Tu-160 has the largest maximum take-off weight among all existing bombers. Among Russian pilots the plane has the nickname “ White Swan».
Work on the creation of a new generation strategic bomber began at the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau in 1968. In 1972, the project of a multi-mode bomber with a variable sweep wing was ready, in 1976 the preliminary design of the Tu-160 project was completed, and already in 1977, the Design Bureau named after. Kuznetsov began work on creating engines for a new aircraft.
Initially, it was going to be armed with high-speed X-45 missiles, but later this idea was abandoned, giving preference to small-sized subsonic cruise missiles like the X-55, as well as aeroballistic hypersonic missiles X-15, which were placed on multi-position launchers inside the hull.
The full-scale model of the new bomber was approved in 1977. In the same year, at the pilot production of the MMZ “Experience” in Moscow, they began assembling a batch of 3 experimental machines. The wing and stabilizers for them were produced in Novosibirsk, the fuselage was manufactured in Kazan, and the landing gear - in Gorky.
The final assembly of the first prototype was carried out in January 1981, the Tu-160 aircraft with the numbers “70-1” and “70-3” were intended for flight tests, and the aircraft with the number “70-02” for static tests.
The first flight of the aircraft with serial number “70-01” took place on December 18, 1981(the crew commander was B.I. Veremey), and on October 6, 1984, a machine with serial number “70-03” took off, which already had a full set of equipment of a serial bomber. Another 2 years later, on August 15, 1986, the 4th serial bomber left the gates of the assembly shop in Kazan, which became the first combat aircraft. In total, 8 aircraft of two experimental series were involved in flight tests.
During state tests, which were completed in mid-1989, 4 successful launches of X-55 cruise missiles were made from the missile-carrying bomber, which were the main weapon of the vehicle. The maximum speed of horizontal flight was also achieved, amounting to almost 2200 km/h. At the same time, during operation, they decided to limit the speed threshold to a speed of 2000 km/h, which was mainly due to preserving the service life of the propulsion system and the airframe.
The first 2 experimental Tu-160 strategic bombers were included in the Air Force combat unit on April 17, 1987. After the collapse of the USSR, almost all production vehicles available at that time (19 bombers) remained on the territory of Ukraine, at the air base in the city of Priluki. In 1992, bombers of this type began to enter service with the 1st TBAP of the Russian Air Force, which was based in Engels. By the end of 1999, there were 6 Tu-160 aircraft at this airbase, another part of the aircraft was in Kazan (under assembly) and at the airfield in Zhukovsky.
Currently, most of the Russian Tu-160s have individual names. For example, the Air Force has aircraft “Ilya Muromets” (this was the name of the world’s first heavy bomber, which was built in Russia in 1913), “Mikhail Gromov”, “Ivan Yarygin”, “Vasily Reshetnikov”.
The high performance of the Russian strategic bomber was confirmed by the establishment of 44 world records. In particular, with a payload of 30 tons, the aircraft flew along a closed route of 1000 km at a speed of 1720 km/h. And in a flight over a distance of 2000 km, with a take-off weight of 275 tons, the aircraft was able to reach an average speed of 1678 km/h, as well as a flight altitude of 11250 m.
During serial production, the bomber underwent a number of improvements, which were determined by the experience of its operation. For example, the number of shutters for feeding the aircraft engines was increased, which made it possible to increase the stability of the turbojet engine (a two-circuit turbojet engine with an afterburner) and simplify their controllability. Replacing a number of structural elements from metal to carbon fiber made it possible to reduce the weight of the aircraft to some extent. The operator's and navigator's hatches were equipped with rear-view periscopes, the software was also improved and changes were made to the hydraulic system.
As part of the implementation of a multi-stage program to reduce radar signature, a special graphite radar-absorbing coating was applied to the air intake ducts and shells, and the nose of the aircraft was also covered with radar-absorbing paint. It was possible to implement measures to shield the engines. The introduction of mesh filters into the cabin glazing made it possible to eliminate the re-reflection of radar radiation from its internal surfaces.
Today, the Tu-160 strategic missile-carrying bomber is the most powerful combat vehicle in the world. In terms of armament and its main characteristics, it is significantly superior to its American counterpart - the B-1B Lancer multi-mode strategic bomber. It is expected that further work to improve the Tu-160, in particular the expansion and updating of weapons, as well as the installation of new avionics, will be able to further increase its potential.
Design Features
The Tu-160 bomber is made according to a normal aerodynamic design with variable wing geometry. A special feature of the aircraft airframe design is the integrated aerodynamic layout, according to which the fixed part of the wing forms a single whole with the fuselage. This decision allowed the best way use the internal volumes of the airframe to accommodate fuel, cargo, various equipment, and also reduce the number of structural joints, which led to a reduction in the weight of the structure.
The bomber's airframe is made primarily from aluminum alloys (B-95 and AK-4, heat-treated to increase service life). The wing consoles are made of titanium and high-strength aluminum alloys and are docked to hinges that allow you to change the wing sweep in the range from 20 to 65 degrees. The share of titanium alloys in the mass of a bomber airframe is 20%; fiberglass is also used; glued three-layer structures are widely used.
The bomber's crew, consisting of 4 people, is located in a single spacious sealed cabin. In its front part there are seats for the first and second pilots, as well as for the navigator-operator and navigator. All crew members are seated in K-36DM ejection seats. To improve the performance of operators and pilots during long flights, the seat backs are equipped with pulsating air cushions for massage. At the rear of the cockpit there is a small kitchen, a folding berth for rest and a toilet. Late model aircraft were equipped with a built-in stairway.
The aircraft landing gear is tricycle, with 2 steered front wheels. The main landing gear has an oscillating shock strut and is located behind the bomber's center of mass. They have pneumatic shock absorbers and three-axle bogies with 6 wheels. The landing gear retracts into small niches in the fuselage back along the bomber's flight path. Shields and aerodynamic deflectors, designed to press air against the runway, are responsible for protecting engine air intakes from dirt and precipitation entering them.
The Tu-160 power plant includes 4 bypass turbojet engines with an NK-32 afterburner(created by N.D. Kuznetsov Design Bureau). The engines have been mass-produced in Samara since 1986; until the mid-1990s they had no analogues in the world. NK-32 is one of the world’s first production engines, during the design of which measures were taken to reduce IR and radar signature.
The aircraft's engines are located in pairs in engine nacelles and separated from each other by special fire partitions. The engines operate independently of each other. To implement autonomous power supply, a separate auxiliary gas turbine power unit was also installed on the Tu-160.
The Tu-160 bomber is equipped with a PRNA sighting and navigation system, consisting of an optoelectronic bomber sight, surveillance radar, INS, SNS, astrocorrector and on-board defense complex “Baikal” (containers with dipole reflectors and IR traps, heat direction finder). There is also a multi-channel digital communications complex that is interfaced with satellite systems. More than 100 special computers are used in the bomber's avionics.
The onboard defense system of a strategic bomber guarantees the detection and classification of enemy air defense system radars, determination of their coordinates and their subsequent disorientation by false targets, or suppression by powerful active jamming. For bombing, the “Groza” sight is used, which ensures the destruction of various targets with high accuracy in daytime conditions and in low light levels. The direction finder for detecting enemy missiles and aircraft from the rear hemisphere is located at the extreme rear of the fuselage.
The tail cone contains containers with dipole reflectors and IR traps. The cockpit contains standard electromechanical instruments, which are generally similar to those installed on the Tu-22M3. The heavy vehicle is controlled using a control stick (joystick), as on fighter aircraft.
The aircraft's armament is located in 2 intra-fuselage cargo compartments, which can contain a variety of target loads with a total weight of up to 40 tons. The armament may consist of 12 X-55 subsonic cruise missiles on 2 multi-position drum-type launchers, as well as up to 24 X-15 hypersonic missiles on 4 launchers. To destroy small tactical targets, the aircraft can use adjustable aerial bombs(KAB) weighing up to 1500 kg. The aircraft can also carry up to 40 tons of conventional free-fall bombs.
In the future, the armament complex of a strategic bomber can be significantly strengthened by including new high-precision cruise missiles, for example, the X-555, designed to destroy both tactical and strategic ground and sea targets of almost all possible classes.
Performance characteristics of the Tu-160:
Dimensions:
— wingspan maximum – 55.7 m, minimum – 35.6 m;
- length - 54.1 m;
– height – 13.2 m;
Wing area – 360.0 sq. m.
Aircraft weight:
- empty - 110,000 kg
- normal take-off - 267.600 kg
- maximum take-off - 275,000 kg
Engine type – 4 TRDDF NK-32;
— non-afterburning thrust – 4x137.2 kN;
- afterburner thrust - 4x247.5 kN.
Maximum speed at altitude – 2230 km/h;
Cruising speed – 917 km/h;
Practical flight range without refueling: 12,300 km;
Combat radius: 6,000 km;
Practical ceiling – 15,000 m;
Crew – 4 people
Armament: two ventral compartments accommodate different target loads with a total mass of 22,500 kg, maximum - up to 40,000 kg. The armament includes tactical and strategic cruise missiles X-55 and X-55M, as well as short-range aeroballistic hypersonic missiles X-15 (M=5) with nuclear and non-nuclear warheads, as well as KAB adjustable aerial bombs of various types up to KAB-1500 , conventional types of bombs, as well as mines.
The strategic bomber Tu-160 “White Swan” or Blackjack (baton) in NATO terminology, is a unique aircraft. This is the basis of nuclear power modern Russia. The TU-160 has excellent technical characteristics: it is the most formidable bomber that can also carry cruise missiles. This is the largest supersonic and graceful aircraft in the world. Developed in the 1970-1980s at the Tupolev Design Bureau and has a variable sweep wing. In service since 1987. Tu-160 "White Swan" - video
The Tu-160 bomber became the “answer” to the AMSA (Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft) program of the United States, within the framework of which the notorious B-1 Lancer was created. The Tu-160 missile carrier was significantly ahead of its main competitors Lancers in almost all characteristics. The speed of the Tu 160 is 1.5 times higher, the maximum flight range and combat radius are just as large. And the thrust of the engines is almost twice as powerful. At the same time, the “stealth” B-2 Spirit cannot stand any comparison, in which literally everything was sacrificed for the sake of stealth, including distance, flight stability and payload capacity.
Quantity and cost of TU-160 Each long-range missile carrier TU-160 is a one-piece and rather expensive product; it has unique technical characteristics. Since their creation, only 35 of these aircraft have been built, with an order of magnitude fewer remaining intact. But they still remain a threat to enemies and the real pride of Russia. This aircraft is the only product that received its name. Each of the aircraft built has its own name; they were assigned in honor of champions (“Ivan Yarygin”), designers (“Vitaly Kopylov”), famous heroes (“Ilya Muromets”) and, of course, pilots (“Pavel Taran”, “Valery Chkalov " and others).
Before the collapse of the USSR, 34 aircraft were built, with 19 bombers remaining in Ukraine, at the base in Priluki. However, these vehicles were too expensive to operate, and they were simply not needed for the small Ukrainian army. Ukraine offered to give 19 TU-160s to Russia in exchange for Il-76 aircraft (1 to 2) or for writing off the gas debt. But for Russia this was unacceptable. In addition, Ukraine was influenced by the United States, which actually forced the destruction of 11 TU-160s. 8 aircraft were transferred to Russia for writing off the gas debt. As of 2013, the Air Force had 16 Tu-160s. Russia had too few of these aircraft, but their construction would have cost a huge amount. Therefore, it was decided to modernize 10 bombers out of the existing 16 to the Tu-160M standard. Long-range aviation should receive 6 modernized TU-160s in 2015. However, in modern conditions, even the modernization of existing TU-160s cannot solve the assigned military tasks. Therefore, plans emerged to build new missile carriers.
In 2015, Kazan decided to consider the possibility of starting production of the new TU-160 at KAZ facilities. These plans were formed as a result of the current international situation. However, this is a difficult but solvable task. Some technologies and personnel were lost, but, nevertheless, the task is quite feasible, especially since there is a backlog of two unfinished aircraft. The cost of one missile carrier is about 250 million dollars. History of the creation of the TU-160 The design task was formulated back in 1967 by the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The design bureaus of Myasishchev and Sukhoi were involved in the work, and they proposed their own options a few years later. These were bombers capable of reaching supersonic speed and overcoming air defense systems at it. The Tupolev design bureau, which had experience in developing Tu-22 and Tu-95 bombers, as well as the Tu-144 supersonic aircraft, did not participate in the competition. In the end, the Myasishchev Design Bureau project was recognized as the winner, but the designers did not have time to celebrate the victory: after some time the government decided to close the project at the Myasishchev Design Bureau. All documentation on the M-18 was transferred to the Tupolev Design Bureau, which joined the competition with Izdeliye-70 (the future TU-160 aircraft).
The future bomber had the following requirements: flight range at an altitude of 18,000 meters at a speed of 2300-2500 km/h within 13 thousand km; flight range near the ground of 13 thousand km and at an altitude of 18 km in subsonic mode; the aircraft must approach the target at subsonic cruising speed, overcome enemy air defenses - at cruising speed near the ground and in supersonic high-altitude mode. The total mass of the combat load should be 45 tons. The first flight of the prototype (Product “70-01”) was carried out at the Ramenskoye airfield in December 1981 of the year. Product “70-01” was piloted by test pilot Boris Veremeev and his crew. The second copy (product "70-02") did not fly, it was used for static tests. Later, a second aircraft (product “70-03”) joined the tests. The supersonic missile carrier TU-160 was put into serial production in 1984 at the Kazan Aviation Plant. In October 1984, the first production aircraft took off, in March 1985 - the second production vehicle, in December 1985 - the third, in August 1986 - the fourth.
In 1992, Boris Yeltsin decided to suspend the ongoing serial production of the Tu 160 if the US stopped mass production of the B-2. by that time 35 aircraft had been produced. KAPO by 1994 KAPO transferred six bombers to the Russian Air Force. They were stationed in the Saratov region at the Engels airfield. The new missile carrier TU-160 (“Alexander Molodchiy”) became part of the Air Force in May 2000. The TU-160 complex was put into service in 2005. In April 2006, the completion of testing of the modernized NK-32 engines created for the TU-160 was announced. The new engines are characterized by increased reliability and significantly increased service life. In December 2007, the first flight of the new production aircraft TU-160 was carried out. Colonel General Alexander Zelin, commander in chief of the Air Force, announced in April 2008 that another Russian bomber would enter service with the Air Force in 2008. The new aircraft was named “Vitaly Kopylov”. It was planned that three more operational TU-160s would be modernized in 2008.
Design Features The White Swan aircraft was created with extensive use of proven solutions for aircraft already built at the design bureau: Tu-142MS, Tu-22M and Tu-144, and some components, assemblies and some systems were transferred to the aircraft without changes. “White Swan” has a design that widely uses composites, stainless steel, aluminum alloys V-95 and AK-4, titanium alloys VT-6 and OT-4. The White Swan aircraft is an integral low-wing aircraft with a variable-sweep wing, an all-moving fin and stabilizer, and a tricycle landing gear. The wing mechanization includes double-slotted flaps, slats, and flaperons and spoilers are used for roll control. Four NK-32 engines are mounted in the lower part of the fuselage in pairs in engine nacelles. The TA-12 APU is used as an autonomous power unit. The airframe has an integrated circuit. Technologically, it consists of six main parts, starting from F-1 to F-6. In the unsealed nose section, a radar antenna is installed in a radio-transparent fairing; behind it there is an unsealed radio equipment compartment. The one-piece central part of the bomber, 47.368 m long, includes the fuselage, which includes the cockpit and two cargo compartments. Between them there is a fixed part of the wing and a caisson-compartment of the center section, the rear part of the fuselage and the engine nacelles. The cockpit consists of a single pressurized compartment, where, in addition to the crew’s workplaces, the aircraft’s electronic equipment is located.
The wing on a variable-sweep bomber. The wing has a minimum sweep of 57.7 m. The control system and rotary assembly are generally similar to the Tu-22M, but they have been recalculated and strengthened. The wing is of coffered structure, mainly made of aluminum alloys. The rotating part of the wing moves from 20 to 65 degrees along the leading edge. Three-section double-slit flaps are installed along the trailing edge, and four-section slats are installed along the leading edge. For roll control there are six-section spoilers, as well as flapperons. The inner cavity of the wing is used as fuel tanks. The aircraft has an automatic fly-by-wire onboard control system with redundant mechanical wiring and fourfold redundancy. The controls are dual, with handles installed rather than steering wheels. The aircraft is controlled in pitch using an all-moving stabilizer, in heading - by an all-moving fin, and in roll - by spoilers and flaperons. Navigation system – two-channel K-042K. The White Swan is one of the most comfortable combat aircraft. During the 14-hour flight, pilots have the opportunity to stand up and stretch. There is also a kitchen on board with a cupboard for heating food. There is also a toilet, which was not previously available on strategic bombers. It was around the bathroom that a real war took place during the transfer of the plane to the military: they did not want to accept the car, since the design of the bathroom was imperfect.
Armament of the Tu-160 Initially, the TU-160 was built as a missile carrier - a carrier of cruise missiles with long-range nuclear warheads, designed to deliver massive attacks on areas. In the future, it was planned to expand and modernize the range of transportable ammunition, as evidenced by stencils on the doors of the cargo compartments with options for hanging a huge range of cargo. The TU-160 is armed with Kh-55SM strategic cruise missiles, which are used to destroy stationary targets having given coordinates; they are entered into the missile’s memory before the bomber takes off. The missiles are located six at a time on two MKU-6-5U drum launchers in the cargo compartments of the aircraft. The weaponry for short-range engagement may include hypersonic aeroballistic missiles Kh-15S (12 for each MKU).
After appropriate conversion, the bomber can be equipped with free-fall bombs of various calibers (up to 40,000 kg), including disposable cluster bombs, nuclear bombs, sea mines and other weapons. In the future, the bomber's armament is planned to be significantly strengthened through the use of high-precision cruise missiles of the latest generation X-101 and X-555, which have an increased range and are also designed to destroy both tactical sea and ground targets, as well as strategic targets of almost all classes.
Tu-160(NATO classification: Blackjack) is a Soviet/Russian supersonic strategic bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1980s.
History of the Tu-160
In the 1960s, the Soviet Union developed strategic missiles, while the United States relied on strategic aviation. The policies pursued at that time led to the fact that by the early 1970s the USSR had a powerful nuclear missile deterrent system, but strategic aviation had at its disposal only subsonic bombers and, already unable to overcome the air defense of NATO countries. The situation was not so critical until work began in the USA, within the framework of the AMSA (Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft) program, to create a bomber, making all aircraft of this type of the previous generation, in fact, a relic of the past. In 1967, the USSR decided to begin work on its own new strategic bomber.
The Sukhoi Design Bureau and the Myasishchev Design Bureau began work on the new bomber. Due to the heavy workload, the Tupolev Design Bureau was not involved.
By the early 1970s, both design bureaus had prepared their projects. The Sukhoi Design Bureau worked on the T-4MS project, created on the basis of. The Myasishchev Design Bureau worked on the M-18 project with variable wing geometry.
After the Air Force presented new tactical and technical requirements for a promising multi-mode strategic aircraft in 1969, the Tupolev Design Bureau also began development. There was a wealth of experience in solving the problems of supersonic flight, gained during the development of the Tu-144.
In 1972, the commission reviewed the projects of the Sukhoi Design Bureau and the Myasishchev Design Bureau submitted to the competition. A non-competition project from the Tupolev Design Bureau was also considered. Taking into account the experience of the Tupolev Design Bureau in creating complex supersonic aircraft, the development of a strategic carrier aircraft was entrusted to the Tupolev team.
The first flight of the prototype took place on December 18, 1981 at the Ramenskoye airfield. The second copy of the aircraft was used for static tests. Later, a second flying aircraft joined the tests.
In 1984, the Tu-160 was put into serial production at the Kazan Aviation Plant.
Tu-160 design
When creating the aircraft, proven solutions were widely used for the machines already created at the design bureau: Tu-144 and Tu-142MS, and some of the systems and some components and assemblies were transferred to the Tu-160 without changes. Aluminum alloys, stainless steel, titanium alloys, and composites are widely used in construction.
The Tu-160 aircraft is designed according to the integral low-wing design with a variable-sweep wing, tricycle landing gear, all-moving stabilizer and fin. The wing mechanization includes slats, double-slotted flaps, and spoilers and flaperons are used for roll control. Four NK-32 engines are installed in pairs in engine nacelles in the lower part of the fuselage. The APU is used as an autonomous power unit.
Video Tu-160: Take-off of the Tu-160 bomber, the city of Zhukovsky
Integrated circuit planner. A radar antenna is installed in the forward unsealed part, followed by an unsealed radio equipment compartment. The central integral part of the aircraft, 47.368 m long, includes the fuselage itself with a cockpit and two weapons compartments. The cabin is a single pressurized compartment.
The wing on an airplane has variable sweep. The wingspan with minimum sweep is 57.7 meters. The rotating part of the wing can be adjusted along the leading edge from 20 to 65 degrees.
The plane has a three-wheel landing gear with a front and a pair of main struts.
The aircraft is equipped with four NK-32 engines, which are a further development of the NK-144, NK-22 and NK-25 line.
Modification projects
- Tu-160V (Tu-161)- a project for an aircraft with a power plant running on liquid hydrogen.
- Tu-160 NK-74- with more economical NK-74 engines.
- Tu-160P- project of a heavy escort fighter based on the Tu-160.
- Tu-160PP- the electronic warfare aircraft was brought to the stage of manufacturing a full-scale mock-up.
- Tu-160K- a preliminary design of the Krechet combat aviation missile system, within which it was planned to install two two-stage ballistic missiles on the Tu-160 with a range of more than 10 thousand kilometers.
- Tu-160SK- carrier aircraft of the Burlak aerospace system, capable of launching loads up to 1100 kg into orbit.
- Tu-160M- Tu-160 modernization project, which provides for the installation of new radio-electronic equipment and weapons. Capable of carrying conventional weapons.
Tu-160M2
In 2016, the Russian Ministry of Defense decided to resume production of Tu-160 bombers in the extreme design modification Tu-160M2. The aircraft will have a basic design and engines, but all on-board equipment will be completely new, which should significantly increase the aircraft's combat performance.
It is planned to purchase a batch of 50 aircraft, the first of which should enter service with the Russian Aerospace Forces in the early 2020s.
Armament of the Tu-160
Initially, the aircraft was built exclusively as a missile carrier - a carrier of long-range cruise missiles with nuclear warheads intended for attacks on area targets. In the future, it was planned to modernize and expand the range of transportable ammunition.
The Kh-55SM strategic cruise missiles in service with the Tu-160 are designed to hit stationary targets with predetermined coordinates. The missiles are placed on two drum launchers of six each, in two cargo compartments of the aircraft. To hit targets at shorter ranges, the weapons may include Kh-15S aeroballistic hypersonic missiles.
The aircraft, after appropriate conversion, can also be equipped with free-falling bombs (up to 40,000 kg) of various calibers, including nuclear ones, disposable bomb clusters, sea mines and other weapons.
In the future, the bomber's armament is planned to be significantly strengthened due to the introduction of high-precision cruise missiles of the new generation X-555 and X-101, which have an increased range and are designed to destroy both strategic and tactical ground and sea targets of almost all classes.
In service
Russian Air Force - 16 Tu-160s are in service with the 121st Guards TBAP of the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Donbass Red Banner Division of the 37th Air Army of the Supreme High Command (Engels Air Base), as of 2012. By 2015, all Tu-160s in service with the Russian Air Force will be modernized and repaired.
I'll continue the topic.
The Tu-160 is one of the few, if not the only, combat aircraft of the USSR, information about which was leaked to the press several years before its construction. Back in the 70s, during the SALT-2 (strategic arms limitation) negotiations, L.I. Brezhnev mentioned that the Soviet Union was designing a new heavy bomber as a counterweight to the American B-1. No other details were reported, except that it will be produced by an aircraft plant in Kazan, specially reconstructed for this purpose.
Several years have passed. November 25, 1981 the aircraft was preparing for testing at the LII airfield in the town of Zhukovsky (Ramenskoye) near Moscow. The car was parked on the gas platform next to two Tu-144s. It was in this environment that she was captured in the first photo published in the West. The press speculated that the plane was deliberately, for propaganda purposes, displayed under the lenses of American reconnaissance satellites (it was assumed that the picture was taken from space). The reality turned out to be much more prosaic: the photo was taken by one of the passengers on the plane landing at the nearby Bykovo airfield. Since its publication, the bomber has received the code name Ram-P (Ram - from the name Ramenskoye) and the NATO code - Blakjack. Under these names the heaviest bomber of all time was presented to the world.
Valentin Bliznyuk - chief designer of the Tu-160
Creation
The history of the Tu-160 dates back to 1967. During the competition for a strategic bomber, which was supervised by the Commander-in-Chief of Long-Range Aviation (DA), Colonel General V.V. Reshetnikov, the first projects to appear were the Sukhoi Design Bureau (T-4MS) and V.M. Myasishcheva (M-20). However, the Sukhoi Design Bureau, not without pressure from Air Force Commander-in-Chief P.S. Kutakhov, soon concentrated its efforts on its traditional products - fighters and tactical strike aircraft.
At the second stage, the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau joined the competition with the Tu-160 project. Myasishchev’s “firm” came up with a new development - the M-18, but once again the revived team did not have real forces implement such a large-scale program. Therefore, despite V.V. Reshetnikov’s sympathy for the M-18, Tupolev’s team became the winner of the competition.
M-18 bomber model
Its success was largely predetermined by the previous developments of the Tupolev team in heavy bomber aircraft and the presence of a suitable production base that its rivals did not have, so the competition for projects itself was largely conditional. However, the decision was completely justified: despite all the courage, Myasishchev’s projects were not sufficiently developed, and the “company” itself had very limited capabilities. The experimental machine-building plant was formed on the basis of the flight development base in Zhukovsky, which had previously only been involved in supporting tests, and later even testing the strength of the Atlant cargo ship had to be carried out in Novosibirsk. By decision of the MAP, the materials on the M-18/20 projects were transferred to the Tupolev Design Bureau for use in work on the Tu-160 (by the way, the Tu-160 in the final version and the M-18 at first glance differ only in the number of main landing gear - in the M-18 there were three of them).
At the beginning of 1975, the Design Bureau, headed by Alexei Andreevich Tupolev, began developing a preliminary design of the aircraft. At this phase, the bomber was assigned the code “product 70” and the internal designation “K”. The first version of the Tu-160 had a “tailless” aerodynamic design with a smooth coupling of the wing and fuselage and was an attempt to “cheaply and cheerfully” adapt the backlog of previous projects for new tasks: the Tu-135 bomber (unrealized) and the passenger Tu-144. But this approach led to the creation of a single-mode aircraft, that is, optimized for specific flight speeds and altitudes. This did not meet the requirements of the Air Force, which stipulated a wide range of capabilities of the future vehicle - from high-speed flight near the ground when breaking through to a target to long-term cruising at altitude. Therefore, work began on a variant of the Tu-160M (later the letter M was removed) with a variable geometry wing. At this stage, TsAGI played a huge role, with which the Tupolevites had traditionally close ties, and first of all G.S. Büschgens and G.P. Svishchev (in 1975 they were awarded the USSR State Prize for their work on this topic). However, a variable geometry wing for such a heavy aircraft is very difficult to implement. Its use on the Tu-160 required qualitative changes in production technology. For this purpose, a special State program of new technologies in metallurgy was formed, directly coordinated by the then Minister of Aviation Industry P.V. Dementiev.
Assembly of a model-strength analogue of the Tu-160 on a scale of 1:3 at the MMZ "Experience", 1976-1977.
The general layout and parameters of the “seventy” wing were inherited from the Tu-22M. But his design and technological solution for a three times heavier vehicle, naturally, was significantly different: the five-spar consoles of the Tu-160, assembled from seven monolithic panels (four at the bottom and three at the top), supported by only six ribs, were hung on the hinge units of the most powerful center section beam - an all-welded the titanium “spine” around which the entire aircraft was built. In the literal sense of the word, the tail assembly assembly became the “bottleneck”: in conditions of low construction height, it was necessary to place hinges for fastening the all-moving part of the fin and stabilizer, as well as powerful hydraulic drives (according to calculations, controlling multi-meter empennage planes required seven tons of effort).
Despite the refusal to directly develop the Tu-144 design, some of the design and technological achievements used on it found application on the Tu-160. These include elements of an integral aerodynamic layout that combines the fuselage and the inflowing part of the wing into a single unit. This arrangement solved a triune problem - it ensured high weight perfection, improved load-bearing properties and, thanks to large internal volumes, made it possible to accommodate a significant mass of cargo and fuel. As a result, with dimensions close to the Tu-95, the Tu-160 is 50% heavier.
The maximum “compression” of the Tu-160’s shapes was also achieved thanks to a rational structural layout (to reduce the midsection of the fuselage, the front landing gear compartment is located behind the cockpit, and not under it, as on the B-1, the main struts are shortened when retracted). The reduction in aerodynamic drag is facilitated by the large elongation of the fuselage and the smooth contours of its nose with strongly sloping windshields (initially, the installation of a deflectable nose fairing similar to the Tu-144 was considered). These measures made it easier to achieve the specified speed and flight range and... made the plane very elegant.
The Tu-160 became the first domestic serial heavy aircraft to use a fly-by-wire control system (known in the West as “fly by wire”), which made it possible to implement “electronic stability” with a flight alignment close to neutral. As a result, the flight range has increased, controllability has improved, and the load on the crew has decreased. difficult situations. Another element of novelty in the design of the airframe and power plant of the Tu-160 was the significant attention paid to reducing the radar and infrared signature of the aircraft (the so-called “stealth” technology).
One of the Tu-160 prototypes at LII
In 1977, engines (“product R”, later NK-32) were ordered specifically for the Tu-160 from the N.D. Kuznetsov Design Bureau located in Kuibyshev*. When designing them, the “company” used the experience of creating NK-144, NK-22, NK-25, focusing on Special attention reducing IR radiation and fuel consumption. In 1980, testing of the NK-32 began on the Tu-142M flying laboratory (the engines were placed in a streamlined gondola under the “belly” of the carrier). Serial production of the NK-32 began simultaneously with the Tu-160 - in 1986.
When assembling the engines on the Tu-160, the designers began with the design adopted on the Tu-144 (four engines in a single package under the rear center section, which made it possible to use oblique shock waves occurring under the wing to increase the aerodynamic quality of supersonic flight). However, such a scheme led to excessive losses of total pressure in long air channels, and individual adjustment of air intakes in some cases caused their negative mutual influence.
The reliability of the “tight bundle” of engines also turned out to be low - an accident or fire of one of them could destroy the rest. The main reason for their separation on the sides into two twin-engine nacelles was the need to free up space for the bomb bay, which rightfully occupied a position near the center of mass. Interestingly, nacelles were considered with both horizontal and vertical (one above the other) engines.
A full-scale model of the air intake was even built with two channels that went around the center section beam from above and below. This solution ensured the achievement of the best aerodynamic parameters and the greatest reduction in visibility, but technological difficulties and doubts about the level of combat survivability of the vertical “bundle” of engines did not allow this option to be implemented. In total, 14 power plant layout options were purged in TsAGI wind tunnels.
The first copy of the Tu-160 - aircraft 70-01 at the LII base in Zhukovsky during the start of testing
At the initial stage of work on the aircraft, the topic was supervised by A.A. Tupolev, and from 1975, V.I. Bliznyuk was appointed chief designer of the bomber, who actively participated in the creation of the Tu-22 and Tu-144. His deputies were L.N. Bazenkov and A.L. Pukhov. A lot of work on the Tu-160 was carried out by: the head of the flight test base V.T. Klimov (now the general director of the A.N. Tupolev ASTC), test engineer A.K. Yashukov, Chief Engineer experimental design bureau plant in Moscow A. Mozheikov, director of the aircraft plant in Kazan V. Kopylov. A huge contribution to the creation of product “70” was made by LII, NIAS, VIAM, NIAT, associations “Trud”, “Rainbow”, “Electroavtomatika”, MIEA and other industry institutes and enterprises (more than 800 organizations in total).
The draft design was defended in mid-1976, after which construction of the bomber model began. At this stage the following characteristics were declared:
Range without refueling with a load of 9 tons - 14000-16000 km;
Maximum flight altitude - 18000-20000 m;
Maximum fuel weight - 162200 kg.
The main missile armament of the Tu-160 was supposed to be two long-range Kh-45 missiles (one in each cargo compartment) or 24 short-range Kh-15 missiles (6 on each of the four MKU-6-1 turrets). These weapon options determined the dimensions of the cargo compartments, and main role played by the large dimensions of the X-45 (length - 10.8 m, height in folded configuration - 1.92 m, launch weight - 4500 kg, range - 1000 km, speed - 9000 km/h). The volume of each cargo compartment (43 cubic meters) turned out to be exactly equal to the volume of the Tu-95 cargo compartment.
Ironically, the use of the X-45 was abandoned already at the mock-up stage, following the United States, giving preference to new weapons - cruise missiles. Such a Kh-55 missile had a greater length than the Kh-15, which required the creation of a new MKU-6-5U turret.
At the end of 1977, the Tu-160 model was approved, and in Moscow, with extensive cooperation with Kazan, the construction of three prototypes began. The first of them, designated "70-01", was intended for flight testing, but was not fully equipped with on-board equipment. The "70-02" aircraft served for statistical tests, and the "70-03" became an almost complete analogue of the production aircraft.
Tests
In the second half of November 1981, the 70-01 began test taxiing at the airfield in Zhukovsky (it was photographed while testing the engines before the second run). The test pilots were B.I. Veremey, S.T. Agapov, V.N. Matveev, E.S. Pavlov and M.M. Kozel. Veremey performed his first flight on Friday, December 18, 1981, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of L.I. Brezhnev. Today, the designers deny a direct connection with this date, claiming that the takeoff on the “leader’s” birthday is accidental. This seems to be true because... in history Soviet aviation many aircraft made their first flight in December, which is due to the closure of enterprises’ annual plans. An even more prosaic reason for the “productivity” of December for the first flights is the clear winter weather that replaces the autumn rains and fogs (it is appropriate to recall that the Tu-144 first took off on the last day of the year - December 31, 1968). Knowing the date of the anniversary, the management could only correct the day of the first flight. Be that as it may, the task for December 18 included only a high-speed run (after landing, the pilot reported that “the car itself asked to take off”). The flight in a circle was successful, and the hero of the occasion, Veremey, soon received the Hero Star.
The “70-01” aircraft was tested for several years, serving to fine-tune the aerodynamics of the aircraft and measure its flight characteristics. In February 1985, the sound barrier was broken for the first time. Externally, it differed only slightly from production cars, but much more in internal equipment. With Tupolev’s “healthy conservatism,” already proven serial instrumentation and radio equipment was installed on it, postponing the inevitable problems with fine-tuning complex electronics to subsequent stages of testing.
In addition to the absence of part of the on-board complexes, some structural elements were made from substitute materials. It is precisely the difficulties in obtaining new construction materials and problems with the technology for processing them became the main reason for the delay in the construction of the second flying prototype of the “70-03”, which first took to the air only on October 6, 1984. The car was also different from the first “seventy” in appearance: its aerodynamics were “licked”, especially contours of the nose (S.M. Yeger said: “The plane is streamlined from the nose!”). In October, the third Tu-160 took off - the first aircraft assembled in Kazan.
A total of 8 aircraft of two experimental series were tested. The first stage of factory and state tests was carried out at the flight development base of the OKB in LII; as the program expanded, the Air Force Research Institute and its test site in Akhtubinsk (Vladimirovka) became involved, the location of which was at one time chosen due to the same suitable weather conditions (the number of clear “flight "days on the Lower Volga reaches 320 per year). The test team of Tu-160 military pilots was led by L.I. Agurin, and a number of flights were conducted by the future head of the Air Force Research Institute L.V. Kozlov, who “flew out” as a long-range tester.
The endless Trans-Volga steppes were the best suited for testing the main strike weapons of the Tu-160 - autonomous cruise missiles X-55 with a flight range of up to 3000 km. During their launches, the bomber was accompanied by the Il-76 special aircraft - a command and measurement post that received telemetric information from the Tu-160 and the missile itself, and also monitored its flight. Several times, in the event of failures and failures in the X-55 control system, when it became “too independent” and went off the route, dangerously approaching the boundaries of the test site, it was necessary to give a command to detonate it. During long-range launches, the X-55 continued to reach the target after the aircraft itself had landed. Its hit accuracy (probable circular deviation from the target) was brought to 18-26 m.
Great attention was required to fine-tuning the aircraft's radio-electronic systems - the Obzor-K sighting and navigation complex (PrNK) and, especially, the Baikal airborne defense complex (BKO), which replaced the rifle installations - an indispensable attribute of previous bombers. “Baikal” allows you to detect enemy air defense systems, detect their position, jam them with interference, or place a curtain of decoys behind the aircraft. BKO elements were tested at radiotechnical testing grounds near Orenburg and in Central Asia. In general, during state tests by mid-1989, the Tu-160 made 150 flights, of which 4 were with Kh-55SM launches, and one with the simultaneous release of missiles from both cargo compartments.
As already mentioned, production aircraft were assembled in Kazan. Formally, they were designated Tu-160S (serial), but in practice - Tu-160. The Kazan plant was formed in 1941 on the basis of the evacuated Moscow aircraft plant No. 22 and local plant No. 124. Its main products after the war were heavy aircraft created at the A.N. Tupolev Design Bureau: Tu-4, Tu-22 and Tu-22M. Currently, the Kazan Aviation Production Association named after. SP. Gorbunova produces Tu-204 passenger aircraft.
The production of the Tu-160 required the construction of new specialized workshops focused on the technology of the new machine. The plant now has unique equipment for the production of composite and honeycomb panels, stamping and milling of large-sized parts, including 20-meter monolithic slabs of variable thickness made of titanium and high-strength aluminum alloys, which made it possible to reduce the number of joints in the aircraft structure, reduce weight and increase service life. The colossal center-section beam of the wing, 12.4 m long and 2.1 m wide, was milled from two titanium halves, upper and lower, then welded into one in a vacuum chamber under special additives and fluxes (“know-how” of the Kazan plant). These operations had to be carried out at night - otherwise the operation of the most powerful equipment would leave half the city without electricity.
The first production Tu-160s began service in May 1987. They entered service with the 184th Guards Poltava-Berlin Red Banner Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment, based in Priluki, Chernihiv region. During the Great Patriotic War Among other units, the regiment stood out for its military successes, and after graduation it remained an elite unit of the USSR Air Force. He was the first to master the Tu-4 strategic bomber, then he was armed with various modifications of the Tu-16, and in 1984 the Tu-22MZ appeared in the regiment. For the Tu-160, the airfield in Priluki was reconstructed, the runway was strengthened and extended to 3000 m.
Combat pilots had to master the Tu-160 without waiting for the completion of state tests, which threatened to drag on due to the large amount of work and the number of test flights. The decision to test this aircraft (essentially, military tests) made it possible to use it proactively, identifying defects in everyday work and gaining experience for other regiments, which, following the leader, would receive new bombers. Of course, trial operation placed increased demands on the professionalism of pilots and technicians. Usually, retraining of personnel is carried out at the Ryazan DA training center, but this time we had to study the aircraft directly in the workshops of the Kazan aircraft plant.
At noon on April 25, 1987, the first group of two Tu-160s, led by Kozlov, landed in Priluki. One of the aircraft belonged to the experimental second series, the second was the lead in the military series. The flight to the home base went without problems, and at the airfield, in addition to the traditional bread and salt, the pilots were greeted by a countless number of “secretaries” and special officers assigned to guard the new equipment.
Two weeks later, on May 12, 1987, Kozlov “tested” the new aircraft from the Priluki airfield, and on June 1, the combat crew of regiment commander V. Grebennikov took off. Following him, the Tu-160 was lifted into the air by N. Studitsky, V. Lezhaev and A. S. Medvedev, known in the regiment as “ace Medvedev” - he took command of the first detachment of these machines.
To speed up the development of the aircraft (and save resources), a gym was equipped in the regiment. In order to make the most of the available pair of machines and train a sufficient number of pilots, several successive crews were “passed” through the cockpit of the Tu-160 going out for flights, waiting for their turn at the edge of the runway.
The pilots liked the plane. The snow-white car turned out to be very “flying”, easy to control, had excellent acceleration qualities and rate of climb (“it went up on its own”), was stable at low speeds, which made landing easier (the minimum speed was 260 km/h and was even lower than that of Tu-22MZ). Once the hundred-ton thrust of the engines was even enough to take off with the interceptors released due to inattention. The plane was sluggish, but went up, but after they were cleared, it jerked so hard that the pilots “almost pushed through the seats.” When dangerous conditions were reached, the warning system and automatic restrictions were activated, preventing the pilots from making gross mistakes.
The attitude towards the Tu-160, dubbed the “pride of the nation” (there was also a “flounder” - for a kind of “full face” with a bug-eyed cockpit), was very respectful, and its flights were arranged with due attention: in order to avoid garbage from the ground being sucked into the air intakes, the aircraft in the first months it was not allowed to drive to the start on your own. Having first started the engines on a carefully swept area and set them to idle, the planes were towed by a tractor, in front of which moved a line of soldiers collecting pebbles and branches, and the runway itself was almost washed before the flights.
While parked, the Tu-160 discovered a peculiar feature: with the wing consoles folded (position 65°), it could easily sit on its “fifth point”, and it was difficult to return it to its normal position. I had to leave the wing on the ground in the minimum sweep position of 20°, although at the same time the Tu-160 increased in span and took up more space.
Interior the flap folds as the wing sweep increases, forming an aerodynamic ridge
More serious measures were required by the discovery in the spring of 1988, not far from Priluki, of a container disguised as a stump with equipment that listened to radio communications and recorded the operation of aircraft radio systems. Its owners wished to remain anonymous, and the Tu-160 received a kind of “muzzle” - covers made of metallized fabric that covered the radar nose cone on the ground and did not allow radiation to pass out (they also protected the technical crew from high-frequency radiation during testing of aircraft equipment).
By the end of 1987, the regiment had a complete detachment of ten Tu-160s, but in order to maintain combat readiness during retraining, it retained the Tu-22M3 attack aircraft and Tu-16P jammers. As Tu-160s arrived, older aircraft were transferred to other regiments, and some of the Tu-16s were dismantled and destroyed on site (so that total combat aircraft remained within the framework of the Conventional Arms Reduction Treaty). To monitor the Tu-160s themselves, which were passing under a different “article” (their number was stipulated by the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty), American inspectors were supposed to arrive in Priluki, for whom a cottage was built next to the parking lots and the runway. The last Tu-22M3 left Priluki in March 1991.
With the growing difficulties of perestroika in the economy, the production of Tu-160s and the pace of their deployment decreased somewhat: by the end of 1991, the regiment consisted of 21 aircraft in two squadrons. At the beginning of the same year, the third squadron received the Tu-134UBL (combat training for pilots), which have controllability and behavior in the air similar to heavy bombers. They were used to commission crews and maintain flight skills, allowing them to preserve the service life of combat vehicles and avoid numerous failures that initially accompanied the Tu-160 (in addition, the use of “carcasses” was almost four times cheaper).
As the Tu-160 was mastered, the topics of flight missions expanded. Long-distance flights took place from Priluki to Lake Baikal and back or to the North, where the planes flew to Graham Bem Island in the Barents Sea. It happened to reach the North Pole, even going further north, and the longest flight made by the crew of V. Gorgol (regiment commander since 1989) lasted 12 hours 50 minutes. In some flights, the Tu-160 accompanied the Su-27 of the 10th Air Defense Army from airfields near Murmansk and on Novaya Zemlya.
Bombers flew in pairs over the sea, and by no means according to the requirements of the Flight Operations Manual. The presence of a partner gave the pilots confidence over the icy expanses, and in the event of an accident they could call for help (fortunately, this did not happen - after all, the crews had only ASP-74 life belts, and only naval pilots received special waterproof VMSC overalls: in our planned economy DA supplies went to another department).
Just two months after the first flight, the 184th TBAP carried out the first launch of the X-55 cruise missile, carried out by the crew of the regiment commander. The development of the missile system proceeded very quickly, and in no small part thanks to the high automation of the on-board PRNA, which simplified the work of the navigator - the main “actor” during launch. Target designation of the X-55 is carried out by a pre-entered program, so the navigator’s task is reduced to accurately bringing the aircraft to the firing point, monitoring the missile systems and launching. From the suspension in the cargo compartment, the rocket is fired downwards by a pneumatic pusher, and having moved to a safe distance, it opens the wing and tail (folded for compact placement), starts the engine and goes towards the target, while the drum of the ejection device rotates, sending the next rocket into the starting position.
All-moving horizontal and vertical tails
All practical launches of the X-55 were carried out at the Air Force Research Institute training ground and were accompanied by instrumentation aircraft. The Kh-55 was fired much more intensely than even the spent Kh-22N missiles from the Tu-22M3. Thus, 14 missiles were fired from one of the Tu-160s, nicknamed “Cowboy”. One of the most effective “launchers” was Major I.N. Anisin, the head of intelligence of the 184th TBAP, who was “in charge” of its potential targets.
With the development of missile weapons, the Tu-160 became fully possible to characterize as a global strike complex. If we remember that the practical range of the aircraft is 12,300 km, then when cruise missiles launch from half this distance, the impact radius will be 9,150 km. And this value can increase sharply when using air refueling.
The work of the guards was inspected by the commander of the DA P.S. Deinekin, the Air Force Commander-in-Chief E.I. Shaposhnikov, and the Minister of Defense of the USSR D.T. Yazov also visited the leading regiment.
No matter how good the plane turned out to be, trial operation initially yielded a generous harvest of shortcomings. Almost every flight of the Tu-160 brought failures of a variety of systems and, first of all, complex and capricious electronics (the fact that the Americans’ mastery of the B-1B was accompanied by the same difficulties was of little comfort). The multiple degree of redundancy and redundancy helped out (for example, the fly-by-wire control system of a bomber has four channels and emergency mechanical wiring).
Especially a lot of trouble was caused by the “crude” BKO (on-board defense complex), which, due to its extremely low reliability, earned the reputation of “ballast”, two tons of which were carried around in vain. After numerous modifications, in April 1990 the BKO was able to be made to work (on the occasion of which A.A. Tupolev came to the regiment), although failures haunted him in the future.
The NK-32 engines had problems with starting - the most unstable mode of operation, which the automation could not cope with; there were also flight failures (mainly due to the fault of the wayward electronic system regulation, which once turned off two engines in the air on Major Vasin’s plane). Nevertheless, the thrust reserve allowed the aircraft to continue flying and even take off with one engine inoperative, which had to be taken advantage of when the Tu-160 was shown to US Secretary of Defense F. Carlucci - both aircraft took off and performed passage on three engines (naturally, the minister was not informed about this ).
The service life of NK-32 was gradually tripled and increased to 750 hours. Weak points There were air intakes along the airframe; their imperfect gas dynamics caused itching and vibrations, which caused cracks to form and rivets to fly out. This defect was eliminated by replacing the first sections of the air ducts (they had to be taken out from the front “through the throat”) and by strengthening the edging of the front edges of the air intake.
The kinematics of the main landing gear were too complex - when retracting, the racks were shortened to fit into small niches, and when released, they moved apart, shifting in external sides and increasing the track by 1200 mm. The low reliability of the landing gear retraction and extension mechanism forced it to fly for several months in 1988 without retracting it, but from the next series the kinematics were changed, removing the “extra” strut, and all previous aircraft were modified. The aircraft's hydraulic system has also been improved.
At high flight speeds, the honeycomb glued panels of the stabilizer delaminated and “slammed” (on one of the aircraft at LII, a solid piece of the tail even came off in the air, the same incident happened in the regiment with A. Medvedev). The plumage had to be strengthened, while at the same time being “cut” by half a meter to reduce the load. Modified stabilizers, an “oversized cargo” with a span of 13.25 m, were delivered from the factory to a unit on the fuselage by a special variant of the Il-76, the “triplane”. During a demonstration in Ryazan, the Tu-160 lost one of the plastic tail fairings in the air (the plane definitely did not like displays).
These defects, as a rule, did not lead to serious consequences (the trial operation of the new aircraft was precisely aimed at “catching” them), and the most unpleasant thing was the unexpected blocking of the brakes on takeoff, which once completely “taken off” the plane. There were also several cases when, during landings, pilots underestimated the inertia of a multi-ton machine, and it, having flown over the runway, rolled out onto the ground (no arresting device could have stopped the Tu-160, and releasing a braking parachute on time was considered “low class”).
Identified failures and defects related to design and production deficiencies (according to the column “CPN”, the responsibility lies with the developer - OKB and the manufacturer) were taken into account in the design of aircraft of new series. The number of engine feed flaps on the side walls of the air intakes was increased to six to increase the compressor stability margin, their control was simplified, some honeycomb panels with metal filler in the airframe were replaced with composite ones (this gave a gain in weight and service life), the tail fairing of the BKO antennas was shortened by half, the derailment flow from which at high speeds caused dangerous vibrations that disable the equipment. On the latest series of aircraft, the top hatches of the navigator and operator were equipped with periscopes for inspecting the tail hemisphere (in addition to the rear-view radar). In the same way, previously produced Tu-160s were modified by factory specialists directly into the regiment.
Multi-position ejection unit MKU-6-5U in the cargo compartment of the Tu-160
The aircraft's equipment has also undergone modernization. We have improved the RSDN, which is guided by ground radio beacons. The navigation complex was equipped with an autonomous astrocorrector, which determines with high accuracy the coordinates of the vehicle according to the Sun and stars, which is especially useful in flights over the ocean and at high latitudes. The navigators' approval was received by the PA-3 course plotter with a moving map indicating the current position of the aircraft. An on-board satellite navigation system with an accuracy of determining coordinates of 10-20 m was also prepared for the Tu-160. Its operation was ensured by several orbital vehicles specially launched into space as part of a state program for the needs of the Air Force, Navy and ground forces. It was also possible to solve problems associated with software and PRNA systems engineering (previously, all four of its channels “spoke” different languages).
In several stages, a set of measures was carried out to reduce the radar signature of the Tu-160: they applied black radio-absorbing graphite coating to the air intakes and channels to the engines, covered the nose of the aircraft with a special organic-based paint, shielded the engine guide vanes (and the secret of this development is still strictly hiding).
Mesh filters were introduced into the cockpit glazing, “locking” the electromagnetic background of the equipment inside, which could unmask the aircraft. The filters should also weaken the light flux in the event of a nearby nuclear explosion (for the same purpose, the glass is equipped with curtains and blinds), and the light filter of the ZSh-7AS helmet can protect the pilots’ eyes from a blinding flash.
On August 2, 1988, US Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci was the first foreigner to see the Tu-160. At the Kubinka airbase near Moscow, he was shown the aircraft of the 184th regiment with the number 12, and the other two were shown in flight. At the same time, some tactical and technical characteristics of the aircraft were publicly announced for the first time, including the flight range without refueling, equal to 14,000 km. On June 13, 1989, again in Kubinka, the Chairman of the US Committee of Chiefs of Staff, Admiral W. Crowe, was shown the Priluki Tu-160 with number 21.
The first meeting in the air of a Tu-160 with Western aircraft took place in May 1991. over the Norwegian Sea. F-16A fighters of the 331st squadron of the Norwegian Air Force at the latitude of the city of Tromsø met and for some time accompanied a pair of Tupolev bombers.
The first public display of the aircraft took place on August 20, 1989 during the celebration of Aviation Day, when the Tu-160 passed at low altitude over the Tushinsky airfield. In September 1994, journalists and professional aviators had the opportunity to get a detailed look at the bomber in Poltava during events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the shuttle raids on Germany, and in Priluki in February 1995.
Cabin of Tu-160 "Valery Chkalov"
Airplane for pilots
The Tu-160 was perhaps the first Soviet combat aircraft, during the creation of which due attention was paid to ergonomics. Finally, the demands of pilots who had previously put up with limited visibility from the cockpit of the Tu-22 (deservedly nicknamed “Blind Jack”) and spent long hours in the “tight packing” of the Tu-22M were heard. On long flights, the Tu-160 crew, having left their workplaces, can stretch and relax, even on a foam mattress spread in the aisle between the navigators’ seats. Amenities include a cupboard for heating food and a toilet, which replaced the “filthy bucket” that was content with the Tu-95. A real battle broke out around the toilet: the Air Force refused to accept the aircraft for service for several months due to the inconsistency of its design with the specifications (the toilet used polyethylene bags that were melted after use: the complaints were about an insidious device that produced a leaky seam). The customer, feeling his rights, began to show unprecedented adherence to principles, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force even threatened to appeal to the military prosecutor's office if these shortcomings were not eliminated.
On the first production Tu-160s, complaints were made about the working conditions of the crew. Thus, the main and backup devices were of various types; the cabin was maintained at a pressure corresponding to atmospheric pressure at an altitude of 5000 m (the crew had to wear oxygen masks at all times). Now almost all machines have eliminated these shortcomings.
The pilots quickly became accustomed to such an unusual element for a heavy aircraft as a control stick rather than a steering wheel. At first, this innovation did not cause much delight among the military. But it soon became clear that the new handle made it easy, without much physical effort, to control the plane. The designers have also created a version of the pilot’s cabin with new equipment, but the transition to it requires modernization of the vehicle fleet, time, and most importantly, funds. Therefore, Tu-160 continues to fly with the old cabin.
Complaints were caused by the rapid failure of the pilot seat adjustment mechanisms, which forced their electric drive to be modified. In the first months of operation, the K-36DM ejection seats themselves had restrictions on their use (speed of at least 75 km/h). Then their developer, the Zvezda plant (general designer G.I. Severin), expanded the range, and ejection became possible even while parked. The seats are equipped with a belt tightening system that is triggered when overloaded. During the development work, the aircraft was tested in a situation simulating a flight with the crew partially abandoning it: pilot N.Sh. Sattarov went to supersonic speed in an aircraft with the upper cockpit hatches dismantled.
The crews are complaining about the overalls, helmets, and oxygen masks designed for fighter aircraft and not suitable for long flights. At the base of the regiment, several conferences were held on the “human factor”, at which samples of new equipment were presented: light and comfortable helmets, headphones, “Cormorant” rescue overalls, even massagers and expanders that help relieve stress during a long flight. Alas, they all remained in prototypes. Only on the latest series of aircraft did a built-in stairway appear, without which the crew at a foreign airfield could well find themselves literally in a hopeless situation.
The operational suitability of the Tu-160 also did not go unnoticed by the designers. To facilitate access, the units and hydraulic system piping were placed on the walls of the cargo compartment, and the electrical panels were placed in the chassis niches. Good access to the engines was ensured by their almost complete “unearthing”. The shelves with equipment in the cockpit and technical compartment were conveniently arranged. And yet, the aircraft turned out to be quite labor-intensive to maintain, becoming a record holder by this criterion - for every hour of Tu-160 flight, 64 man-hours of work on the ground were required. Preparing it for departure requires 15-20 special vehicles with working systems, including: installations for fuel nitriding; KAMAZ air conditioners that cool equipment; various tankers, including three huge Hurricane TZ-60 (Tu-160 tanks hold 171,000 kg of fuel); a minibus for the crew, equipped with a ventilation system for high-altitude suits. At the same time, the noise in the aircraft service area many times exceeds all permissible standards, reaching 130 dB (when the APU is started, it exceeds the pain threshold by 45 dB). The situation is aggravated by a shortage of headphones, safety shoes and anti-vibration belts for technicians. The use of caustic working fluid 7-50C-3 in the hydraulic system adds to the problems.
To reduce noise in the area, the Design Bureau proposed the same measures that the Americans had taken for the B-1B - the construction of special sites with service complexes, power supply and refueling sources built into concrete. However, the Air Force rejected this option as it did not meet the conditions of mobility during relocation and accepted it only partially: in the caponiers surrounding the parking areas, they equipped shelters where the ground crew, weapons, tools and equipment for servicing the aircraft are located.
Continuous work on fine-tuning the Tu-160 has yielded good results. In terms of reliability, the aircraft even surpassed the Tu-16 and was significantly ahead of the Tu-22M2/M3.
Ahead of the pilots were flights at extremely low altitudes, refueling in the air, which were supposed to provide the bomber with an intercontinental range (Kozlov, by that time a lieutenant general, was going to fly this machine around the globe). It was necessary to modernize the PrNK (sighting and navigation system), master the X-15 missile system and bomber weapons. However, political upheavals made their own adjustments to the fate of the aircraft.
Tu-160 and V-1: similarities and differences
It has already become a tradition, when talking about the Tu-160, to compare it with the American “opponent” - the B-1 strategic bomber. Indeed, the similarity of these machines of the same purpose and class, noticeable even to a layman, at one time led to the fact that the Tu-160 (without knowing its true name) was called the “Soviet B-1”. The fact that the creators of both aircraft agreed on the “aviation fashion” for aircraft of this class, which included elements of an integral layout and a variable-sweep wing, is not surprising. After all, “similar thoughts come to good heads,” and the similarity of requirements technical assignments for new bombers with close scientific and industrial level should inevitably lead to similar design solutions.
But the implementation of the plan, accompanied by an innumerable number of evaluated options, leaves only the proximity of the external contours from the former similarity. Aircraft creators have to rely not only on the laws of aerodynamics and strength that are common to all, but also, to an increasing extent, on the existing production base, the level of technology, own experience and, finally, the traditions of the company. Political problems on which the financing of the work depends (and often the fate of the project) also affect the “internal content” and capabilities of the future aircraft.
As a quick reference, let us recall: the B-1 appeared earlier and made its first flight on December 23, 1974. On June 30, 1977, President J. Carter ordered that work on the aircraft be frozen, and the freed funds be used to develop cruise missiles. It soon turned out that the relationship between these types of weapons was optimal. In November 1979, the conversion of the B-1 into a carrier of the B-1 B cruise missiles began, with a simultaneous reduction in its radar visibility while cutting funds for the program. The military and the “senators from industry” failed to defend many expensive “excesses”, and the proportion of titanium alloys in the bomber design had to be reduced and adjustable air intakes abandoned, which reduced the maximum speed to M = 1.25. The aircraft was to be armed with ALCM cruise missiles, SRAM short-range missiles and nuclear bombs. On March 23, 1983, the first prototype of the B-1 B (a converted second prototype of the B-1) was launched, and the first production aircraft was flown on October 18, 1984. Production of the B-1B ended in 1988 with the release of the 100th bomber
The Seventy, which was created in a planned economy and had no problems with financing, went into production and was put into service in its intended form (of course, adjusted for the technological level of the aviation industry) - as a multi-mode aircraft capable of delivering intercontinental strikes in a wide range of altitudes and speeds.
The opportunity to actually compare both aircraft presented itself on September 23-25, 1994 in Poltava, where the Tu-160 and B-1B, having met “face to face” for the first time, arrived to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Operation Frentik - shuttle flights of American bombers to targets in Germany, which were carried out with landing at Soviet airfields. Pilots and technicians of both aircraft were able to inspect the aircraft, go inside and evaluate them in the air, and get an idea of their practical capabilities.
The Americans (the group included, in addition to the B-1B, a B-52N bomber and a KS-10A tanker from the 2nd Bomb Wing from the Barksdale base in Louisiana) “proved themselves” immediately after crossing the border - if this phrase is appropriate here, since the group is here disappeared from the screens of ground-based radars (although this incident should not be attributed to the achievements of stealth technology, but rather to the current state of Ukrainian air defense). A B-1B that appeared over Poltava, without wasting time on the usual “box” around the airfield, immediately after a steep turn, energetically dived down (already on the ground its crew talked about practicing maneuvers with rolls of up to 45 degrees) - this approach is used to save fuel and is categorically unacceptable for our pilots, who are constrained by a multitude of instructions, instructions and flight safety regulations.
* The maximum permissible take-off weight is 216,370 kg, but there has been no information about the operation of a bomber with such a take-off weight.
** M=0.77, 5% fuel reserve, six Kh-55M missiles fired mid-route
*** With armament consisting of eight AGM-64 SRAM missiles, eight M-61 nuclear bombs and a PTB with 9000 kg of fuel in the third bomb bay
Upon closer acquaintance, it turned out that the level of reliability and the number of failures in operation of the Tu-160 and V-1B are almost the same. The problems turned out to be similar - frequent engine failures (at the exhibition in Le Bourget, the crew of the B-1 B, unable to launch them, was forced to abandon the demonstration flight) and the vagaries of complex electronics, especially the BKO (the Americans did not hide their special interest in the Baikal ": "Does this really work for you?!"). It was the insufficient reliability of the power plant and on-board electronic warfare systems AN/ALQ-161 and ALQ-153 that prevented the use of the B-1 B in Operation Desert Storm, and the laurels went to the B-52 veterans.
In terms of offensive weapons, the Tu-160 was “on horseback” - its main weapon, cruise missiles, was well mastered, while the Americans, for financial reasons, were unable to rearm their aircraft with them (the expensive ALCM strike system required not only modifications to the cargo compartments, but also significant changes in on-board electronics). SRAM short-range missiles, adopted as a “temporary measure,” had reached their shelf life by 1994 (the solid fuel of their engines began to decompose, losing their properties) and were withdrawn from service, and their replacement remains a matter of the future. Only the B61 and B83 nuclear bombs remained in service with the B-1B; The Americans remembered the possibility of equipping the aircraft with conventional bomb weapons only on the eve of the war with Iraq, having carried out tests to drop them in 1991, but did not have time to re-equip the aircraft.
It must be said that such a modification only seems simple: it is necessary to calculate the most effective ways bombing, develop and install bomb racks, cargo lifting winches, install wiring to fuses arming devices and bomb releasers, remake sighting equipment, train crews in the intricacies of aiming and tactical techniques and, finally, test new weapons in different flight modes.
The design of the Tu-160 initially included an expansion of the range of weapons, including the use of conventional bombs, for which the aircraft was equipped with a high-precision optical-electronic bomb sight OPB-15T. We also developed a “package” suspension of bombs using a loader, which reduces the time it takes to equip the aircraft. In contrast to the B-1B, in order to reduce radar visibility and greater flight range on the Tu-160, the placement of all types of ammunition was provided for on the internal sling, in two cargo compartments, with larger dimensions than the “American” (which affected several large sizes airplane). However, the planned implementation of this work was prevented by the emergence of known problems, and the result was the “under-equipping” of the aircraft - again, common to both machines and preventing their use in growing local conflicts.
The instrumentation and design of the B-1B cockpit, which, by the way, is also equipped with control sticks, was unanimously rated by our pilots as excellent. Monochrome displays on which information is displayed to the crew are very convenient to use and allow you to concentrate on piloting without being distracted by searching through the “scattering” of pointer indicators. Much of the B-1B equipment was seen only in computer games, and the American veterans present at the meeting were touched when they found analogue devices in the Tu-160 cockpit of those they used during the war. The level of comfort and convenience of the aircraft workplaces turned out to be close, although the B-1B cabin itself is somewhat cramped - it is “propped up” from below by the nose landing gear compartment.
Having become acquainted with the equipment and systems of the “American”, our pilots and navigators agreed that both potential opportunities, and in terms of tactical and technical characteristics - range, speed and weight of the load carried, the Tu-160 is superior to the B-1B, however, the advantages of the practical mastery of the bomber remain on the side of the US Strategic Command. Using the capabilities of the B-1B “to the fullest,” American crews have gone far ahead, while many Tu-160 systems are not fully used, and some flight modes remain prohibited.
Due to the more intensive use of equipment, US pilots maintain a high level of class (the average flight time on a B-1B is 150-200 hours per year), including in flights at extremely low altitudes and during aerial refueling. A Russian Air Force delegation that visited the United States in May 1992 could verify this. During one flight, a pair of aircraft from the same 2nd Air Wing performed demonstration docking and undocking in the air 12 times.
At the meeting in Poltava, the sleek appearance of the B-1B decorated with emblems (although it had flown quite well, as evidenced by the worn steps of the built-in ramp) next to the somewhat neglected and a quick fix crowned with the “tridents” of the Tu-160. It was hard to believe that even the B-1B chassis was washed by technicians with special shampoos. The greatest interest of practical Americans was caused by the earnings of the commander of the Ukrainian Tu-160: “20 dollars? Per day?... Per month!! Ooo!!!"
Stars and tridents
The Air Force's initial request for the Tu-160 was 100 aircraft - the same number as the Americans received the B-1B. With the collapse of the USSR, the production of the Tu-160, which required the cooperation of hundreds of enterprises, found itself in a difficult situation. The production of aircraft slowed down and was practically reduced to assembly from the existing stock. The modernization of these machines, provided for in the work program until 1996, also stopped.
The air regiment in Priluky was not spared the problems of “big politics”. On August 24, 1991, the Parliament of Ukraine transferred all military formations on the territory of the state under its control, and on the same day the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine was formed. However, at first these events did not have a significant impact on the service of the 184th regiment. However, in the spring of 1992, military units of Ukraine began to take an oath of allegiance to the republic. On May 8, 1992, the 184th Air Regiment (about 25% of the flight personnel and up to 60% of the technical personnel) was also assigned to it. The regiment commander Valery Gorgol was the first to take the oath. The 409th regiment of Il-78 tanker aircraft at the airbase in Uzin also came under the jurisdiction of Ukraine.
The crew of the 1096th TBAP of the Russian Air Force, which for the first time lifted the Tu-160 from the airbase in Engels. From left to right: navigator Adamov, assistant. com. ship Mr. Kolesnikov, navigator p/p-k Karpov, com. ship p/p-k Medvedev
In February 1992, B.N. Yeltsin announced a decree on the completion of production of Tu-95MS bombers and the possibility of stopping the assembly of Tu-160, provided that the United States stopped producing B-2 bombers (it was planned to build 100 copies). However, this proposal did not meet with an adequate response. In addition, with the collapse of the USSR, Russia was virtually left without new strategic bombers. This forced it to continue producing such expensive aircraft, which began to enter service with the 1096th heavy bomber regiment in Engels. Officers from Priluki also began to be transferred there (in total, in 1992-93, the Russian Air Force recruited 720 pilots from Ukraine).
It should be noted that initially it was planned to transfer the first aircraft to Engels; the 184th Air Regiment was considered as a reserve one, but life decreed otherwise. Previously, the 1096th TBAP was armed with bombers designed by V.M. Myasishchev M-4 and 3M. Next to it was the 1230th Regiment of 3MS-2 tanker aircraft. On February 16, 1992, the first Tu-160 landed in Engels, which had to be mothballed for six months - there was no one to fly. By May, the 1096th TBAP already had three Tu-160s, but the first flight took place only on July 29.
The car was lifted into the air by DA inspector Lieutenant Colonel Medvedev. At the same time, the airfield was being re-equipped - all ground equipment, simulators and aircraft training facilities remained in Priluki, and now everything needed to be re-equipped.
The fourth aircraft arrived at Engels in early 1993. To strengthen the veto “active” regiment, it was planned to transfer six bombers from the Tupolev company and LII, even if they had managed to exhaust their service life in test flights, but this did not happen. The first launch of the X-55 cruise missile was carried out on October 22, 1992 by the crew of the regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel A. Zhikharev. The next day, the same firing practice was carried out by the crew of Lieutenant Colonel A. Malyshev
Despite all the difficulties, YES Russia managed to maintain a semblance of combat effectiveness. Even in the most difficult year of 1992, Russian long-range fighters maintained their class, having flight time of 80-90 hours per year - twice as high as in front-line aviation. As for the Tu-160, they took part in the large-scale exercises Voskhod-93 in May 1993, during which maneuvers by aviation forces were practiced in quickly responding to a threat. The long range of the Tu-160 allowed them to strengthen one of the strategic directions and support the group of Su-24 and Su-27, which were being transferred to Far East(although the launch of the missiles only had to be designated - there were no suitable test sites for them in Transbaikalia). The actual launch, moreover, of a modernized X-55M with an increased range, took place during the exercises of the Strategic Nuclear Forces on June 21-22, 1994, which were inspected by President Yeltsin. In addition to the Tu-160 group, successful launches at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka were carried out by the Topol ground-based complex and the Typhoon-class submarine cruiser of the Northern Fleet.
The position of the Tu-160 in the Russian Air Force does not seem cloudless. The production of these machines in Kazan, after the transfer of five aircraft to the angelic regiment, stalled (in total, there were eight machines at the plant in varying degrees of readiness). Added to the economic troubles are the financial difficulties of the Ministry of Defense, whose budget primarily involves maintaining the combat effectiveness of the active army and financing promising developments. It seems more reasonable to direct the colossal costs absorbed by the serial production of the Tu-160 to work that meets the requirements of tomorrow and allows preserving the potential of the defense industry. One of the possible variants of the “seventy” could be the Tu-160P heavy escort fighter, armed with long- and medium-range air-to-air missiles.
At the Paris Air Show in 1991, the Tu-160SK, a civil version of the aircraft, was presented. In this version, it can be used as the first stage of the Burlak aerospace complex, developed at NPO Raduga (initially, this military space program was aimed at replenishing the orbital constellation when the cosmodromes in Plesetsk and Baikonur were disabled). The launch vehicle is suspended under the fuselage and launched at an altitude of about 12 km, which makes it lighter. The system will be able to launch payloads weighing from 300 to 700 kg into low-Earth orbit and is a response to the American Pegasus system.
In the Ukrainian army, aviators found themselves in an even more difficult situation, and the problems primarily affected the most complex and expensive to maintain DA aircraft. Immediately we had to abandon flights for combat use (Ukraine did not have training grounds, and the equipment of the combat training center YES in the Dnieper-Buzhsky floodplains remained only on paper). Author's supervision by the Design Bureau and support by the manufacturer, which was supposed to provide warranty service for 10 years, ceased.
Lack of fuel, spare parts and the departure of qualified flight and technical personnel quickly put some of the aircraft on hold. After all, special engine oil IP-50 for Tu-160 was produced in Azerbaijan, wheels were received from Yaroslavl, and engines from Samara. The depletion of resources by units and the shortage of new ones forced them to resort to “cannibalism”, removing what they needed from other aircraft.
However, recently the need for such events has almost disappeared - in the 184th TBAP, by the summer of 1994, there were only a few pilots left capable of lifting the Tu-160 into the air. Unfortunately, they are given this opportunity only 4-5 times a year. In full accordance with the theory of reliability, the decreased flight time led to an increase in the number of failures, and the most difficult of them went to Gorgol: in May 1993, he had to land a plane with the landing gear not fully extended. As a result, 5 Russian Tu-160s may represent a greater fighting force than the 21 located in Priluki.
As a result of a series of hasty decisions made in the first days after the collapse of the USSR, the right to possess strategic forces was provided only for Russia. The deplorable situation in which the Ukrainian Tu-160 found itself is a direct result of this policy. In March 1993, V. Zakharchenko, then adviser to the Ukrainian military attaché in Russia, said: “The Ukrainian armed forces are not faced with tasks that require such aircraft.” This opinion was confirmed by the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force V. Antonets, saying in his speech to journalists in Priluki on February 15, 1995 that the critical situation in the Ukrainian economy makes it impossible to maintain its Tu-160s in proper condition, so it is interested in selling bombers to Russia.
However, problems arose with the evaluation of the machines. The Ukrainian side proposed to write off energy debts at their expense (which surprised Gazprom a lot) or exchange them for Il-76 at the rate of 1:2 (but Il is produced in Uzbekistan...). The parties have not yet reached an agreement. Today, the fate of the Tu-160 completely depends on the political situation. But if there is good will, it is possible to reach an agreement: for example, the Dnepropetrovsk plant "Yuzhmash" resumed holding routine maintenance on their missiles on combat duty in Russia.
Brief technical description of Tu-160
The Tu-160 is made according to a normal aerodynamic design with a variable sweep wing. The layout of the central part of the airframe is integral. The airframe is made mainly of aluminum alloys (B-95, heat-treated to increase service life, as well as AK-4). The share of titanium alloys in the weight of the airframe is 20%; composite materials are also widely used, and glued three-layer structures are used.
The crew of four is located in the forward part of the fuselage in a common pressurized cabin. Ahead - on the left - the ship's commander, on the right - the co-pilot. Behind them are the seats of the navigator (navigation and offensive weapons) and the navigator-operator (air defense systems, communications and energy). All crew members have K-36DM ejection seats, which are fired upward after the hatches are released. The cabin is equipped small kitchen and a toilet. Entry on board is carried out via a ground ladder through the niche of the front landing gear (on seventh series aircraft there is a built-in ladder).
Fuselage. In the forward part of the semi-monocoque fuselage there are: an onboard radar, an equipment compartment with avionics units and a pressurized crew cabin, including technical compartments, as well as a niche for the front landing gear leg. Behind the cabin, two unified weapons compartments with a length of 11.28 m and a width of 1.92 m are sequentially located. They each contain one multi-charge revolving ejection device MKU-6-5U, which can carry 6 X-55 missiles. The mass of the MKU is 1550 kg, the drive is hydraulic (on V-1B - from a stepper electric motor). In addition, locks for hanging the entire range of aviation weapons, weapon lifting systems, and electrical switching equipment can be installed in the weapons compartments. The hydraulic system units are located on the end and side walls of the compartment. Between the compartments there is a center section beam. Fuel caisson tanks are located in the inflow and tail parts of the aircraft. In the forward unsealed part of the influx there are units of the life support system.
The wing - swept with a root influx and rotary consoles - has a large aspect ratio. The console rotation units are located at 25% of the wing span with minimal sweep. Structurally, the wing is divided into the following units:
An all-welded titanium center section beam 12.4 m long and 2.1 m wide with a transverse set of ribs made of aluminum alloy. The center section beam is built into the central part of the airframe and ensures the absorption of loads coming from the wing consoles;
Double-cut titanium turning units, ensuring the transfer of loads from the wing to the center section;
Wing consoles made of high-strength aluminum and titanium alloys, rotating in the range of 20°-65°. During takeoff, the sweep angle of the consoles is 20°, during cruising flight -35°, and during supersonic flight - 65°.
The power basis of the consoles is a caisson formed by seven milled twenty-meter panels, five prefabricated spars and six ribs. The caisson serves as a container for fuel. Four-section slats, three-section double-slotted flaps, six-section spoilers and flaperons, and aerodynamic winglets are attached directly to it.
As the wing sweep angle increases, the root parts of the flaps do not retract inside the fuselage, but rotate synchronously with the change in sweep, forming unique aerodynamic ridges.
The tail unit is made according to the normal design with an all-moving stabilizer located at 1/3 of the height of the vertical tail (to remove it from the zone of influence of engine jets). Structurally, it consists of a caisson with rotation units and honeycomb panels made of aluminum or composite materials. The upper part of the keel is all-moving.
The chassis has a steerable two-wheel nose gear and two six-wheel main gears. Chassis track - 5400 mm, wheelbase - 17800 mm. The size of the main wheels is 1260x485 mm, the nose wheels are 1080x400 mm. The nose strut is located under the technical compartment in an unsealed niche and has a deflector that prevents foreign objects from getting under the wheels into the engine air intakes. The stand is retracted by turning it backwards in flight.
Equipment. The Obzor-K radar station in the forward part of the fuselage is used for navigation and target detection both on the ground and in the air. The Groza optical sighting system is located at the bottom of the nose under the fairing. There is a long-range celestial navigation system. Instrumentation is classic analog. The onboard defense complex includes enemy detection and active radar countermeasures systems. The control system is fly-by-wire via pitch, roll and yaw channels with quadruple redundancy and emergency mechanical wiring. The aircraft is statically unstable, so flying with the fly-by-wire system disabled is difficult and has a number of mode restrictions. The aircraft's hydraulic system is four-channel, with a working pressure of 280 kg/sq.cm. All aircraft systems are controlled by about 100 computers, of which 12 serve the weapon control system.
The power plant consists of four NK-32 bypass turbojet engines, created at NPO Trud under the leadership of N.D. Kuznetsov. The engine bypass ratio is 1.4, the pressure ratio is -28.4, and the maximum thrust is -137.3 kN (14,000 kgf) without afterburner and 245.15 kN (25,000 kgf) with afterburner. The engine weight is 3650 kg, length - 6.5 m, inlet diameter - 1455 mm. The engine has a three-stage low pressure compressor, a five-stage medium pressure compressor and a seven-stage high pressure compressor. Low and medium pressure turbines are single-stage, and high-pressure turbines are two-stage. Turbine blades are cooled monocrystalline. The gas temperature in front of the turbine is 1375°C. The engine is equipped with an adjustable auto-model nozzle. The combustion chamber is annular with evaporation nozzles, ensuring smokeless combustion and stable temperature regime. The NK-32 is one of the world's first aircraft engines, during the development of which technologies aimed at reducing the levels of radar and infrared signature were widely used. On the aircraft, the engines are placed in engine nacelles in pairs, separated by fire partitions and operate completely independently of each other.
The engine control system is electric, with hydromechanical duplication. Currently, work is underway to create digital system management with full responsibility. To ensure autonomous power supply on the aircraft, a gas turbine APU is installed behind the niche of the left main landing gear.
The fuel is located in 13 tanks in the fuselage and rotating wing consoles. The fuel system includes an automatic fuel transfer system to maintain a given alignment in all flight modes. The aircraft has an in-flight refueling system - a fuel boom extends from the nose.
Armament. The main weapon option is 12 Kh-55 or Kh-55M/SM cruise missiles, 6 each on two MKU-6-5U devices.
The Kh-55 missile (“product 125”, or RKV-500B, according to the NATO code AS-15b Kent, the M/SM index depends on the type of warhead) was developed at NPO Raduga under the leadership of I. Seleznev. It has a length of 6040 mm, a diameter of 556 mm. To increase the flight range to 3000 km, the rocket can be equipped with jettisonable conformal fuel tanks. The launch weight of the rocket is 1210 kg (without tanks)/1500 kg (with tanks). The Kh-55SM is equipped with a nuclear warhead with a capacity of 200 kT.
An alternative weapon is the short-range Kh-15 missile (with inertial homing) and its variants: the anti-ship Kh-15S and anti-radar Kh-15P. In total, the Tu-160 can carry 24 missiles, six on four MKU-6-1 (two devices in each weapons compartment).
The Kh-15 missile (“product 115”, NATO code AS-16 Kickback) was also created at NPO Raduga. Its length is 4780 mm, diameter - 455 mm, wingspan - 920 mm, weight - 1100 kg (warhead - 150 kg). Rocket flight speed M=5. Range -150 km. With 24 missiles suspended, the weapon mass is 28,800 kg.
With appropriate conversion, the aircraft can carry free-falling nuclear bombs and any type of conventional bombs or sea mines.
Airplane painting. The Tu-160 prototype, which was tested at the LII, was not painted. It had a rather motley appearance due to the different colors and shades of the sheathing sheets and radio-transparent elements.
Aircraft transferred to units were painted in the standard color for Long-Range Aviation of the USSR White color, which, due to its reflective ability, is designed to protect the aircraft from the effects of light radiation during a nuclear explosion. Some elements, in particular the upper cowlings of the engine nacelles and the fairings along the rear fuselage, have the color of unpainted metal.
Two-digit tactical numbers are marked on the nose landing gear doors and on the top of the fin. Moreover, planes based in Priluki have red numbers, while those in Engels have blue numbers.
Red stars were painted on the top and bottom of the wings and fin. In 1993, they were painted over on Ukrainian Tu-160s, and for some time the vehicles did not have state identification marks at all. Later, at the end of 1993 - beginning of 1994. The aircraft were marked with the identification marks of the Ukrainian Air Force: yellow-blue circles on the wings and a yellow trident against the background of a blue shield on the fin. Russian Tu-160s carry identification marks inherited from the USSR Air Force.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced plans to resume production of the Tu-160. According to the Ministry of Defense, the Tu-160 in the M2 version will be a completely new aircraft with a new “filling”, but an old airframe; its efficiency will increase by 2.5 times compared to its predecessor.
The TU-160 strategic bomber, the so-called “White Swan” or Blackjack (baton) in NATO terminology, is a unique aircraft. This is the personification of the power of modern Russia. The TU-160 has excellent technical characteristics: it is the most formidable bomber in the world, capable of carrying cruise missiles as well. the largest and most aesthetically pleasing supersonic aircraft in the world. It was developed in the 1970-1980s at the Tupolev Design Bureau and is equipped with a variable sweep wing. The TU-160 has been in service since 1987.
The TU-160 bomber was a response to the US AMSA (Advanced Manned Strategic Aircraft) program, within which the notorious B-1 Lancer was created. The TU-160 missile carrier was significantly ahead of its main competitors, including the notorious Lancer, in almost all characteristics. The speed of the TU-160 is 1.5 times higher, the maximum flight range and combat radius are just as large, and the engine thrust is almost twice as powerful. For the sake of the stealth aircraft, the creators of the B-2 Spirit sacrificed everything they could, including range, flight stability and the vehicle’s carrying capacity.
Quantity and cost of TU-160 “White Swan”
The long-range missile carrier TU-160 is a “piecemeal” and expensive product with unique technical characteristics. In total, only 35 of these aircraft were built, and far fewer of them remain airworthy today. Nevertheless, the TU-160 remains a threat to enemies and the pride of Russia. This aircraft is the only product that received its given name. The planes bear the names of sports champions (“Ivan Yarygin”), designers (“Vitaly Kopylov”), heroes (“Ilya Muromets”) and, of course, pilots (“Pavel Taran”, “Valery Chkalov” and others).
After the collapse of the USSR, 19 bombers of this type remained in Ukraine, at the base in Priluki. However, these vehicles were too expensive to operate for this country, and the new Ukrainian army simply did not need them. Ukraine offered to exchange these 19 TU-160s to Russia for Il-76s (in a ratio of 1 to 2) or to write off the gas debt. But for Russia this turned out to be unacceptable. In addition, the United States influenced Ukraine, which actually forced it to destroy 11 Ukrainian TU-160s. But 8 aircraft were nevertheless transferred to Russia for partial write-off of the gas debt.
As of 2013, the Air Force operated 16 Tu-160 bombers. For Russia this is an prohibitively small number, but the construction of new ones would cost a huge amount. Therefore, it was decided to modernize 10 of the existing bombers to the Tu-160M standard. Long-range aviation should receive 6 modernized TU-160s in 2018. However, in modern conditions, even modernization of existing TU-160s will not help solve defense problems. Therefore, plans emerged to build new missile carriers. The resumption of production of aircraft of the Tu-160M / Tu-160M2 classification is expected no earlier than 2023
In 2018, Kazan decided to consider the possibility of starting production of the new TU-160 at KAZ facilities. These plans were formed as a result of the current international situation. This is a very difficult, but solvable task: over the years, some technologies and personnel have been lost. The cost of one TU-160 missile carrier is about $250 million.
History of the creation of TU-160
The task for designing a missile carrier was formulated back in 1967 by the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The design bureaus of Myasishchev and Sukhoi were involved in the work, and a few years later they proposed their own options. These were projects of bombers capable of reaching supersonic speed to overcome air defense systems. The Tupolev design bureau, which had experience in developing Tu-22 and Tu-95 bombers, as well as the Tu-144 supersonic aircraft, did not participate in the competition. In the end, the Myasishchev Design Bureau project was recognized as the winner, but the designers did not even have time to really celebrate the victory: the government soon decided to close the project at the Myasishchev Design Bureau. All documentation on the M-18 was transferred to the Tupolev Design Bureau, which joined the competition with Izdeliye-70 (the future TU-160 aircraft).
The following requirements were imposed on the future bomber:
- flight range at an altitude of 18,000 meters at a speed of 2300-2500 km/h - within 13 thousand km;
- the aircraft must approach the target at subsonic cruising speed, overcome enemy air defenses - at cruising speed near the ground and in supersonic high-altitude mode.
- the total mass of the combat load should be 45 tons.
The first flight of the prototype (Izdeliye "70-01") was carried out at the Ramenskoye airfield in December 1981. Product “70-01” was piloted by test pilot Boris Veremeev and his crew. The second copy (product "70-02") did not fly, it was used for static tests. Later, a second aircraft (product “70-03”) joined the tests. The supersonic missile carrier TU-160 was put into serial production in 1984 at the Kazan Aviation Plant. In October 1984, the first production vehicle took off.
Technical characteristics of TU-160
- Crew: 4 people
- Length 54.1 m
- Wingspan 55.7/50.7/35.6 m
- Height 13.1 m
- Wing area 232 m²
- Empty weight 110,000 kg
- Normal take-off weight 267,600 kg
- Maximum take-off weight 275,000 kg
- Engine type 4×TRDDF NK-32
- Maximum thrust 4×18,000 kgf
- Afterburner thrust 4×25,000 kgf
- Fuel weight 148,000 kg
- Maximum speed at an altitude of 2230 km/h
- Cruising speed 917 km/h
- Maximum range without refueling 13,950 km
- Practical range without refueling is 12,300 km.
- Combat radius 6000 km
- Flight duration 25 hours
- Service ceiling 21,000 m
- Climbing rate 4400 m/min
- Take-off/run length 900/2000 m
- Wing load at normal take-off weight 1150 kg/m²
- Wing load at maximum take-off weight 1185 kg/m²
- Thrust-to-weight ratio at normal take-off weight 0.36
- Thrust-to-weight ratio at maximum take-off weight 0.37.
Design features of TU-160
- The White Swan aircraft was created with extensive use of proven solutions for aircraft already built at the design bureau: Tu-142MS, Tu-22M and Tu-144, and some components, assemblies and some systems were transferred to the aircraft without changes. Composites, stainless steel, aluminum alloys V-95 and AK-4, titanium alloys VT-6 and OT-4 are widely used in the design of the White Swan.
- The White Swan aircraft is an integral low-wing aircraft with a variable-sweep wing, an all-moving fin and stabilizer, and a tricycle landing gear. The wing mechanization includes double-slotted flaps, slats, and flaperons and spoilers are used for roll control. Four NK-32 engines are mounted in the lower part of the fuselage in pairs in engine nacelles. The TA-12 APU is used as an autonomous power unit.
- The airframe has an integrated circuit. Technologically, it is composed of six main parts. In the unsealed nose section, a radar antenna is installed in a radio-transparent fairing; behind it there is an unsealed radio equipment compartment. The one-piece central part of the bomber, 47.368 m long, includes the fuselage, which includes the cockpit and two cargo compartments. Between them there is a fixed part of the wing and a caisson-compartment of the center section, the rear part of the fuselage and the engine nacelles. The cockpit consists of a single pressurized compartment, where, in addition to the crew’s workplaces, the aircraft’s electronic equipment is located.
- The wing on a variable-sweep bomber. With a minimum sweep, it has a span of 57.7 m. The control system and rotary assembly are generally similar to the Tu-22M, but they are reinforced. The wing is of coffered structure, mainly made of aluminum alloys. The rotating part of the wing moves from 20 to 65 degrees along the leading edge. Three-section double-slit flaps are installed along the trailing edge, and four-section slats are installed along the leading edge. For roll control there are six-section spoilers, as well as flapperons. The inner cavity of the wing is used as fuel tanks.
- The aircraft has an automatic fly-by-wire onboard control system with redundant mechanical wiring and fourfold redundancy. The controls are dual, with handles installed rather than steering wheels. The aircraft is controlled in pitch using an all-moving stabilizer, in heading - by an all-moving fin, and in roll - by spoilers and flaperons. Navigation system – two-channel K-042K.
- The White Swan is one of the most comfortable combat aircraft. During the 14-hour flight, pilots have the opportunity to stand up and stretch. There is a kitchen on board with a cupboard for heating food. There is also a toilet, which was not previously available on strategic bombers. It was around the bathroom during the transfer of the plane to the military that a real war took place: the pilots did not want to accept the car, since the design of the bathroom was imperfect.
Armament of the TU-160 "White Swan"
Initially, the TU-160 was built as a carrier of long-range cruise missiles with nuclear warheads, designed to deliver massive attacks on areas. In the future, it was planned to expand and modernize the range of transportable ammunition, as evidenced by stencils on the doors of the cargo compartments with options for hanging a huge range of cargo.
The TU-160 is armed with Kh-55SM strategic cruise missiles, which are used to destroy stationary targets having given coordinates; they are entered into the missile’s memory before the bomber takes off. The missiles are located six at a time on two MKU-6-5U drum launchers in the cargo compartments of the aircraft. The weaponry for short-range engagement may include hypersonic aeroballistic missiles Kh-15S (12 for each MKU).
After appropriate conversion, the bomber can be equipped with free-fall bombs of various calibers (up to 40,000 kg), including disposable cluster bombs, nuclear bombs, sea mines and other weapons. In the future, the bomber's armament is planned to be significantly expanded through the use of high-precision cruise missiles of the latest generation, the X-101 and X-555, which have an increased range.
Video about Tu-160
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