Tupolev
6 types · 0 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
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Aircraft Types
Tupolev ANT-25
A Soviet single-engined record aircraft designed under Andrei Tupolev for extreme range, the ANT-25 first flew in 1933 and only two were built. In June 1937 Valery Chkalov's crew flew one non-stop from Moscow over the North Pole to Vancouver, Washington, the first transpolar flight; three weeks later Mikhail Gromov's crew flew a second ANT-25 to San Jacinto, California, setting a world distance record.
Tupolev SB-2
The Tupolev SB, developed as the ANT-40, was a Soviet twin-engined high-speed bomber designed in Andrei Tupolev's bureau by a team led by A. A. Arkhangelski and first flown in 1934. Two Soviet factories built 6,831 of them; the type fought in Spain, China, Mongolia and Finland, and still formed 94 percent of the Soviet operational bomber force when Germany invaded in 1941, by which time modern fighters had overtaken the speed that had once protected it.
Tupolev Tu-104
The Tupolev Tu-104, known to NATO as the Camel, was the Soviet Union's first jet airliner and the second jetliner to enter regular service anywhere, after the de Havilland Comet. Adapted from the Tu-16 bomber, it first flew in 1955 and entered Aeroflot service in September 1956; with the Comet grounded, it was the world's only operating jetliner until 1958. Tupolev built 201 of them between 1956 and 1960, and Aeroflot carried more than 90 million passengers on the type. ČSA of Czechoslovakia was the only export customer. The Tu-104 had a poor safety record by Western standards and left civilian service in 1979; military aircraft flew on until 1981.
Tupolev Tu-16 Badger
The Tupolev Tu-16, known to NATO as the Badger, was a twin-engined jet strategic bomber built in the Soviet Union. Developed as the Tu-88, it first flew on 27 April 1952 and entered service in 1954. More than 1,500 were built in three Soviet plants, in bomber, missile-carrier, reconnaissance and electronic-warfare variants. Egypt and Iraq flew it in combat in Middle Eastern wars, and China licence-built it as the Xian H-6. Soviet and Russian Tu-16s were retired by the 1990s.
Tupolev Tu-2
The Tupolev Tu-2, known to NATO as the Bat, was a twin-engined Soviet high-speed frontline bomber of the Second World War. Designed by Andrei Tupolev's team while they worked in an NKVD prison design bureau, a sharashka, it first flew on 29 January 1941. Production built up from 1943 after an early halt, and more than 2,200 aircraft were built in all; the Tu-2S became the standard variant and fought through to the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The Soviet Air Force retired the type in 1950, but exported aircraft served abroad for decades, and China's air force kept its last Tu-2s until 1982. A small number survive in museums.
Tupolev Tu-4
The Tupolev Tu-4, NATO reporting name Bull, was a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber reverse-engineered from Boeing B-29 Superfortresses interned in the Soviet Union in 1944. Built under Andrei Tupolev's bureau after Stalin cancelled his indigenous long-range bomber, it first flew on 19 May 1947 and gave the Soviet Union its first modern long-range bomber force, including the nuclear-capable Tu-4A that made the first Soviet airborne atomic bomb drop in 1951. Wikipedia puts production at 847 aircraft, ended in 1952. Replaced by the Tu-16 and Tu-95, it left Soviet service in the 1960s; China, given ten aircraft in 1953, flew the type until 1988 and converted examples into the KJ-1 early-warning prototype.