Tupolev Tu-4 retrofitted with AI-20K turboprop engines and AEW radar

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Thick_You2502@reddit

poor thing those engines look very very odd

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m00ph@reddit

Almost literally anything is better than the original engines on that airplane.

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What was so bad/crazy about them? I watched a YouTube video about the Il-2 and that thing had a WEIRD engine. IIRC it had unbalanced stroke lengths between the cylinder banks and other weirdness and inherent deficiencies. Soviet machines are crazy stuff. I've had a morbid fascination with them ever since I saw the Chernobyl documentary, lol.

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m00ph@reddit

I meant the original B-29 engine, which had serious problems with mixture control, leading to backfires that would set the magnesium supercharger diffuser on fire, leading to the wing failing in as little as 90 seconds, and a bunch of other issues.

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55pilot@reddit

FIFIkowsky.

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WhiskeyMikeMike@reddit

I’m not mad that Russia made their own b-29. They basically added to the list of all the different things the airframe was capable off

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CosmicAcorn@reddit

Annoyed at the way they accomplished it. Bros, we were on the other side of the planet, bombing the guys trying to annihilate you, that you started this whole world war alongside in the first place. Now you don't wanna let us have our bombers back, wow, rude.

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Raguleader@reddit

The Soviets had this weird status in WWII where they were Allies against Germany but neutral in regards to Japan until they joined the war in August 1945. This was a situation the other Allies signed off on years prior because the USSR probably couldn't hold up in a two-front war vs Japan and Germany and the US and UK weren't going to be in a position to help much on the ground vs Japan in northeast Asia until later on.

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Raguleader@reddit

Incidentally, the USAF also had an AEW variant of the B-29, but it never left the prototype stage. Instead they went with the Lockheed Constellation to fill that role as the EC-121 Warning Star.

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incidel@reddit

They converted the superfortress into metric. So badass.

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AggressorBLUE@reddit

Imperial measurement system: the original DRM

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psunavy03@reddit

I always thought the funny story was that they revealed the Tu-4 at the Victory Day parade in Moscow by sending out three to make everyone think “Oh, those are just the three B-29s they interned,” only to follow up with a fourth to make all the Western intelligence analysts go “oh, shit.”

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AOA001@reddit

Is this North Korean?

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FletcherCommaIrwin@reddit

Looks like someone learned about the word "Protuberance" and went to town applying it to this Tu-4.

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GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit

This is fantastic

But yeah, when non-turboprop aircraft are retrofitted with turboprops, it shows.

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DerFlieger@reddit

Ironically, the stock C402 already had a massive nose before the turboprop conversion.

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GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit

Hah, it did. And yet they somehow made it longer.

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Rc72@reddit

You don't say

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GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit

Wow, all that snoot! And it's a taildragger! Taxiing that thing must be a team effort.

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DOOM_INTENSIFIES@reddit

It's...beautiful.

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Crifort@reddit

I knew what it was even before clicking on the link, well done!

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BionicBananas@reddit

Why would you do that to my eyes?

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30yearCurse@reddit

wonder what the ancestry of that plane is... Wonder how many crashed in Russia after bombing Japan

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skyeyemx@reddit

This is a Chinese KJ-1 experimental AEWC aircraft, designed based on the Chinese turboprop Tu-4 conversion. 11 of their Tu-4s were converted into turboprops, and were in service up until 1988.

There was a point in the mid-80s when F-15s shared the same sky as a souped up Superfortress. Wild

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AggressorBLUE@reddit

Wild yes, but also the USAF still has 707 variants in service as both as front line AWACS and Tanker aircraft. And thats before we even get into the BUFF…

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Adventurous-Line1014@reddit

I thought that looked B 29ski ish

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Pizza_Middle@reddit

It's pretty much an exact replica. Russia captured one and reverse engineered it. Definitely look into it if you have time.

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ynotzo1dberg@reddit

Stalin said "Build a copy". The people assigned to the project took it literally.

Copied right down to the not previously in use in the USSR type of rivets. Even the non-typical thickness of the skin was replicated. I also recall reading that the engineers even copied the english language plaques and engraving on the controls and instruments, and added Cyrillic alphabet "tape" labels over them.

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thrashmetaloctopus@reddit

In the first copy before production you’re correct, they carbon copied the entire thing, down to having Boeing branding on some of the parts, but once they put it into production they removed some of the flaws they found and other things like the brandings etc

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BiffSlick@reddit

The branding was likely left on as they simply made castings from many of the original parts

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ackermann@reddit

I’d be curious if they replicated the engines (complete with overheating issues), or used Russian engine designs.

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Pizza_Middle@reddit

Oh wow! I remember reading about it being a clone, but to not to that extent!

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Russia captured one

More specifically, it was interned after the crew diverted to Russian territory, and Russia's neutrality with Japan caused them to refuse US demands for it to be returned.

WRT the "neutrality," Russia didn't declare war on Japan until August 8, 1945.

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Balmung60@reddit

The biggest changes were the engines and defensive turrets. The Soviets had more or less developed their own equivalent to the Duplex Cyclone from licensed Wright Cyclone engines and used that instead of actually cloning the Duplex Cyclone from the B-29, and they changed the turret armament from .50 cals (they presumably could have slotted in DShKs in the place of the M2s with otherwise relatively minimal alterations) to 23mm autocannons.

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ST4RSK1MM3R@reddit

This is my favorite plane of all time it just looks so cool

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mrspooky84@reddit

How good was that radar mounted on it? Couldn't hold that many operators or crew?