Tu-160 :: Nauka ~ Tehnika ~ Military

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Tu-160
The Supersonic, Strategic 'Blackjack'

The development of the Rockwell B-l for the US Air
Force led to a Soviet government decision to launch a
competition for the development of a supersonic
strategic bomber intended to replace the Tu-95 'Bear',
and replace/supplement the medium-range Tu-22M
'Backfire'.
Work began in the early 1970s and several design
bureaux submitted proposals. It is understood that the
best proposals were submitted by the Myasishchev
design bureau, but the VVS considered that
Myasishchev would be hard put to produce their
design, so the competitive result went to the always
capable Tupolev. The bureau's work on the Tu-144
was also a factor in this decision, as was the Opyt
factory.
Aleksei Tupolev had succeeded his father as general
designer of the bureau, which was officially given his
father's name posthumously. This was unusual in
Soviet industry it is certainly the only time this has
happened with an aircraft design bureau that a son
succeeded his father. He appointed Valentin Blizniuk
to act as chief designer for the programme, which was
given the designation Tu-160.

From the beginning, a variable geometry wing was
proposed, even though the materials and technology
needed for one of the necessary size were not then
available. Different engine layouts were considered,
including a vertical one, (with one engine mounted
above a second on each side), but the complex airflow
resulting would have needed a technically difficult air
intake, so a side by side arrangement mounted in ducts
under the inner wings was finally evolved. Many
specialist staff in leading research institutes and even
from other design bureaux worked on the programme,
as did staff from other industries. For the first time in
the Soviet Union, stealth technology was developed to
reduce the possibility of the new bomber being
detected by enemy radar.
The engine design bureau of Nikolai Kuznetsov
developed a two-stage turbine engine, the NK-32, with
reheat for the programme. When it was completed in
1980, it was installed on a Tu-95LL flying test aircraft
for evaluation. Each NK-32 offered a thrust of
25,000kg/55,115lb with reheat. A number of systems
already in service on the Tu-22M3 were adapted for
the Tu-160; electronic versions of artificial horizon,
and turn and bank indicators were rejected as not yet
meeting the standards needed. Titanium was used
quite widely on the aircraft, accounting for some
twenty per cent of the airframe. The high temperature
leading edges were made from titanium alloys, as
was the centreplane spar, a 12.4m/40.7-foot long by
2. lm/6.9-foot wide box with lateral ribs made from
aluminium alloys. The centreplane spar was also used
to carry fuel; some carbon fibre composites and fibreglass
materials were also used. The outer wings also
served as fuel tanks. They were formed around a
torsion box in which the fuel was carried, and the outer
panels were manufactured from aluminium and
titanium alloys. They were hinged to the centreplane
and could vary the angle of sweep between 20° and 65°.
The crew of four was seated in a pressurised cabin
and they were provided with K-36LM ejector seats,
which could be operated from ground level. Entry to
the aircraft was through an underbody hatch which
held an extending ladder. The cabin was equipped for
extended patrols with the provision of reclining seats
for rest, together with cooking facilities and a toilet.
Diving suits were also carried, presumably as a means
of escape should the aircraft come down in the sea. The
undercarriage had a steerable nose wheel, while
the two main legs had telescopic extensions to lengthen
them while being lowered, and to extend them
outwards by 600mm/two feet in order to widen the
wheel track..
The aircraft's equipment included an INS which
served as back-up to an 'Astral' navigation system and
long-range radar to locate ground and sea targets; an
active/passive communications disruption system;
optical/electronic bombsights; and a heat locator,
capable of detecting approaching aircraft or missiles.
Over 100 digital processors were fitted on the Tu-160
including eight digital navigation computers. The
flying controls were rapid response, developed from
fighter systems. The rear fuselage contained radar
trapping and deflecting surfaces.
Two prototypes plus a static test airframe were built
by the ANTK at the Opyt factory and at TsAGI at
Zhukovski from parts made at the Kazan production
factory. The centreplane was brought by river to
Zhukovski and the wings were flown there, mounted
under the belly of a Tu-95 piloted by Ivan Vedernikov,
resulting in what was described as 'an interesting takeoff.
As usual, when completed, the fuselages were
disassembled and brought by road to Zhukovski,
where they were reassembled, and joined to the wings
in the Tupolev hangar at the test base.
When completed, one aircraft was rolled out on 26
November 1981. It was spotted parked beside two
Tu-144s by an overflying satellite. When the KGB saw
the resultant pictures, the quality was so good that
they concluded that they had been taken from the roof
of a building on the test base, and a major investigation
was launched. A close examination revealed that
the photographic angles could not be matched. Then
a detailed analysis of records of possible overflights
showed that none could match the sun positions.
Finally, detailed scanning of the satellite overflights
found the answer. Thereafter, no new aircraft were
rolled out in daylight hours, although test flying was
conducted both during the day and at night.
The photographs revealed to Western intelligence
the largest combat bomber yet produced in the world,
with the known size of the Tu-144 giving a clear
measure against which to determine the bomber's
dimensions.
The inaugural flight of the prototype Tu-160,
codenamed 'Blackjack' by NATO, took place on 19
December 1981, the birthday of the then Soviet
General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev. It was made
from Zhukovski, with Boris Veremei in command. As
the factory and state tests progressed, the VVS decided
that the requirement was for 100 aircraft, and production
was established at Kazan. The first production
aircraft joined the two built by factory N156 in the
flight test programme. These tests were carried out at
the Zhukovski flight test and development base of
Tupolev. The second production aircraft was lost
when it suffered an engine failure on take-off.
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The Tu-160 entered service with the VVS in May
1987, when the first aircraft were delivered to the
Guards Bombing Air Force Regiment N184, based
near the town of Priluki in the Ukraine. Nineteen
aircraft, forming two squadrons, were delivered. A
second base was set up near Engels, in the Saratov
region of Russia, in 1991, with the first squadron
expected to become active in 1992; the changing
politics intervened and only four aircraft were delivered.
They equipped Air Force Bombing Regiment N160.
In August 1988, US Secretary of Defense Carlucci
became the first non-Soviet citizen to be allowed inside
a Tu-160 which had been flown to the Kubinka air
force base for the occasion. As he was climbing into
the cockpit, he banged his head against an instrument
panel. Since then, this has been nicknamed the
'Carlucci panel'.
The first occasion when Tu-160s flew beyond Soviet
borders occurred in May 1991 when two aircraft flew
to Cape Nordkyn in northern Norway, and then down
the west coast as far as the town of Tromso. En route,
they were intercepted by Royal Norwegian Air Force
F-16s which accompanied them for some time.
But the changing political and economic climate of
the Soviet Union brought its own difficulties to the
Tu-160 programme. Early in 1992, the new Russian
president, Boris Yeltsin, announced the end of the
Tu-160 production line. Ministry of Defence sources
quoted the production order as being cut from 100 to
forty, but in fact only thirty aircraft were built,
including those by the designers. In 1994, the officer
commanding the VVS, Colonel-General Piotr
Deinekin, stated that long-range military aviation was
in a financial crisis, and that what was needed now
was 'a cheaper bomber with better operational
characteristics'.
At the time of writing, nineteen Tu-160s are
grounded at Priluki, unused since 1992 as the
Ukrainian Air Force has no resources to operate them.
Russia and the Ukraine have held talks on a possible
repatriation to Russia as a part offset of the Ukrainian
debt for oil and gas, but no conclusion has, as yet, been
reached. Tupolev sources indicate that, at this stage, it
will be practically impossible to restore them to service
condition.
A further four are based, and are operational, at
Engels with the Russian Air Force; four production
aircraft are at Tupolev's base in Zhukovski as are the
two prototypes; the static test airframe is still at
TsAGI; and one almost complete aircraft remains on
the Kazan production line.
As a weapons system, the Tu-160 was formidable.
All its weapons were mounted internally, and it could
carry: twelve Kh-55 cruise missiles with a
3,000km/1,864-mile range, mounted in two drums in
the bomb bay (NATO code (Kent'/AS-15B); twentyfour
Kh-15 missiles, similarly mounted (NATO code
'KickbackVAS-16); and a range of freefall bombs
and/or seamines, including nuclear bombs. Its combat
load was up to forty-five tonnes. It could also be used
as a first-stage satellite launch by using an underbody
Burlak missile to take the satellite into a 300 to
500km/186 to 311-mile polar orbit at a fraction of the
cost of a rocket launch. Maximum speed was
2,230kph/l,386mph at 13,OOOm/42,653 feet, practical
ceiling was 15,OOOm/49,215 feet, and unrefuelled range
was 12,300km/7,643 miles at MTOW. On patrol, its
unrefuelled endurance was fifteen hours.

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