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Tu-116 / Tu-114D (Diplomatic)

The Council of Ministers on August 12, 1955 issued a resolution according to which the OKB-156 and the plant #18 was instructed to design and build a long-range passenger aircraft Tu-95P (aircraft "114") on the Tu-95 base, presenting it for joint factory and state tests in the second At the same time, Tupolev residents received a very unusual task for the re-equipment of two serial Tu-95s into passenger aircraft "116" for special transportation (ie transportation of long distance statesmen with escort and guard in conditions of increased comfo mouth). The need for an aircraft of this purpose appeared with the beginning of a "thaw" in relations between East and West, because the IL-14 used for these purposes no longer corresponded to the spirit of the times, nor the status of the USSR as a superpower.

Planes "116" were ordered for fear that the top leadership would need to pay a visit to the US, and "114" would not be ready. Proceeding from the assumed simplicity of the alteration, the term of presentation of the "116" for testing was also fixed - September 1956, but on March 28, 1956, the Council of Ministers removed this term due to the overload of the Design Bureau with more urgent work on combat vehicles. In the future, the aircraft "116" or Tu-116 received the open designation Tu-114D (the letter "D" meant "diplomatic", and not "distant" [daleniy] as it was written in popular aviation literature).

The preliminary design of the "116" aircraft was presented to the customer in April 1956, and in October it was approved. According to the draft, "116" could carry 400 kg of luggage and up to 24 passengers, including servicemen: flight attendant, cook and navigator-informant, who informed the members of the delegation about the flight, and, if necessary, 10-12 armed men . Structurally, the new aircraft was almost the same as the Tu-95. All the defensive and bomber weapons were removed, and the space behind the center wing was occupied by two passenger lounges, a toilet room, a wardrobe and a service room with a total volume of 70.5 m 3. The sides of the fuselage were made with portholes.

The first passenger cabin was designed for 6-8 people, the second, intended for the "main passenger" - for three people. The salons were equipped with sofas and sofa beds. Especially for the aircraft created an interior that suited the tastes of the leaders of the state. The Hermocabine ended with the entrance door, followed by a tambour with an entrance gangway, which fell through the hatch in the lower part of the fuselage. In an emergency, the hatch was used to save passengers. In HCHF there was a compartment with landing illumination aerial bombs and a parachute of emergency decrease.

The main crew was located the same as on Tu-95, and consisted of two pilots, navigator-navigator, navigator-operator, flight engineer, flight engineer and airborne operator. For the flight along international routes, there was a place for the navigator-pilot. For the front hermetic tank was a container for additional oil and slurry, tk. the first Tu-95 was characterized by an increased consumption of these liquids. The aircraft was equipped with the most modern equipment. It consisted of: a radio station of the short-wave range Helium with a receiver of the RPM, a radio station 1-RSB-70M with the US-8 receiver, three sets of the radio station RSIU-4P, two automatic radio compasses ARK-5, radio altimeters PB-17 and PB-2, equipment of blind landing of the SP-50 "Mainland", the panoramic radar "Rubidium-MM" was preserved. In the salon, the Mir radio and pneumatic mail were installed to communicate with the crew. In case of an emergency landing on the water, there were lifeboats LAS-5 and two rafts SP-12. A fuel stock of a total volume of 77,800 liters, located in 66 soft tanks, provided a maximum technical range of 11,190 km.

In Tu-116, two serial Tu-95 #402 and #409 were converted, issued respectively in 1956 and 1957. The first car, which was given the #7801, was factory tested from April 23 to October 4, 1957, the second car # 7802, released on June 3, 1957, was transferred to the state tests only in March. On March 2, the first flight of Tu-116 from the factory airfield was completed, and on March 8 the aircraft flew to Chkalovskoe airfield, to the GC NII of the Air Force. The state crew conducted a crew consisting of test pilots VK Bobrykov and VS Kipelkin, navigators-testers N.S. Zacepa and V.Pasportnikov, boarder V.Popov. In these flights, participated and test pilot OKB I.Vedernikov, subsequently raising into the air many modifications Tu-95/142.

During the state tests on Tu-116 #7802, a non-stop flight on the route Chkalovskoe-Irkutsk-Chkalovskoye with a length of 8600 km was performed (the rest of fuel in the tanks after landing allowed to fly about 3000 km). The average speed in flight was 800 km / h. The subsequent flights were performed along the following routes: Chkalovskoe-Vozdvizhenka (Vladivostok) -Chkalovskoye; Chkalovsky-Dixon-Mys Taygonos -Ukrainka; Chkalovsky-Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky-Tashkent; Tashkent-Dushanbe-Frunze-Dixon-Great Luke-Chkalovsky; Chkalovsk-Leningrad-Tallinn-Riga-Vilnius-Minsk-Kiev-Tbilisi-Yerevan-Baku-Ashgabat-Rostov-on-Don-Chkalovsky. In one of the flights, which began on June 28, 1958 and was conducted with three interim landings, The total distance of the route was 34,000 km. Simultaneously, at Tu-116 #7801 the crew, headed by the test pilot NN Kharitonov, made a non-stop flight Moscow-Lake Baikal-Moscow with an average speed of 740 km / h. During tests on Tu-116 #7802 military identification plates were replaced with Aeroflot symbols, the car was given the civil registration number of the USSR-76462.

On the flight characteristics of the Tu-116 almost did not concede Tu-95. But there were a number of shortcomings, the most significant of which was the lack of an automatic flown system for propellers. Subsequently, the modified powerplants were installed on the aircraft, but at first the pilots' qualifications were very high and only high-quality crews from among the testers were allowed to fly to the Tu-116. As a result, the cars were never taken to the government squad. In addition, in November 1957, tests began Tu-114, which is much better suited for government transportation.

After the completion of the state tests, both aircraft were handed over to the Air Force, where they were operated until the early 1990s. After the state tests the aircraft # 7801 was transferred to long-range aviation and presumably based on Uzen and Belaya Tserkov airfields, and 7802 at the aerodrome of the nuclear test site near Semipalatinsk and was operated as a passenger for the delivery of specialists until April 1991. At present Tu-116 #7801 is partially utilized, its separate parts are in Uzin. The second car was based in Semipalatinsk, and now resides in the Ulyanovsk Museum of Civil Aviation.