Tu-70 / Tu-75 Cart

The task of manufacturing passenger aircraft with enhanced comfort level and advanced interior was not new for Tupolev Design Bureau and its production facilities, which had been working in this direction. For example, at the end of the Great Patriotic War two Pe-8 bombers were modified to aircraft intended for VIP transportation provided with adequate interior.

The first post-war Tupolev's airliner TU-70, based on the Tu-4 bomber, was provided with high comfort level interiors meeting VIP-class requirements. In 1945 engineer OKB NV. Kirsanov (in the future, the chief designer of the Tu-142 and Tu-95MS) proposed a modification of an experimental long-range bomber "62" (Tu-2D) into a passenger for special transportation, designed for 15-20 people. In the first half of 1946, Tupolev began designing a four-engine passenger airplane with a hermetic saloon on the basis of the B-4 bomber, which would correspond to the highest world standards for long-distance liners. The design for building this aircraft began simultaneously with the creation of the Tu-4. The Tu-70 had commonality with the Tu-4 of about 75 percent across the basic units, the aggregates and the systems. In the comparison with the Tu-4, the fuselage of the Tu-70 aircraft was somewhat longer and wider. The flight decks and passenger cabin were executed airtight, heated with the appropriate ventilation. At the "70th", in comparison with the B-4, a more rational stepped form of the cockpit was applied. From them took the wing console, nacelles, chassis, tail units and equipment.

The first flight of aircraft took place on November 27, 1946, the crew F.F.Opadchego. Only this experimental model was built. In the fall of 1946, the aircraft was built and handed over for testing. In the fourth test flight, the airliner made an emergency landing and was damaged. In the flight one engine fell apart, causing a fire. Test pilot Testo, saved an experienced specimen, having managed to land the aircraft with a retracted landing gear.

A detailed investigation of the incident made it possible to detect a serious structural defect in the American version of the turbocharger system. By the way, It was this constructive defect that caused the death of the first prototype B-29 during the tests in the USA. Americans did not detect this defect. In December 1947, the state trials were completed.

Unfortunately for objective and subjective reasons this advanced machine was not launched into serial production and into operation. This first Soviet multi-engined long-range airliner with pressurized cabin did not enter mass production due to the low volume of air travel in USSR following the Second World War.

During the August 3, 1947 Aviation Day parade over Tushino Airport, Moscow, three four-engined aircraft which were obviously B-29s appeared during a low-altitude flyover. It was at first thought that these three aircraft might have been the same 3 intact B-29s known to have been in Soviet hands, but a FOURTH aircraft appeared which was obviously a transport conversion of the B-29, leaving no doubt that the earlier report of B-29 manufacture in the Soviet Union was completely accurate. The transport version was designated Tu-70, but it was only revealed later that the designation of the bomber was Tu-4.

After the war on the basis of TU-4 serial bomber and its passenger version TU-70 a mid-class military transport and cargo TU-75 aircraft was developed. The Tu-75 was the transport modification of passenger aircraft Tu-70. The Tu-75 aircraft was created with the basic purpose - airlift to 10 tons of payload or 120 landing force members. The TU-75 could transport up to 10,000 kg of cargo or 100 paratroopers. State-of the-art cargo and equipment loading and dropping system was used for the first time in the USSR. This system served as a basis for designing of further aircraft of such purposes in the USSR. The Tu-75 military transport plane was outfitted with a cargo ramp and gun defenses.

The first flight Tu-75 completed on January 21, 1950.

Further aircraft for several years adapted in the system [MAP] for the transportation, but it in October 1954 suffered catastrophe. One experimental model was built. The Tu-75 military transport plane was never brought to mass production; nor were the T-107, T-117, or T-200, whose designs were proposed by P. L. Bartini in 1945 - 1947. This was due both to an underestimation of the role of military transport aviation by the political and military leadership of the country at that time, and by objective economical and political factors pressing industry to concentrate their efforts on the realization of higher-priority programs for the creation of military rockets.

As military transport and assault aircraft Air Force used TU-4DT aircraft for a long time (several hundreds of TU-4 aircraft were converted), TU-4T version prototype was prepared and tested which had extended transportation and assault capabilities.