Tu-96 / Tu-100

The TU-96 was a long-range intercontinental high-altitude strategic heavy bomber prototype. High-altitude version of TU-95 a/c with high-altitude augmented turboprop TV-16 engines and with new wing of enlarged area. Plant tests of the aircraft were performed with not high-altitude engines TV-12 in 1955-1956.

From the beginning of the 1950s, research and development work was started at the Tupolev Design Bureau to create an intercontinental strategic supersonic carrier capable of replacing the Tu-95 and M-4 in the foreseeable future. Although they were carried out with the goal of creating a conventional bomber, they simultaneously worked on combined strategic systems (composite aircraft and air-missile systems). Both supersonic strategic planes and subsonic Tu-95 types were evaluated as carriers, and supersonic attack aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic air-launched missiles were used as the second stages of composite systems and complexes.

During the design of the suspension, both their own projects and the projects of other OKB were considered. Preliminary elaboration of such systems and their component elements was carried out in the Design Bureau in the project team and the department of technical projects headed by BM Kondorskim and S. Yeager.

The decision of the Government of the USSR in 1952 was given the creation of a high-altitude intercontinental strategic bomber Tu-96. As a variant of the main armament of the carrier aircraft in OKB-156, A.N. Tupolev, the "100" attack aircraft was designed in manned and unmanned versions. Cruise missiles. After the manned version "100" (Tu-100) was dropped from the carrier aircraft at a range of 800-1000 km from the target designated for destruction.

In 1953, work began on a pendant bomber - a carrier of a nuclear bomb. It was supposed that such a plane would be suspended for subsonic Tu-95, Tu-96 or supersonic carrier, forming a composite strategic aviation complex. His second stage would be able to break through the enemy air defenses at a large supersonic speed. According to calculations. in the "hitch" the hanging airplane would have to fly at a range of 6000-6500 km, further after the detachment, it would independently fly to the goal of 800-1000 km at a speed of 1500 km/h and 200-500 km - back from the target to the nearest base at a speed of about 1000 km / h, with the total range of the entire system approaching 7000- 7500 km. It was also envisaged to use a suspended aircraft in an unmanned version: a detachment and a flight to the target for a distance of 1000 km at a speed of 1500 km / h. In both cases, the carrier aircraft did not enter the active air defense zone of the enemy.

By March 1954, according to the suspended aircraft "100" (Tu-100)conducted preliminary studies of optimal parameters using two TRDF AM-11F, which showed a real possibility of creating such a machine. On July 30, 1954, a government decree issued by which the OKB was commissioned to build a 100 "(Tu-100) hanging airplane, which is part of the planned long-range strategic system Tu-108 with a range of 7000 km. The power plant of the aircraft is two AM-11M engines with a maximum thrust of 5500-6000 kgf each. The crew - two people, the mass of the atomic bomb - 1250-1500 kg For flight tests and development of the aircraft "100" was entrusted to prepare a special flying laboratory on the basis of Tu-95. As alternatives, as a carrier, in addition to the "108" aircraft, it was proposed to use the Tu-95 and its high-altitude version of the Tu-96.

With reference to the aircraft "100" several variants of layout schemes were distinguished, differing in the type of the wing in the plan and the location of the stabilization bodies. In the variant of 1954, it was assumed that two engines of the type AM-1 IM with afterburners should be installed on the BL A of the airplane with a swept wing. In 1955, the power plant was to be changed using D-20 turbofan engines with a maximum thrust of 6,000 kg. The smaller specific fuel consumption of the D-20 engine made it possible to expect an increase in the range of flight with the possibility of increasing the maximum speed to 1800 km / h.

The most detailed in the department of technical projects worked out a version of the normal scheme with a wing sweep of 45 ". Structurally, "100" (Tu-100) was close to the projects of supersonic front-line bombers of the design bureau of that period. In the fuselage with a fairly dense layout of equipment and weapons in the bow was a sealed cabin with jobs pilot and navigator-bombardier. The entire central and tail fuselage was occupied by fuel tanks. Two AM-11M with afterburners were located in the rear of the fuselage. Unregulated air intake - under the crew cabin. In the middle of the fuselage in the vicinity of the centerplane there was a bomb-bay for the RDS-4 atomic bomb. Considering the conditions for using the aircraft, the chassis was lightweight and consisted of a forward stance and a landing fuselage ski. With full refueling and RDS-4 bomb, the mass of "100" (Tu-100) at the time of detachment was 31 tons, with the range of flight reached 6000-7000 km, which allowed after the impact on the target to return to its base, the maximum speed - 1500 km / h.

The project "100" (Tu-100) was repeatedly processed, the changes, in particular, touched the type of engines: in 1955, they switched to the new D-20 turbofanless non-basic D-20 designs with a maximum static thrust of 6000 kg and with less than AM- 11 specific fuel consumption at cruising transonic modes. At the same time, the estimated maximum speed of the aircraft increased to 1800 km / h.

The Tu-96 carrier was built in a single copy in 1956, and the "100" aircraft remained in the project, although in the second half of the 1950s, for him, OKB continued to develop new carrier aircraft - the supersonic intercontinental bomber "108" and its development the bomber project "109". Work on the aircraft "100" was completed in 1958.