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Old August 6th, 2017 #11
Jeffrey Smither
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Originally Posted by Ray Allan View Post
While not a Lend-Lease item, the USSR produced in postwar a close copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress called the Tu-4 (NATO name: "Bull"). In WW2, 3 USAAF B-29s made emergency landings in Soviet territory after bombing missions over Japan. Lacking a modern heavy bomber of his own, Stalin ordered the design bureau of Andrei N. Tupolev to reverse-engineer the B-29, and the first Soviet-made version, the Tu-4, first flew in 1947 and entered service in 1949. The aircraft dropped the first Soviet atomic bomb the same year. Tu-4 spawned a number of other Soviet military bombers and transports in addition to civilian airliners. An interesting fact about the B-29 is both the present-day Russian Tu-95 "Bear" series and the US B-52 bomber are descendants of this airplane.

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The TU-95 can reach the West Coast, however to carry the Tsar Bomba the Fuselage fuel tanks were taken out so the Tu95 didn't have a very long range carrying it.