TU4 VS B29

[Mini Cheddars]

The Tu-4 was a copy of the B-29 based on the reverse-engineering of several B-29s which were forced to land in Soviet territory after flying bombing missions against Japan and were subsequently impounded under the terms of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty. The fundamental problem with the Tu-4 was that Stalin’s relatively sensible directive to copy the impounded B-29s was interpreted so literally by the Soviet industrial bureaucracy that even the slightest divergence from the original design required the personal approval of the high-ranking generals who served as top managers for the project.

The end result was that the Soviets had to make severe compromises to the structural integrity of the aircraft because they were trying to exactly copy an airframe based on bleeding edge high strength lightweight alloys without being able to copy those alloys. The Tu-4 was “only” 750 pounds heavier than the B-29, but it was vastly less durable than the Boeing because the engineers were not allowed to change the dimensions of the airframe’s structural components while duplicating them with weaker materials.

The only major aspect in which the Tu-4 was allowed to be significantly improved over the B-29 was defensive armament. The Tu-4 had the same defensive gun turrets as the early B-29 it was based on, but modified to accommodate Nudelman NS-23 autocannons instead of Browning M2 heavy machine guns. This gave the Tu-4 far harder-hitting and longer-ranged defensive weapons unmatched by any American bomber until the later Convair B-36, which was similarly armed with 20mm autocannon turrets.

The Tu-4 also arguably benefited from a modest improvement in engines. Contrary to popular misconception, the Tu-4’s ASh-73 radial engines were not copies of the B-29’s Wright R-3350 “Duplex Cyclone” radial engines. The two engines were in fact separately developed from the same “grandparent”: the R-3350 was an evolutionary development of the Wright R-1820 Cyclone engine, whereas the ASh-73TK was an evolutionary development of the Shvetsov M-25 which was a licensed copy of that same engine. This common ancestry meant that many parts were similar or even interchangeable between the two engines, but the only component of the Duplex Cyclone engine which the Soviets actually copied was the turbosupercharger unit. The important difference was that although the ASh-73TK was slightly less powerful than its American cousin, the fact that it did not have the R-3350’s lightweight magnesium-alloy crankcase eliminated the Duplex Cyclone’s infamous tendency towards engine fires so catastrophically hot that they could melt the wing spars in literally seconds.

[StingerRPG]

Nice copypasta

[Nevu]

Publicado originalmente por StingerRPG | tipofthehats.org:

Nice copypasta

[Mini Cheddars]

Publicado originalmente por StingerRPG | tipofthehats.org:

Nice copypasta

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[Nevu]

Publicado originalmente por RoyalFlyingCorps:

Publicado originalmente por StingerRPG | tipofthehats.org:

Nice copypasta

did i claim to write this, im posting information, now suck ur mothers ♥♥♥♥

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[Lain]

Why did we need to know this again?

[StingerRPG]

Publicado originalmente por Rootin Tootin Putin:

Why did we need to know this again?

Because this was mistaken as reddit or facebook

[Blitzkrieg Wulf]

Thread locked.