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Tupolev Tu-4

The Tupolev Tu-4 (Russian: Туполев Ту-4; NATO reporting name: Bull) is a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to the mid-1960s. The aircraft was a copy of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, having been reverse-engineered from seized aircraft that had made emergency landings in the USSR.
Towards the end of WWII, the United States refused the request of the USSR to recieve B-29s under the Lend-lease program multiple times. Lacking the technology to create a proper strategic long range bomber to replace their aging (and limited) fleet of Pe-8 bombers, the USSR started looking for other solutions to modernize their bomber fleet. Their solution fell to them from the sky... multiple times, as three different B-29s would divert or crash land in the far Eastern USSR, and due to the USSR's neutrality in the Pacific War against Japan at that point, these bombers were kept despite demands from the US to return them. Stalin quickly ordered the reverse engineering of the three bombers into a new Soviet heavy bomber, and assigned the daunting task to Andrei Tupolev. The first aircraft was disassembled down to each screw to be studied, the second was repaired for flight testing, and the third, being the most minimally damaged, was left as a standard reference for the designers. In total, 900 factories and research institutes were involved in the project. The most significant change was in the engine department and armament, with the Tu-4 being powered by Soviet-built copies of the Wright R-3350 engines used in the B-29 and the .50 cal turrets replaced with NS-23 cannon turrets. After four years of hard work, alot of bureaucratic hurdles, and technological rushes, the first Tu-4 would take to the skies on May 19, 1947, with serial production being authorized to start immediately.

On the 3rd of August 1947 at the Tushino Aviation Day parade, three large B-29s overflew the crowd watching the air show. Western reporters quickly dismissed these three aircraft as the "stolen" B-29s from before. It was only a few minutes later, when a fourth aircraft joined the formation, that the Western analysts had realized their worst fear had come true: the Soviets have successfully reverse engineered the B-29 and now had the capability of striking European and American major targets from their home.

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图波列夫 图-4（俄语：Туполев Ту-4；北约代号：公牛）是苏联的一款活塞式发动机战略轰炸机，从 20 世纪 40 年代末到 60 年代中期一直在苏联空军服役。该飞机是美国波音 B-29 超级堡垒轰炸机的仿制品，是通过对在苏联紧急迫降的飞机进行逆向工程而制造出来的。
在第二次世界大战接近尾声时，美国多次拒绝苏联根据租借法案接收 B-29 轰炸机的请求。由于缺乏制造合适的战略远程轰炸机的技术来替换其老旧（且数量有限）的图-8 轰炸机，苏联开始寻求其他途径来更新其轰炸机机队。他们的解决方案从天而降多次，因为三架不同的 B-29 轰炸机在苏联远东地区迫降或紧急着陆，由于当时苏联在太平洋战争中对日本保持中立，这些轰炸机被保留下来，尽管美国要求归还。斯大林迅速下令对这三架轰炸机进行逆向工程，将其转化为新型苏联重型轰炸机，并将这一艰巨任务交给了安德烈·图波列夫。第一架飞机被拆解到每一颗螺丝钉以供研究，第二架被修复用于飞行测试，而第三架，由于受损最小，被留作设计师的标准参考。该项目总共涉及 900 家工厂和研究机构。最显著的变化在于发动机部门和武器装备，图 - 4 采用的是苏联仿制的 B - 29 所用的赖特 R - 3350 发动机，而且 0.50 英寸口径的炮塔被 NS - 23 型机炮炮塔所取代。经过四年艰苦卓绝的努力、克服了重重官僚障碍以及技术上的赶工，图 - 4 的首架原型机于 1947 年 5 月 19 日成功升空，随即批准立即投入批量生产。

1947 年 8 月 3 日，在图希诺航空节阅兵式上，三架大型 B-29 轰炸机飞越了观看空中表演的人群。西方记者很快便将这三架飞机认定为之前“偷来的”B-29。然而仅仅几分钟后，当第四架飞机加入编队时，西方分析人士才意识到他们最担心的事情成真了：苏联成功仿制了 B-29，现在具备了从本土打击欧洲和美国主要目标的能力。

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