There is a joke where an American f-15 pilot intercepted a TU-95 just outside American Air space. This was frequent and the pilots sometimes recognized this, the F-15 pilot said "Hey Ivan, watch this" The F-15 did a couple of rolls, flew around the bomber and then back into position, the Russian pilot said "not bad but watch this" The Bomber did nothing but the pilot left and came back the America responded "What did you do, I saw nothing, the Russia said "I got up, went to the bathroom, had a smoke grabbed a sandwich and a coffee while reading a magazine, do that in your F-15"
This needs to have a comparison video with the B-52. Both early Cold War behemoths, tasked with the same missions, and both lasting longer than anything else in service.
Yes. It seems like each has its reasons for remaining, seventy years after its introduction. Both have subsequent aircraft that took over their respective missions, but something keeps them viable. Maybe that they are both so freaking ugly, nothing else inspires the kind of fear that more modern designs just can't compare with. If you look at the U.S. B-58 or B-1b or Russia's corresponding Tu-22M and Tu-160, all of these look like big-ass fighters. So even though any of these could turn any city into rubble, none are particularly scary. (Don't even mention the B-2; this looks like nothing else ever concocted, so how are we supposed to picture its scale?) But take the BUFF or the Bear, either of whose roar you can feel in your guts, if you add to that their sinister appearance, you are going to vote for whatever measures are necessary to keep that beast AWAY. The same could have been said for the B-29, B-50, and even the B-36, at one time, but alas, none of these was going to be capable of long-term domination of the sky, due mainly to their antiquated engines. They all LOOKED the part, but there's a certain point where you just have to give up on them. But I really only bring up the B-29 because I've seen pictures of it on the apron with modern Boeing airliners, and the poor Stratofortress is dwarfed by them, but without such context, they are as bad-ass as anything else ever built. Which may explain why the Air Forces of neither the USA nor Russia ever allow their premiere bad boys to be seen next to modern-day commercial planes. Or not - seeing a BUFF refueling from a KC-135 takes nothing away from its presence. I've seen this from above, and it is indeed a sight to see.
@@bodamian_bg the TU 95 is a Icon and sort of a Pop icon in the Russian youth. It seems there are a lot of young people in Russia that think the Soviet Union days were a Glamorous time of Russian strength. It seems know one told the kids about food, freedom and persecution... Ya'll Take Care and be safe, John
@@JohnDoe-pv2iu, don't feel bad, there are plenty of youth here in the US that admire the Soviet Union very much. We should be allowed to throw history books at them.
As I commented on the B52 video, once you have a strategic bomber that can haul serious weight over long distances, there isn't much need to modernize as that's the only criteria for long range bombers. And given the relative fuel efficiency of the Bear, there isn't much need to develop a replacement in the first place since there won't be any savings in operating costs that could offset the costs for the long and tedious design and development process.
Photo of F-86 escorting TU-95 Photo of F-4 escorting TU-95 Photo of F-16 escorting TU-95 Photo of F-35 escorting TU-95 Photo of Imperial Class Star Destroyer escorting TU-95 Things will change, but some will always stay
Amazing how much the B-52 and TU-95 share in common for history. Both debuted at the same time, both designed to do one thing. Yet both have done vastly different things over their lifetimes (B-52's have never dropped a nuke in anger, but always carpet bombed or precision munitions over "primitive rebel" types.). Both are scheduled for a no earlier than 2040 retirement. At least the TU-95 still has it's tail cannon (manned at that).
I believe that the Bretton Woods agreement was a major driver in the cold war that no one seems to discuss. How about a deep dive into Bretton Woods and it's ramifications globally?
Very possibly. Little known fact is that the UK pound and Soviet ruble were also supposed to be reserve currencies after the war. The US may not be in the debt ridden state of inevitable collapse if this was upheld.
I mentioned this in an older video but I would love to see a Megaprojects vid about the U.S. Helicopter carriers or amphibious assault ships. The Wasp class is of particular interest to me because I served on U.S.S. Wasp from 1997-2000. I've love to see the history of these vessels and how they came to be.
The funny thing is, despite of being designed to evade US's airspace, Tu-95 never have to do so. After upgraded, it carried long-range nuclear cruise missiles, meaning it can drops missiles outside of US's airspace and still can hits the initial targets. Which means Tu-95 still can be used even how old and outdated it is, since its cruise missile is what matters most.
@@bigdaddy7119 This is basic math Daddy71. The props beeing contra rotating actually means they cansel eachother out. Not many know this, but the truth is the Tu-95 has ZERO props...
Nebraska is home to Offutt AFB, one of the US' main coordination airbases in war times. It would have been easily in the top 5 places to get nuked during the Cold War.
I've heard the same said about Norfolk, Virginia, home to not just Tactical Air Command, but also the world's largest naval base. However, there was never a "top 5" targets. The whole point of Mutually Assured Destruction was that NO place would be safe. During the Cold War, I had access to maps of a portion of the U.S., showing known or presumed Soviet missile targets. Around each target point was a circle showing the area of >50% mortality. There was more area covered by these circles than not. The vast majority of these targets had no discernible military value. Considering that ALL population centers were covered by multiple overlapping circles, the conclusion was that had an all-out nuclear exchange ever occurred, the immediate death toll would have been more than 90% of the population of the country.
If you live by a military base, airbase, port, government facility, or factory that makes any military related hardware or software there is at least 6-10 nuclear warheads targeting you right now.
@@dystopianlucidity4448 Everybody likes to think that they are important, but I'll say it again: there WERE no "top tier" targets. When your delivery is by bombers like the Tu-95 and B-52 that you can only expect to hit one target each, and your mission is tactical advantage, you prioritize targets, but this was the case only until the late 1950s. When your objective shifts to deterrence through terror and you have thousands of land- and submarine-based missiles that launch practically simultaneously and have multiple warheads, you end up targeting towns down to population 10,000 or less. That was the reality of the Cold War - body count became the primary metric. Tinker AFB's value as a target was less about military assets than about being one of the overlapping circles that covered and surrounded Oklahoma City.
@@darthdooku6246 In response to "why do turboprops always have straight wings?", Google says, "Propeller tips become supersonic way below the speed that wings start to become transonic." Of course, in the case of the Tu-95, the Soviets weren't going to let a little thing like supersonic propeller tips get in their way!
That's not a nuke dropper, it's a radioactive kitty litter making machine lol. How can something be fugly and beautiful at the same time? Gotta love 1950s beauty and beast designs.
Her beauty is iconic and timeless in my opinion. She's way before my time but still was taken by her beauty. I also am aware of her importance and can't help but be saddened by how she was treated when trying to pursue other careers.
1 thing that always impressed me about the TU-95 was how close to the cockpit the wings were placed. Interesting engineering. Enjoyed the vid as always. 😉👍✌️
That would indeed be interesting. According to the lore, when the Soviets tried to make an exact duplicate of the B-29 with their Tu-4, one of the challenges was that since Russian sheet metal was provided in metric gauges vs. America's inch-based gauges, they had to go with a slightly thicker gauge of metal.
@@BrightBlueJim Yes, that is what happened. But there was another funny thing. In one of the (crash) landed plane was an ashtray in the cockpit one of the pilots modified the cockpit. The Soviets carbon copied also that part.
Admiral Kuznetsov (Variyag class), isn't a carrier. Chinese "carriers" are based on that design. What is it then? It's a super heavy armored cruiser, with a flight deck. Main arnament are its heavy ship to ship nuclear capable missiles, granite class. It's an extremely expensive ship, boasting every weapon system imaginable on it. So much so, what Russia sold everything to China, and kept the least expensive ship (diesel one, nuclear there sold off). Even so, it's mostly kept in dry dock, to cut costs. Even in that capacity, cost of maintenance is still enough to cover the cost of building a new strategic sub every 4 years. Its insanely overpowered vessel, built for a WW3, massive naval engagements, and is too prohibitively expensive to use for demonstration/projection of naval power. China is rich enough to do that anyway... but Russia isn't.
@@acewyvern3489 I neglected to specify primary purpose of that vessel. Its designed to be capable to engage and destroy an entire US carrier group by itself, with no support. In other words, assuming it could reach the engagement range, regardless if the ship survives or not, its guaranteed to sink the entire US carrier group. That is its primary purpose. It's also why it's such a monstrosity of a weapon platform, and why its impossibly expensive to maintain even in drydock. / Russian navy, is highly secretive... its primary component are submarines. / History of the Russian navy, as a standing navy, begins with Peter the Great, however, Russia being a river civilization, longboat where used for trade and war since 8ad at least. So there is a long naval tradition in Russia, which predates the standing navy. / yeah, it would be. Russia, US, Britain are the most technological and veteran navies, with lots of stories, in the world today. Absolutely.
My dad worked F-106 super sonic interceptors for the Air Force in the late 1960s. He was the NCOIC of the avionics shop of the 48th fighter interceptor squadron and I would sit in his shop sometimes. Frequently, Sixes would blast out the alert hangar next door, almost always to shoo away a prowling Bear...
I literally listen to all these vids to help me go to sleep. Not boring or anything but listen to Simon is calmimg lol. Thanks for all that you do. Keep it up
Imagine we would be doing the same with cars... just fitting them with new engines, gearboxes, suspensions, brakes, steering, computers etc. We could have Cadillac Eldorados doing 40 mpg with most of the safety systems of modern cars instead of Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf. The look of modern cars is insulting to the eyes, and if Mercedes' new electric cars are anything to go by, it's only getting worse :D
I wholeheartedly believe that the manufacturers are fully aware of this, thus the tradition of making changes every year and completely abandoning a platform every 5-10. Add in unibody chassis that can wear/corrode out unlike a framed vehicle and us extremely difficult to repair/replace and the re0pacement parts costing an order of magnitude (or greater)more than it cost to produce.
It's easy to say things like this, and I happen to agree about the butt-ugliness without any good reason for modern styling, BUT, what you have to admit is that the stratigic spot-use of high-strength steel, and overall better mechanical designs make modern chassis far stronger and lighter than the crap that was being mass-produced in the 1960s. So no, your upgraded Eldorado was never going to do the trick, especially since it would have crumbled into drust by now.
@@harryhanz1690 I hope you will consider the weight figure, along with the weights of more modern designs in your calculations. All that said, I think I would much sooner convert a VW microbus. It was a minivan MADE to run with a small engine.
@@BrightBlueJim Yeah, I think it would only kind of work if cars were build to the same standards as high end military airplanes :D According to Top Gear, that probably applies to older Toyota Hilux, but that's about it... of course, there are things like the Eagle Speedster, which apparently is a perfectly up-to-date Jaguar E-Type, only slight problem is that it costs about as much as a small village.
@@AvB.83 Do you really believe, the military sticks to old planes, because they are so good? It is just to expensive and annoying to replace them, so rebuilding them and accpeting their flaws and inabilities is easier. You could not properly pay fo a car, that was built to last forever and on the other hand, there is such thing as research and developement. Despite polemic believe car makers keep advancing the cars and drive trains and crash structures get better and better. I don't want to have a 50 year old piece of crap, that rides like a donkey. It is cheaper and better to buy a new car every twenty years then to buy a car once in your lifetime and keep retrofitting it with new engines, gearboxes and so on, because you also have to pay for that.
You should do a Sideprojects about some of the largest excavation machines! You could include "Big Muskie", the largest walking dragline ever made, "The Silver Spade", an enormous dipper shovel, & the Bagger series of bucketwheel excavators! They are some FASCINATING pieces of equipment!
i like how you included the bit about the tsar bomba, this aircrafts history is tied to that test for sure. also i don't normaly comment, but i've been watching since you created this channel, thanks for all your great content, you have restored some of my faith in humanity
Tu-95MSM, B-52H, B-36 - these are just monuments to the engineering genius of the post-war generation of American and Russian aircraft engineers. Waiting for a video about the B-36. Thanks Simon.
11:16 - anybody else sat there thinking "I am a mechanical man"? I kinda want to play C&C Red Alert now that you bought back the nostalgia with this video
Au Simon, thats a great one, the Tu-95. Could you do one on operation 596 (the Chinese nuclear program) or operation Gerboise Bleue (the French nuclear program).
One minor correction, the Bears still flying are Tu-95MS varients, all of which were made in the 80-90s. They are not exactly "old" when it comes to such bombers. So its no surprise that they will be flying at least till 2040.
@@macsmith2013 Well, they DID make this, and they called it the B-52 Stratofortress. Which I like better than omegafortress, although OMGfortress pretty much covers the feeling.
@@lastguy8613 alas there are but so many Anti air missiles…should a large enough EMP happen I think the handful that could be would be brought out of retirement….something is better than nothing
They have long ago lost ability to drop bombs, and can only use cruise missiles. Maybe will be aded back in next modernization. At least Tu-160 is getting it.
As a designer of stealth military aircraft we never allowed the blade tips of propeller aircraft or helicopters to exceed the speed of sound. There are two reasons for this;1. Exceeding the speed of sound generates a sonic boom and makes aircraft easily detectable because of the noise, 2. the energy that cavitation of the air(the generation of a sonic boom) significantly increases fuel consumption.
Since you said “Mainstay”. How about a video on Airborne Early Warning and Command and Control? The Russian Beriev A-50 (Mainstay) . vs US E3 AWACS vs AUS “Wedgetail”. And how in a world of satellites … these beasts are still important.
By the way, an Austrian jet engineer Ferdinand Brandner led the team that developed the power plant (those emblematic double propeller four engines) for that beast of a plane. Upon finishing the project, he went to Egypt to participate in the development of their own jet fighter, alongside Willi Messerschmitt. P.S. meanwhile Kurt Tank- the genius behind the FW 190 works in India chasing pretty much the same goal.. LEGENDS!
Not bloody likely - the B-50 was the red-headed stepchild of the USAF and the B-29. It's a plane nobody loved, because it was mainly intended to fix the problems with the B-29, but was already obsolete when introduced, since by then it was widely believed that turbojet engines were the One True Future. In fact, designating it the B-50 was a ruse intended to convince Congress that it was a whole new airplane. Both the KC-97 and KB-50 tankers were developed from variants of the B-29, and both eventually had to have J-47 turbojet engines fitted in addition to their piston engines, to give them the ability to do refueling runs fast enough that the fighters they were trying do refuel wouldn't be dangerously close to stalling out. The B-50 never had a chance as a bomber, and in its tanker role was cheerfully replaced by the KC-135, when that became available.
The US and USSR have always had slightly different requirements. The B-52 could not have worked without aerial refueling, which the US already had a lot of experience with. The Soviet answer was to build planes with longer range without refueling, which brought about the Tu-95. Neither country would have been happy with the other's flagship bomber. The Tu-95 is aerial refuelable, but this was not a technology that its original design depended on, with its design range of 8000km.
It’s always fun seeing news of their flights near Alaskan air space. I imagine the pilots bantering over the radio like old friends. Dropping Cold War projects again. Because something something fulda gap The A10. Bradley IFV.
@2:26 is a shot of the Regulus Cruise Missile. It was the first nuclear missile that could be launched from a ship or specially equipped submarine. It didn’t have its own navigation control system, a jet would fly next to it controlling the Regulus until it got close to the target then the jet would point and fly as fast as he could go before the blast happened. I would love to see a full break down of the Regulus and her successor the Regulus II.
I'm from the U.S. but I gotta give credit where it's due...Whether it's bombers, tanks, missiles, nukes, etc...those Russian's sure know how to build 'em big, loud, fast & INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE, even by today's standards.
Simon and his team that help put these productions together are simply amazing 💪🏾… He gets paid i’m sure a ton of money to teach history.…. Simon & Mark Felton are my idols #DreamJob
You should do a video on the Sears Tower in Chicago! It was the tallest building in the world for decades. Also, it’s got a fun backstory and the city it’s in, Chicago, was where the idea of the skyscraper was first had due to the resurgence of the city of the great fire. I think it could be a great video! Cheers and thanks for all you do!
When I was at the Air force Institute of technology , I worked with a man who was a technician on the Bikini hydrogen bomb tests. During one of the tests he was in a B36 flying to test the performance of the aircraft in the nuclear blast zone. He said that when the flash occurred the light lit on fire the insulation across from the access door that had one window in it. When he got the fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, the shock wave hit and bounced the aircraft throwing him around( luckily not into the fire) and popped the bomb bay doors open. They made it back to the landing field with only superficial damage.
The TU-95 was what the B-52 almost was. Originally the B-52 was powered by turboprop engines--and that may have made the B-60 the long-range bomber of the USAF.
The Istanbul to Bagdad Railway would make a tremendous Mega Project. Heroic engineering, adding to the tensions leading to WW1, spies, and prisoners of war labouring on a death railway, before The Death Railway (Burma to Thailand). Finally, add a cameo appearance by James Bond at the magnificent Varda Viaduct.
The emergence of Bitcoin has sparked a debate about it's future and that of other cryptocurrencies. Despite Bitcoin's recent issues, it's success since it's 2009 launch has inspired the creation of alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Ripple and MintChip. In these experiences the speculative motive seems to be preailing. However, recently digital social currencies experiment are diffusing, by starting from Bitcoin protocol
Well the price pump is amazing for very early Investor or those who got in 14 days ago for the first time, otherwise it's just bouncing back to normal price for the rest of us...
BTC is truly a class of it's own, it has no competitors. All other alts are competing with each other they are more centralized and majority of them are not completed projects...
Same here, I made $18,000 profits on investing since I started trading with Mrs Pamela Kay Weaver her trading strategies are top notch am winning consistently trading with Mrs Pamela Kay Weaver.
One thing I'm surprised the Russians didn't do was upgrade the propellers on the Tu-95 with two six-bladed contra-rotating propeller "spinners" with composite material blades. That would have reduced the radar signature and also reduced the fuel consumption, since six-bladed propellers could spin quite a bit slower.
Good video, some topics ideas for future videos: Baikal Amur Mainline Building of Norilsk Itapu Dam Three Gorges Dam Maginot Line French Nuclear Power plan of the 1970s London Bridge station rebuilding
anybody interested in Russian Aviation should definitely visit Monino, it´s a great place and people there are very dedicated. I went there in 2019 and will return for sure
A really good programme Simon. I would love to see a video on the TU 95 Bear operations in the Ukraine. Surely it is not too early to draw at least some conclusions about the these operations.
In fact the A-10 is anything but "it's fine". The USAF wanted to retire ever since the end of Cold War. Except COIN environment the A-10C today is close to being useless. Here is a long video about the legend of the plane. ruclips.net/video/vfkQ0o2I_60/видео.html
Tail gunner was in the tail, not the forward compartment. Rear observer/photographers were also carried in the rear compartment with the side blisters.
Quite an incredible plane despite the fact that it was specifically designed to kill ME seeing as I was brought up in an era when Soviet Russia was THE enemy along with the IRA. Amazing to think that this piece of propeller driven antiquity has been intercepted by everything from Meteors jets right up to the Typhoon. Never seen one in real life, but if it was in the air, there is a good chance that I'd hear it before I could see it! The Bear fills a gap that the RAF never filled, a 4 engine heavy bomber with swept wings. The last 4 engine heavy piston engine plane bomber that the RAF had (For land based targets) was the Lincoln, which didn't have swept wings, or the Shackleton (for sea based targets), interestingly both of which can trace their ancestry back to the Avro Manchester, and neither of which had swept wings. The Americans had the Convair B-36 Peacemaker which I suppose could be comparable and that was retired in 1959! As well as living forever, it's quite an aesthetically pleasing chunk of aluminium too.
Back with more aeroplanes! Love them! 👏👍- Stretching the meaning of megaprojects or not! 😅 Gotta hand to the Russians and Americans for making sweet machines of the sky! 🇷🇺 TU95, Mig-29, TU160, TU144 Condordski, MiG 31, Su37,Mig 25, Su47 Berkut, Mi24 Hind 🇺🇸 B2 Spirit, F117, F14, YF23, F15, F22 Raptor, A12, F104, AH101apache . Etc👌😍
HOW TO DEFEAT RUclips ADS. if you click on the reverse or forward buttons on the top left corner, you can skip ads, by clicking reverse then forward, the original video clip comes back without the ad. if the forward or reverse is blank, click on another video clip on the right, then click reverse arrow top left and the original video clip comes back to the same point you left off at, without having to watch thoser annoying ads
Funny (and possibly apocryphal) story about the Tu-4. When the Soviets were reverse-engineering the B-29, they had instructions from the top to copy the American plane as exactly as possible. When Uncle Joe Stalin gives you an order, you interpret it literally, just to be safe. One of the B-29s, the one torn down so they could copy the parts, supposedly had a bullet hole in the instrument panel and, as a result, every single Tu-4 made had a completely unnecessary hole in the exact same spot.
It’s incredible to think that the TU-95 and the B52 who both came around in the early 50’s will still be flying while the original crews of these planes will have been long dead.
The TU-95 Bear remains one of the LOUDEST aircraft ever made, if a whole fleet of them were headed for America to bomb, we probably would have heard them coming just after takeoff in Russia
Back in the late 1960s at school in Battersea the class was wakened by a VERY LOUD turbo-prop aircraft flying very low over the school. Looking out of the window I saw a Tu-114 flying past (rather than over!) and diappearing in the direction of Heathrow. Later, it was announced on the BBC News that a very senior Russian official had visited the PM in Downing Street and we surmised that the low approach was to throw off the aim of any terrorist with a shoulder launched missile!
There is a joke where an American f-15 pilot intercepted a TU-95 just outside American Air space. This was frequent and the pilots sometimes recognized this, the F-15 pilot said "Hey Ivan, watch this" The F-15 did a couple of rolls, flew around the bomber and then back into position, the Russian pilot said "not bad but watch this" The Bomber did nothing but the pilot left and came back the America responded "What did you do, I saw nothing, the Russia said "I got up, went to the bathroom, had a smoke grabbed a sandwich and a coffee while reading a magazine, do that in your F-15"
Simon could narrate grass growing and it would be fascinating
Petition for a megaproject on grass
Tonight we talk about soft leaf buffalo but first a word about our sponsors rotting turtle
I agree 100% 😆😆
or paint drying
I'd watch that on surfshark
This needs to have a comparison video with the B-52. Both early Cold War behemoths, tasked with the same missions, and both lasting longer than anything else in service.
B- 52 has even reached the status of a pop icon..unlike the TU 95...for reasons *:)
Yes. It seems like each has its reasons for remaining, seventy years after its introduction. Both have subsequent aircraft that took over their respective missions, but something keeps them viable. Maybe that they are both so freaking ugly, nothing else inspires the kind of fear that more modern designs just can't compare with.
If you look at the U.S. B-58 or B-1b or Russia's corresponding Tu-22M and Tu-160, all of these look like big-ass fighters. So even though any of these could turn any city into rubble, none are particularly scary. (Don't even mention the B-2; this looks like nothing else ever concocted, so how are we supposed to picture its scale?) But take the BUFF or the Bear, either of whose roar you can feel in your guts, if you add to that their sinister appearance, you are going to vote for whatever measures are necessary to keep that beast AWAY.
The same could have been said for the B-29, B-50, and even the B-36, at one time, but alas, none of these was going to be capable of long-term domination of the sky, due mainly to their antiquated engines. They all LOOKED the part, but there's a certain point where you just have to give up on them.
But I really only bring up the B-29 because I've seen pictures of it on the apron with modern Boeing airliners, and the poor Stratofortress is dwarfed by them, but without such context, they are as bad-ass as anything else ever built. Which may explain why the Air Forces of neither the USA nor Russia ever allow their premiere bad boys to be seen next to modern-day commercial planes. Or not - seeing a BUFF refueling from a KC-135 takes nothing away from its presence. I've seen this from above, and it is indeed a sight to see.
@@bodamian_bg the TU 95 is a Icon and sort of a Pop icon in the Russian youth. It seems there are a lot of young people in Russia that think the Soviet Union days were a Glamorous time of Russian strength. It seems know one told the kids about food, freedom and persecution...
Ya'll Take Care and be safe, John
Oops - Superfortress. Stratofortress is the B-52.
@@JohnDoe-pv2iu, don't feel bad, there are plenty of youth here in the US that admire the Soviet Union very much. We should be allowed to throw history books at them.
Propellers never "fell out of fashion"....they remain the most common form of aircraft propulsion to this day
Outside of rotorcraft I would definitely say propellers fell out of fashion.
@@phillipamorris422 not reall tho, every military still uses propeller driven aircrafts. Same goes to some civilian airlines.
@@phillipamorris422 c 130 and airbus a400,are we joke to you
@@phillipamorris422one could argue that the speed of the A10 makes it a de facto rotorcraft 🤣
2:10 - Chapter 1 - Cold war
3:10 - Chapter 2 - Development
5:30 - Chapter 3 - The bear
7:35 - Chapter 4 - Operations
9:20 - Chapter 5 - The bomb to end all bombs
11:20 - Chapter 6 - Variations
12:35 - Chapter 7 - Post cold war
14:15 - Chapter 8 - 1st combat
14:45 - Chapter 9 - The survivor
As I commented on the B52 video, once you have a strategic bomber that can haul serious weight over long distances, there isn't much need to modernize as that's the only criteria for long range bombers. And given the relative fuel efficiency of the Bear, there isn't much need to develop a replacement in the first place since there won't be any savings in operating costs that could offset the costs for the long and tedious design and development process.
Photo of F-86 escorting TU-95
Photo of F-4 escorting TU-95
Photo of F-16 escorting TU-95
Photo of F-35 escorting TU-95
Photo of Imperial Class Star Destroyer escorting TU-95
Things will change, but some will always stay
U forgot the galaxy class enterprise D escorting tu95
Actually the ISD's are from a very long time ago, and from a galaxy very far away. With their gas mileage they would never make it here.
From 1st G to 5th G fighter jets. Escorting the elderly Tu-95.
Coming next is 6th G fighter jet.
Photo of a whale-seeking Klingon Bird of Prey escorting a TU-95.
Photo of Marathon class escorting Tu-95
Amazing how much the B-52 and TU-95 share in common for history. Both debuted at the same time, both designed to do one thing. Yet both have done vastly different things over their lifetimes (B-52's have never dropped a nuke in anger, but always carpet bombed or precision munitions over "primitive rebel" types.). Both are scheduled for a no earlier than 2040 retirement. At least the TU-95 still has it's tail cannon (manned at that).
Well the Tu-95 has saw action on Syria a few years back.
Cause it's slow af boy and Russia doesn't know how to modernize anything.
I believe that the Bretton Woods agreement was a major driver in the cold war that no one seems to discuss. How about a deep dive into Bretton Woods and it's ramifications globally?
Very possibly. Little known fact is that the UK pound and Soviet ruble were also supposed to be reserve currencies after the war. The US may not be in the debt ridden state of inevitable collapse if this was upheld.
I mentioned this in an older video but I would love to see a Megaprojects vid about the U.S. Helicopter carriers or amphibious assault ships. The Wasp class is of particular interest to me because I served on U.S.S. Wasp from 1997-2000. I've love to see the history of these vessels and how they came to be.
Agreed, then he could do a followup on the America class!
Bromopar, thank you for your service. I think your idea would make a fascinating MegaProjects video.
@@stacyrussell460 Thank you. It was an honor to serve.
Will check it out :)
@@megaprojects9649 WooHoo! Thank you and thank you for overlooking my faux paux of placing the request in the wrong channel. lol.
The funny thing is, despite of being designed to evade US's airspace, Tu-95 never have to do so. After upgraded, it carried long-range nuclear cruise missiles, meaning it can drops missiles outside of US's airspace and still can hits the initial targets. Which means Tu-95 still can be used even how old and outdated it is, since its cruise missile is what matters most.
That’s actually 8 thunderous, contra rotating propellers. 😉
4 since when you say contra rotating propellers is already know each engine unit has 2
Seraphine uh, negative. Being contra rotating has nothing to do with the fact that there are 8 props.
@@bigdaddy7119 This is basic math Daddy71. The props beeing contra rotating actually means they cansel eachother out. Not many know this, but the truth is the Tu-95 has ZERO props...
Tom Nikolaisen I *really* hope that you’re being facetious or joking. 🤣🤣
Semantics...
Nebraska is home to Offutt AFB, one of the US' main coordination airbases in war times. It would have been easily in the top 5 places to get nuked during the Cold War.
I've heard the same said about Norfolk, Virginia, home to not just Tactical Air Command, but also the world's largest naval base. However, there was never a "top 5" targets. The whole point of Mutually Assured Destruction was that NO place would be safe. During the Cold War, I had access to maps of a portion of the U.S., showing known or presumed Soviet missile targets. Around each target point was a circle showing the area of >50% mortality. There was more area covered by these circles than not. The vast majority of these targets had no discernible military value. Considering that ALL population centers were covered by multiple overlapping circles, the conclusion was that had an all-out nuclear exchange ever occurred, the immediate death toll would have been more than 90% of the population of the country.
I always figured Albuquerque, NM would be right up at the top of the list...
If you live by a military base, airbase, port, government facility, or factory that makes any military related hardware or software there is at least 6-10 nuclear warheads targeting you right now.
Tinker AFB in Oklahoma was a top tier nuclear target as well. E3 sentry AWACS are based there, also a depot base for BUFFS and a squadron of B1’s.
@@dystopianlucidity4448 Everybody likes to think that they are important, but I'll say it again: there WERE no "top tier" targets. When your delivery is by bombers like the Tu-95 and B-52 that you can only expect to hit one target each, and your mission is tactical advantage, you prioritize targets, but this was the case only until the late 1950s. When your objective shifts to deterrence through terror and you have thousands of land- and submarine-based missiles that launch practically simultaneously and have multiple warheads, you end up targeting towns down to population 10,000 or less. That was the reality of the Cold War - body count became the primary metric. Tinker AFB's value as a target was less about military assets than about being one of the overlapping circles that covered and surrounded Oklahoma City.
It's a standoff weapon that releases cruise missiles 1500 miles from enemy airspace. Basically an aviation truck.
I love this plane more than any other design today or tomorrow.
Only swept wing turboprop in the world
Me too!!👍👍❤
@@darthdooku6246 In response to "why do turboprops always have straight wings?", Google says, "Propeller tips become supersonic way below the speed that wings start to become transonic." Of course, in the case of the Tu-95, the Soviets weren't going to let a little thing like supersonic propeller tips get in their way!
American: oh so you're in the military, what branch?
Russian: nuke dropper.
That's not a nuke dropper, it's a radioactive kitty litter making machine lol. How can something be fugly and beautiful at the same time? Gotta love 1950s beauty and beast designs.
Her beauty is iconic and timeless in my opinion. She's way before my time but still was taken by her beauty. I also am aware of her importance and can't help but be saddened by how she was treated when trying to pursue other careers.
1 thing that always impressed me about the TU-95 was how close to the cockpit the wings were placed. Interesting engineering. Enjoyed the vid as always. 😉👍✌️
Hey it would be really fun to watch a megaproject about the new standard of the kilogram and the decoupling of physical standards.
That would indeed be interesting. According to the lore, when the Soviets tried to make an exact duplicate of the B-29 with their Tu-4, one of the challenges was that since Russian sheet metal was provided in metric gauges vs. America's inch-based gauges, they had to go with a slightly thicker gauge of metal.
@@BrightBlueJim Yes, that is what happened. But there was another funny thing. In one of the (crash) landed plane was an ashtray in the cockpit one of the pilots modified the cockpit. The Soviets carbon copied also that part.
will you do a video on the Kuznetzov class carriers? or even the entile russian/chinese/Indian Carrier lineup?
Admiral Kuznetsov (Variyag class), isn't a carrier. Chinese "carriers" are based on that design. What is it then? It's a super heavy armored cruiser, with a flight deck. Main arnament are its heavy ship to ship nuclear capable missiles, granite class. It's an extremely expensive ship, boasting every weapon system imaginable on it. So much so, what Russia sold everything to China, and kept the least expensive ship (diesel one, nuclear there sold off). Even so, it's mostly kept in dry dock, to cut costs. Even in that capacity, cost of maintenance is still enough to cover the cost of building a new strategic sub every 4 years. Its insanely overpowered vessel, built for a WW3, massive naval engagements, and is too prohibitively expensive to use for demonstration/projection of naval power. China is rich enough to do that anyway... but Russia isn't.
@@theflame5919 i know, but it still would be interesting to see the entire history of the Russian Navy or similar
@@acewyvern3489 I neglected to specify primary purpose of that vessel. Its designed to be capable to engage and destroy an entire US carrier group by itself, with no support. In other words, assuming it could reach the engagement range, regardless if the ship survives or not, its guaranteed to sink the entire US carrier group. That is its primary purpose. It's also why it's such a monstrosity of a weapon platform, and why its impossibly expensive to maintain even in drydock. / Russian navy, is highly secretive... its primary component are submarines. / History of the Russian navy, as a standing navy, begins with Peter the Great, however, Russia being a river civilization, longboat where used for trade and war since 8ad at least. So there is a long naval tradition in Russia, which predates the standing navy. / yeah, it would be. Russia, US, Britain are the most technological and veteran navies, with lots of stories, in the world today. Absolutely.
My dad worked F-106 super sonic interceptors for the Air Force in the late 1960s. He was the NCOIC of the avionics shop of the 48th fighter interceptor squadron and I would sit in his shop sometimes. Frequently, Sixes would blast out the alert hangar next door, almost always to shoo away a prowling Bear...
I literally listen to all these vids to help me go to sleep. Not boring or anything but listen to Simon is calmimg lol. Thanks for all that you do. Keep it up
...."with it's four propellers"......
No Simon, Eight propellers!!
Love it! Thank you for your hard work Simon!
Imagine we would be doing the same with cars... just fitting them with new engines, gearboxes, suspensions, brakes, steering, computers etc. We could have Cadillac Eldorados doing 40 mpg with most of the safety systems of modern cars instead of Ford Focus or Volkswagen Golf. The look of modern cars is insulting to the eyes, and if Mercedes' new electric cars are anything to go by, it's only getting worse :D
I wholeheartedly believe that the manufacturers are fully aware of this, thus the tradition of making changes every year and completely abandoning a platform every 5-10. Add in unibody chassis that can wear/corrode out unlike a framed vehicle and us extremely difficult to repair/replace and the re0pacement parts costing an order of magnitude (or greater)more than it cost to produce.
It's easy to say things like this, and I happen to agree about the butt-ugliness without any good reason for modern styling, BUT, what you have to admit is that the stratigic spot-use of high-strength steel, and overall better mechanical designs make modern chassis far stronger and lighter than the crap that was being mass-produced in the 1960s. So no, your upgraded Eldorado was never going to do the trick, especially since it would have crumbled into drust by now.
@@harryhanz1690 I hope you will consider the weight figure, along with the weights of more modern designs in your calculations. All that said, I think I would much sooner convert a VW microbus. It was a minivan MADE to run with a small engine.
@@BrightBlueJim Yeah, I think it would only kind of work if cars were build to the same standards as high end military airplanes :D According to Top Gear, that probably applies to older Toyota Hilux, but that's about it... of course, there are things like the Eagle Speedster, which apparently is a perfectly up-to-date Jaguar E-Type, only slight problem is that it costs about as much as a small village.
@@AvB.83 Do you really believe, the military sticks to old planes, because they are so good? It is just to expensive and annoying to replace them, so rebuilding them and accpeting their flaws and inabilities is easier. You could not properly pay fo a car, that was built to last forever and on the other hand, there is such thing as research and developement. Despite polemic believe car makers keep advancing the cars and drive trains and crash structures get better and better. I don't want to have a 50 year old piece of crap, that rides like a donkey. It is cheaper and better to buy a new car every twenty years then to buy a car once in your lifetime and keep retrofitting it with new engines, gearboxes and so on, because you also have to pay for that.
You should do a Sideprojects about some of the largest excavation machines! You could include "Big Muskie", the largest walking dragline ever made, "The Silver Spade", an enormous dipper shovel, & the Bagger series of bucketwheel excavators! They are some FASCINATING pieces of equipment!
i like how you included the bit about the tsar bomba, this aircrafts history is tied to that test for sure. also i don't normaly comment, but i've been watching since you created this channel, thanks for all your great content, you have restored some of my faith in humanity
TU 95 and B 52 will out live most of us
Tu-95MSM, B-52H, B-36 - these are just monuments to the engineering genius of the post-war generation of American and Russian aircraft engineers. Waiting for a video about the B-36. Thanks Simon.
11:16 - anybody else sat there thinking "I am a mechanical man"? I kinda want to play C&C Red Alert now that you bought back the nostalgia with this video
Au Simon, thats a great one, the Tu-95. Could you do one on operation 596 (the Chinese nuclear program) or operation Gerboise Bleue (the French nuclear program).
Good ideas.
One minor correction, the Bears still flying are Tu-95MS varients, all of which were made in the 80-90s. They are not exactly "old" when it comes to such bombers. So its no surprise that they will be flying at least till 2040.
This channel mostly inaccurate in most of military related topic. Sadly.
If the americans made this then it would've been called the omegafortress
Or the OMGfortress.
@@macsmith2013 Well, they DID make this, and they called it the B-52 Stratofortress. Which I like better than omegafortress, although OMGfortress pretty much covers the feeling.
I think these days it's considered the LMFAO Fortress, would get blown out of the sky!
@@lastguy8613 alas there are but so many Anti air missiles…should a large enough EMP happen I think the handful that could be would be brought out of retirement….something is better than nothing
But they can't skip super duper fortress. That just wouldn't be right lol
14:56 It's a little insane to me that they never used this thing in Afghanistan, whereas the B-52 flew plenty of combat missions in Vietnam.
They have long ago lost ability to drop bombs, and can only use cruise missiles.
Maybe will be aded back in next modernization. At least Tu-160 is getting it.
Nice work Simon and team.
As a designer of stealth military aircraft we never allowed the blade tips of propeller aircraft or helicopters to exceed the speed of sound. There are two reasons for this;1. Exceeding the speed of sound generates a sonic boom and makes aircraft easily detectable because of the noise, 2. the energy that cavitation of the air(the generation of a sonic boom) significantly increases fuel consumption.
I'd love to see a montage of the Bear being escorted by all the jets through the years, from the F-84 to the F-35. Quite the history.
Since you said “Mainstay”. How about a video on Airborne Early Warning and Command and Control? The Russian Beriev A-50 (Mainstay) . vs US E3 AWACS vs AUS “Wedgetail”. And how in a world of satellites … these beasts are still important.
By the way, an Austrian jet engineer Ferdinand Brandner led the team that developed the power plant (those emblematic double propeller four engines) for that beast of a plane. Upon finishing the project, he went to Egypt to participate in the development of their own jet fighter, alongside Willi Messerschmitt.
P.S. meanwhile Kurt Tank- the genius behind the FW 190 works in India chasing pretty much the same goal..
LEGENDS!
Tank first went to Argentina where his TA 183 became the basis for Argentina's homegrown jet fighter, the FMA Pulqui II
@@JonathanHStone , as we all know, Argentina was the main after war destination. So, quite plausible.. *:)
Can you do the KA-50/52?
Not bloody likely - the B-50 was the red-headed stepchild of the USAF and the B-29. It's a plane nobody loved, because it was mainly intended to fix the problems with the B-29, but was already obsolete when introduced, since by then it was widely believed that turbojet engines were the One True Future. In fact, designating it the B-50 was a ruse intended to convince Congress that it was a whole new airplane. Both the KC-97 and KB-50 tankers were developed from variants of the B-29, and both eventually had to have J-47 turbojet engines fitted in addition to their piston engines, to give them the ability to do refueling runs fast enough that the fighters they were trying do refuel wouldn't be dangerously close to stalling out. The B-50 never had a chance as a bomber, and in its tanker role was cheerfully replaced by the KC-135, when that became available.
@@BrightBlueJim I meant the russian helicopter
@@evilcat7698 Well, never mind, then!
The TU-95 is almost impressive until you look at the b-52 released the same year, and still delivering useful service
Lots of things are though, the C-130 and CH-47 are not only over 50 years old but they're also still building new ones.
I mean either way you’re getting over 20000 kg of bombs dropped on your city
The US and USSR have always had slightly different requirements. The B-52 could not have worked without aerial refueling, which the US already had a lot of experience with. The Soviet answer was to build planes with longer range without refueling, which brought about the Tu-95. Neither country would have been happy with the other's flagship bomber. The Tu-95 is aerial refuelable, but this was not a technology that its original design depended on, with its design range of 8000km.
It’s always fun seeing news of their flights near Alaskan air space. I imagine the pilots bantering over the radio like old friends.
Dropping Cold War projects again. Because something something fulda gap
The A10.
Bradley IFV.
I was waiting for this video, well done Simon!
I’ve been waiting and hoping for this subject for a video since I discovered Simon’s channels!
Excellent video Simon
@2:26 is a shot of the Regulus Cruise Missile. It was the first nuclear missile that could be launched from a ship or specially equipped submarine. It didn’t have its own navigation control system, a jet would fly next to it controlling the Regulus until it got close to the target then the jet would point and fly as fast as he could go before the blast happened. I would love to see a full break down of the Regulus and her successor the Regulus II.
I'm from the U.S. but I gotta give credit where it's due...Whether it's bombers, tanks, missiles, nukes, etc...those Russian's sure know how to build 'em big, loud, fast & INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE, even by today's standards.
Simon and his team that help put these productions together are simply amazing 💪🏾…
He gets paid i’m sure a ton of money to teach history.…. Simon & Mark Felton are my idols
#DreamJob
Good video 👍
Would you consider talking about the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) , one of the icons of Singapore. A boat on top of 3 skyscrapers.
You should do a video on the Sears Tower in Chicago! It was the tallest building in the world for decades. Also, it’s got a fun backstory and the city it’s in, Chicago, was where the idea of the skyscraper was first had due to the resurgence of the city of the great fire. I think it could be a great video! Cheers and thanks for all you do!
excellent video, many thanks
I have been Patiently awaiting this Video!
One of your best I think
When I was at the Air force Institute of technology , I worked with a man who was a technician on the Bikini hydrogen bomb tests. During one of the tests he was in a B36 flying to test the performance of the aircraft in the nuclear blast zone. He said that when the flash occurred the light lit on fire the insulation across from the access door that had one window in it. When he got the fire extinguisher to put out the blaze, the shock wave hit and bounced the aircraft throwing him around( luckily not into the fire) and popped the bomb bay doors open. They made it back to the landing field with only superficial damage.
The TU-95 was what the B-52 almost was. Originally the B-52 was powered by turboprop engines--and that may have made the B-60 the long-range bomber of the USAF.
The Istanbul to Bagdad Railway would make a tremendous Mega Project. Heroic engineering, adding to the tensions leading to WW1, spies, and prisoners of war labouring on a death railway, before The Death Railway (Burma to Thailand). Finally, add a cameo appearance by James Bond at the magnificent Varda Viaduct.
Hey Simon when are you going to do a video on the B-36 Peacemaker? Things mega enough I think!
The emergence of Bitcoin has sparked a debate about it's future and that of other cryptocurrencies. Despite Bitcoin's recent issues, it's success since it's 2009 launch has inspired the creation of alternative cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Ripple and MintChip. In these experiences the speculative motive seems to be preailing. However, recently digital social currencies experiment are diffusing, by starting from Bitcoin protocol
Well the price pump is amazing for very early Investor or those who got in 14 days ago for the first time, otherwise it's just bouncing back to normal price for the rest of us...
BTC is truly a class of it's own, it has no competitors. All other alts are competing with each other they are more centralized and majority of them are not completed projects...
I'm so happy my life is totally changed. I've been earning $12,000 returns from my $1,000 Investment every 7days.
Same here, I made $18,000 profits on investing since I started trading with Mrs Pamela Kay Weaver her trading strategies are top notch am winning consistently trading with Mrs Pamela Kay Weaver.
@@mrskarenmaier9107 I heard a lot of investing with Mrs Pamela Kay Weaver and how good she is, please how safe are the profit?
I was under the impression we were to only refer to the other channel as brain blaze now. And you will always be the boy with the blaze.
One thing I'm surprised the Russians didn't do was upgrade the propellers on the Tu-95 with two six-bladed contra-rotating propeller "spinners" with composite material blades. That would have reduced the radar signature and also reduced the fuel consumption, since six-bladed propellers could spin quite a bit slower.
Why bother? It's not like Russian defence ministry has lots of cash to spare.
Simon's transition from beardless boy wonder to heavily-bearded RUclips LEGEND should be a MegaProjects topic.
Good video, some topics ideas for future videos:
Baikal Amur Mainline
Building of Norilsk
Itapu Dam
Three Gorges Dam
Maginot Line
French Nuclear Power plan of the 1970s
London Bridge station rebuilding
anybody interested in Russian Aviation should definitely visit Monino, it´s a great place and people there are very dedicated. I went there in 2019 and will return for sure
Where is that
@@yourmom705 Russian Air Force Museum in Monino, near Moscow
Love the picture of the 3 VF-143 F-14's escorting the TU-95 @ 8:37.
would love a video on the merkava tank!
it's a israeli tank so expect a lot of comments and other sweet interactions for the algorithm.
A really good programme Simon. I would love to see a video on the TU 95 Bear operations in the Ukraine. Surely it is not too early to draw at least some conclusions about the these operations.
Excellent video!
The Tu-95 has the same level of "nah, we keep it, it's fiiiine" as the B-52 and the A-10.
Yeah..nah..yeah..
TRUTH.
Except the A-10 is constantly being questioned by the Air Force brass.
@@Kadeo-ms6qw And every time the basic commander show the facts, like the meme with will smith.
In fact the A-10 is anything but "it's fine". The USAF wanted to retire ever since the end of Cold War.
Except COIN environment the A-10C today is close to being useless.
Here is a long video about the legend of the plane.
ruclips.net/video/vfkQ0o2I_60/видео.html
Tail gunner was in the tail, not the forward compartment. Rear observer/photographers were also carried in the rear compartment with the side blisters.
Quite an incredible plane despite the fact that it was specifically designed to kill ME seeing as I was brought up in an era when Soviet Russia was THE enemy along with the IRA. Amazing to think that this piece of propeller driven antiquity has been intercepted by everything from Meteors jets right up to the Typhoon. Never seen one in real life, but if it was in the air, there is a good chance that I'd hear it before I could see it! The Bear fills a gap that the RAF never filled, a 4 engine heavy bomber with swept wings. The last 4 engine heavy piston engine plane bomber that the RAF had (For land based targets) was the Lincoln, which didn't have swept wings, or the Shackleton (for sea based targets), interestingly both of which can trace their ancestry back to the Avro Manchester, and neither of which had swept wings. The Americans had the Convair B-36 Peacemaker which I suppose could be comparable and that was retired in 1959! As well as living forever, it's quite an aesthetically pleasing chunk of aluminium too.
Update: Russia, by any name is still the enemy, and always has been.
Back with more aeroplanes! Love them! 👏👍- Stretching the meaning of megaprojects or not! 😅
Gotta hand to the Russians and Americans for making sweet machines of the sky!
🇷🇺
TU95, Mig-29, TU160, TU144 Condordski, MiG 31, Su37,Mig 25, Su47 Berkut, Mi24 Hind
🇺🇸
B2 Spirit, F117, F14, YF23, F15, F22 Raptor, A12, F104, AH101apache . Etc👌😍
Wings of Russia is still a fantastic documentary.
Great video! Why not continue into the fascinating development of the TU-114 (& the TU-116) for Nikita Krushchev? Derived from the TU-95!
6:24 that's a very nice pic of the BEAR
Simon is like Morgan freedman he's got that voice that you hear it and you're like he should never not be talking and the beard to match
Comparing the TU95 vs the B52 would be an interesting video.
I appreciate the biography.
The Tu-95 with its turboprops that can be heard by submerged submarines and B-52 with its massive wingspan are such long-lived icons.
Could you do an episode on the Smithsonian on either here or on Sideprojects?
HOW TO DEFEAT RUclips ADS. if you click on the reverse or forward buttons on the top left corner, you can skip ads, by clicking reverse then forward, the original video clip comes back without the ad. if the forward or reverse is blank, click on another video clip on the right, then click reverse arrow top left and the original video clip comes back to the same point you left off at, without having to watch thoser annoying ads
Megaprojects: Repainting the house....
I'd watch it with a pizza and beer and still after the thinking, wow....who knew, how very interesting! 😳😲🤨🤔
Please do the Yf-23 versus the Yf-22.
God the YF-23 was awesome and beautiful. It was like a stingray.
YES I ASKED FOR THIS AGES AGO! FINALLY
Funny (and possibly apocryphal) story about the Tu-4. When the Soviets were reverse-engineering the B-29, they had instructions from the top to copy the American plane as exactly as possible. When Uncle Joe Stalin gives you an order, you interpret it literally, just to be safe. One of the B-29s, the one torn down so they could copy the parts, supposedly had a bullet hole in the instrument panel and, as a result, every single Tu-4 made had a completely unnecessary hole in the exact same spot.
Yes the Bear!!! Thank you Simon 🐻
The Lockheed P-3 Orion would make for an excellent video!
Yeah, I agree.
Great video. I’m a great fan of both the Tu16 Badger, and it’s mighty sibling, the Bear.
Damn Simon, your beard is a Megaproject... Looking good!
Honestly I love this plane. It looks so cool to me. Intimidating and badass in a way.
It would be great to see TU-95 & B-52 flying in formation. They're both about the same age.
It’s incredible to think that the TU-95 and the B52 who both came around in the early 50’s will still be flying while the original crews of these planes will have been long dead.
How about a video about that hypersonic rocket sled thing? I'm forgetting the name
Simon Wheeler: Aircraft can have grandchildren!
I think that's our take away here.
I think some Tu-95's were manufactured as late as the 1980s. Could you do a project on both the P-3 Orion and Nimrod?
I am perfectly happy living in my "tediously dull landscape."
Im from Japan living in such a place in the US. As room and space comes at a premium back home.
Love to see a vid on the Eurofighter Typhoon!
The TU-95 Bear remains one of the LOUDEST aircraft ever made, if a whole fleet of them were headed for America to bomb, we probably would have heard them coming just after takeoff in Russia
In Japan when they'd play peekaboo in our airspace we could hear them at altitude. It can't be overstated or put into words just how LOUD they are.
Back in the late 1960s at school in Battersea the class was wakened by a VERY LOUD turbo-prop aircraft flying very low over the school. Looking out of the window I saw a Tu-114 flying past (rather than over!) and diappearing in the direction of Heathrow. Later, it was announced on the BBC News that a very senior Russian official had visited the PM in Downing Street and we surmised that the low approach was to throw off the aim of any terrorist with a shoulder launched missile!
I wonder just how many different types of aircraft have flown intercepts on the bear . Must be a long list .
Thank you
This thing is so loud you think all your inner organs will liquify .