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Fragment of the article: Legendary Ту-16
(Yefim Gordon, Vladimir Rigmant, Victor Kudryavtsev and Andrey Sovenko.)
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Tu-16P with CPC-3 Station installed in underwing containers is being refueled from Tu-163
/by S.Skrynnykov/ |
Pilots who exchanged Tu-4 for Tu-16 believed into the might and rate of climb of
the last one so deeply, that started to neglect avoiding the thunderstorm clouds,
trying to penetrate them ascending instead. Very soon it became clear that those
clouds are positioned up to the altitudes of 11 - 12 km, and not 9 -10 km, as it
was supposed before. The ultimate danger was above them though, as there the
temperature gained additional 30 -50 degrees. Getting into this area planes
sharply lost the turbines' thrust and the air speed, angles of attack increased,
which might have resulted in Tu-16's uncontrolled spin. This way died Maj.
Bondarenko's crew from Poltava and two crews of the 182-nd Guards HBAR from
Mozdok. Only in 1959, the civil crew of Tu-104, having the similar accident near
Irkutsk, managed to control the spin and save the liner. This is how one of the
deadliest mysteries of Tu-104/Tu-16 had been solved.
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The Tu-16P from 3-rd Sqn. of 184-th Guard Heavy Bomber Regiment Soviet AF. Priluky, 1984
/by V.V.Milyachenko/ |
Tu-16 is famous as one of the main participants of the Soviet nuclear tests
at test grounds #2 (at Semipolatinsk) and #6 (at Novaya Zemlya). All the special
weapons delivered by the bomber were tested on its board, including missiles.
Interests of the country's defense requested to work briskly. Thus, during 1957
only at Semipolatinsk Tu-16A delivered not less than 6 atomic bombings on the
following dates: March 8, August 22 and 26, September 13 and 26. Next year as
many as 8 nuclear bombings were delivered: on January 4, March 13, 14, 15 (two),
18, 20 and 22. The peak number of bombings was delivered in 1962 - 24, 13 of
them by A.G.Shakurov's crew and 9 by N.G.Pyoryshkov's.
The honor of testing the first Soviet thermonuclear bomb RDS-37d belongs to
F.Golovashko's Tu-16A crew. It happened on November 22,1955 at Semipolatinsk.
Although the bomb exploded with half a charge (TNT equivalent of 1.6 Mt), it was
the most powerful nuclear explosion at test ground #2. Afterwards, Tu-16A took
part in testing RDS-37d both with partial (TNT equivalent of 900 Kt) and full
(2.9 Mt) charges at Novaya Zemlya. Tu-16A were also actively used for deliveries
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/from M.Y.Zinivyev archiv/ |
of advanced weapons' ballistic mock-ups at the mentioned test grounds, and also
at Bagerovo and Noginsk test grounds. The last nuclear bombing in the USSR was
also delivered by Tu-16A in the end of 1962, just before the Treaty on Ban of
Nuclear Tests in Three Mediums came into effect.
As many aviators can recollect, wing inflight refueling was one of the most
difficult flight operations with Tu-16. One can judge himself. 40-m long
refueling hose with a small stabilizing parachute was extended from the right
wing tip of the tanker. The hose went quite a way down because of its own weight.
The pilot of the refueled plane had to bring his plane's left wing into the
position exactly two meters above the hose tip. The main difficulty was that the
pilot could not see neither the wing nor the hose, and had to maneuver following
the gunner's commands, who sat in the rear of the plane. At the air speed of 600
- 800 km/h both planes had to come as close as 6 - 8 m between their wings, and
the refueled bomber had to fly 15 m behind the tanker. During the locking the
approaching speed had to be maintained no more than 0.5 m/sec, otherwise the
hose either got torn, or went into a loop over the refueled plane's aileron.
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Tu-16K-26
/by O.A. Podkladova/ |
Accidents like those, as well as getting the wing into the tanker's jet stream,
often ended tragically. Fifteen crews were killed in crash landings in the
period from 1957 to 1964 only in two single regiments - the 184-th and 226-th!
And the proud professionals got killed: by the beginning of the sixties only
pilots 1-st class were assigned Tu-16 commanders. Veterans believe that the
period of mastering the inflight refueling can be compared with wartime only,
judging by the losses.
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