10th of September 2008 a hot day in Venezuela a huge white swing-wing aeroplane with a red star on its tail lands at the Libertador airbase it had flown from Russia halfway around the world to participate in a military exercise in the Caribbean region the transatlantic flight had taken 13 hours in an unusually romantic gesture the Russians had called this graceful airplane the White Swan and can see why but severely practical NATO's Soviet Watchers originally gave the tu-160 strategic bomber the more prosaic codename blackjack Oh - you 164 whites one the tu-160 story dates back to the mid 1950s a time when the Cold War was ramping up both sides were rapidly building up their forces with jet aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles this confrontation need more armament more resources more money atomic weapons became a crucial factor in this military race the thermonuclear bomb was clearly a significant weapon but you needed a fast long-range high-altitude strategic bomber to deliver it several Soviet aircraft designers were developing just such a bomber amongst them the tupolev bureau they started working on the concept for a strategic supersonic nuclear bomb delivery aircraft in 1952 project 108 was the first result that concept envisaged a bomber that could take off from the USSR attack a target in the USA and return home that developed into the more advanced project 135 but by the end of the 1950s the nike hercules ground-to-air missile as well as the delta dart supersonic intercept were coming into service for the united states the combination of the two systems was enough to deter any strategic supersonic bomber projects 108 and 135 were shelved but all the technical documents were kept in store at our border project's 108 and 135 actually shaped the design of later to paly of multi-purpose strategic bombers 135 in particular helped to clarify how an aircraft like that could be used tactically somewhere lot of strategic scale at sea for ducky that had been the general idea of these concepts construct you and I'm gonna show you so the intercontinental ballistic missile took over the nuclear strike and strategic bombers were sidelined but soon after the Cuban Missile Crisis some politicians and military officers alike quickly realized that a strategic bomber still had some advantages over ballistic missiles almost are a handy weapon to demonstrate your military strength to a potential enemy unlike missiles they can fly up and down borders for hours while politicians get on the phone to negotiate and solve the problems then the Bombers go home when you launch missiles you can't do any of that when nikita khrushchev resigned the new top leadership decided it was time to modernize the Armed Forces that included the Air Forces of course but there was no serviceable design for a new Soviet strategic bomber and not only that but the revolutionary b1 nuclear bomber was under development in the United States that had Soviet leaders badly worried the military parity between the US and the Soviet Union was getting out of kilter again the commander of the Soviet long-range air force colonel general Vasily recepticle was well aware of the need for the new bomber probably better described as a fourth-generation strategic weapons system he had three design bureau to choose from and to Polly of one of them tupelov's wide experience of designing and building bombers stood them in good stead 1974 not long after the death of aunt vain nikolayevitch to belief his eponymous design bureau was selected to build an aircraft better than the american b-1 bomber the soviet long-range air force issued a demanding specification the bomber would be required to carry various missiles and bombs to have intercontinental range and to be capable of supersonic speed at high altitude it would also need to be able to penetrate air defenses at low altitudes and to have good short field takeoff and landing runs this combination of capabilities looked impossible to achieve you could do it with two different aircraft but not with one chief designer Valentin blue schnook had the unenviable task of making it all work dozens of different aerodynamic designs were looked at by the tupolev Bureau and by the central Aero hydrodynamic Institute Sagi they eventually plumped for a so-called lifting body configuration that means it's not just the wings that provide the lift that the fuselage as well and one advantage of that aerodynamically shaped fuselage is that there's lots of room for fuel other benefits of that shape were reduced visibility to radar and infrared and more efficient use of the airflow around the aircraft variables we pack wings added further flexibility to the flight performance the aircraft became known as the tu-160 these two variables we packed wing was one of many design characteristics that we looked at it's not easy to make it worse it is a dish and we were facing quite a few other challenges as well of which weight restrictions were just one yes Kim II we had problems to solve that we've never seen before it goes the tupolev Bureau had historically been conservative in its aircraft configurations at this fourth-generation missile carrier called for a whole new approach they weren't alone in their tasks there were lots of other organizations involved in fact the whole project embraced more than 800 scientific institutes design bureau and production plants most central dementias was the Minister for the whole Soviet aviation industry he played a great role in the development of the aircraft he helped us a lot particularly in our dealings with the other companies once the general layout was settled the aircraft equipment had to be developed the tu-160s fly-by-wire flight control system meant that it handled like a fighter despite its huge weight it was a very easy airplane to fly it was an innovative bomber in all sorts of ways the interesting thing about this airplane was the control system the young pilots would get very excited about the fighter style control stick well if with the old hands were used to a good old control wheel and they didn't like the stick it's not with fly-by-wire you didn't need the big control wheel flying this heavy bomber didn't require old-fashioned muscle power some eluate it's almost as if the pilots could control it with their minds there's a complete departure from our earlier bombers which didn't have fly-by-wire with this system you just needed very slight movements of the stick to control the aircraft let the Dooly a guru at the end of the day any strike aircraft is just a weapons delivery vehicle but nowadays the vehicle is not just a bomb dropper like it used to be one strike aircraft carry high precision highly accurate weapons they were designing aircraft like that in the US and Europe as well as the Soviet Union there are more than hundred digital computers in a tu-160 they control everything from the aircraft's attitude during flight to setting the parameters for cruise missile guidance systems the first tu-160 was built at the tupolev bureaus own production facility right in the center of Moscow by the Yauza River then it was taken apart and delivered to the Schakowsky test airfield by truck ground tests complete this extraordinary aeroplane was ready for its maiden flight four men onboard test pilots buddies Farrah Maya and Sergei a gap off and test navigators Anatoly areum Anka and mikail kozol 18th of December 1981 the cold day the tu-160 taxis out to the runway at the Flight Research Institute the aeroplane hasn't been painted yet the 160s thawed skywards with a huge roar from its four engines in full afterburner the take-off thrilled everyone who was there to see the maiden flight of the new bomber before the test flights one foreign aviation magazine had published an unauthorized picture it showed the ramp at the flight Research Institute alongside the well-known tu-144 supersonic passenger aircraft there was a very strange plane it like the American b-1 bomber per horse mode we took a view well maybe their outlines are similar that these are completely different aircraft the tu-160 is much bigger than its American opponent its flight performance is different as well I'd say our tu-160 is better than the b1 it's more advanced it's more innovative surely obviously strike aircraft have to carry as many and as great a variety of weapons as possible the 160 can carry 22 tons of different weapons as a range of 14,000 kilometers in its maximum speed is 2,000 kilometers an hour the American b-1 is somewhat less of a performer in most respects tu-160 mass production started at the Kazan aviation plant even the manufacturing process was innovative for the Soviet Union amongst other things the design included titanium welding composite materials and triple sandwich construction it's no exaggeration to say the tu-160 was a wholly revolutionary airplane for Soviet aviation this is a unique airplane in many respects the tu-160 intercontinental strategic missile carrier wingspan with 20 degrees sweet fifty five point seven meters with 35 degrees sweep fifty point seven meters fully swept back at 65 degrees 35 point six meters length 54 point one meters maximum takeoff weight 275 tons maximum speed 2,000 kilometers an hour cruise speed 1030 km/h practical range 14,000 kilometers service ceiling fifteen thousand six hundred meters payload 22 thousand five hundred kilograms so let's look at some of the details of this unique supersonic strategic aircraft the advanced radar antenna operates within the radar transparent nose cone in the fuselage there are the cockpit flight deck two weapons bays the fixed wing the center wing spar with the wing sweep pivot fittings the variable geometry sweeping wings and the engine pods at the back of the aircraft the housing for the braking parachutes and the Baikal onboard self-defense system that detects air defense radar threats and then jams them it can also fire decoy heat flares if necessary the ogonek thermal detection system is in the end of the tail cone that detects enemy missiles and aircraft approaching from behind three X shaped braking parachutes significantly reduced the landing run of this heavy aircraft the low mounted center wing section blends with the fuselage and outboard of it are the variables sweep back half wings there are low-speed high-lift devices on the leading and trailing edge of the wings to provide good takeoff and landing performance boundary layer fences operate as the wings sweep back in the fully swept back position the fence improves the lift-to-drag ratio these computer graphics show the neat mechanical operation of the boundary layer fence the tail plane is an all moving horizontal stabilizer the tail fin is an all moving vertical stabilizer with the added advantage of extra radar stealth the nose wheels have special protection flaps they stop dirt and mud and stones getting into the engine intakes during takeoff and landing the NK 32 engines in cave and Nikolai Kuznetsov their chief designer are the most powerful engines ever fitted to a combat aircraft anywhere each engine produces 25 tonnes of thrust in full afterburner so total thrust is 100 tonnes ground run-up produces a dust storm behind the aircraft the engines are in - under wing pods the engine intakes have moveable wedges that optimise the intake performance in different flight conditions the fuel tanks are front and rear in the fuselage body as well as in the wing they can hold a total of 171 tons to improve engine performance the fuel is nitrogen eyes Don the ground before the flight it's the nitrogen that gives the exhaust plume its distinctive reddish color this is the probe of the probe-and-drogue air-to-air refueling system and there's the drogue on the end of its hose the refueler is an il-78 tanker enough fuel on board the probe disconnects and then retract back into the nose of the 160 the pilot seats at the front of the cockpit the navigator and the defensive systems operator sit behind them there are four k36 ejector seats they provide safe ejection from the aircraft for all the crew at any altitude and even on the ground you're gonna make a cabin air whooshing frost cos Peter Gallo makes a great it's simple the main flight instruments are on either side of the central panel so on every board come on that filters me please of the flight control instruments airspeed indicator altimeter climb and descent indicator very ometer Nasreen EEPROM or net last year was followed you need good piloting skills and a depth of engineering knowledge to command an advanced aircraft such as the tu-160 the aircraft commander needs to be a skillful and experienced pilot he's carrying a nuclear weapon with the same sort of power as the submarine ballistic weaponry but as a ship our genius the blizzard are not sure its own a chassis of course the 160 is stacked with clever avionics and other sophisticated stuff but it's got some other things that no Soviet bomber had before there's a crew rest area and a lavatory to help cope with the low flights there's even a little galley because during those long-range missions comfort is a precious thing pilots are human they're not robots it's but this is an electric oven so we can have nice warm meals on boards good stuff next to it hot water for a nice cup of tea if you like that of course the whole point of the tu-160 is its weaponry primary armament is the KH 55 strategic cruise missile it combines a relatively small nuclear warhead with a distinctive aerodynamic layout it's got a single turbofan engine stored inside the missile and before launch the engine pops out after it's launched the wings and tail surfaces deployed KH 55 missile uses low-level terrain-following flying as low as 100 meters above the surface at speeds of about 850 kilometres an hour when it's flying over the sea it uses an inertial guidance system with the missile over land the terrain contour matching guidance system kicks in and that navigates to the target by comparing its radar picture with images stored in its computer memory all of that allows the missile to get itself to the target with high precision look at encryption despite our early doubts about it the KH 55 is unique but earlier missiles were much faster 6000 kilometres an hour or so and they could fly up to 20 kilometres high the K age 55 could only do a mere 850 kilometres an hour and it flew at low level we couldn't understand how a missile with such awful performance could have come into service but later we realise just how effective a missile it is first of all it's low observable stealthy and another thing is its range earlier missiles could go 600 kilometres at most this one can do more than 2,500 it's very simple to maintain do you like you thing earlier missiles were tricky to maintain technicians had to wear protective suits because of the missiles toxic fuel KH 55 uses plain old kerosene diesel barakatuhu they're also easy to load with the old KH 15 missile technicians had to take their coats off to reach the suspension points that's not good especially in winter k age 55 it's loaded quite differently smooth and easy the solution of pasta or machining the tu-160 can carried 12 KH 55 cruise missiles with their wings and Tails folded they're suspended on two rotary launchers each internal bey holds one launcher with six missiles just a simple scenario of an attack with KH 55 missiles the four flight the specific data is loaded into each missile six missiles are launched and the aircraft is free to leave the launch area the wings pop out the engines power up and the missiles set course towards the target during the flight the missiles changed position than even shelter themselves behind each other to avoid radar detection as they approach the targets they spread out some will get hit by enemy air defense weapons but others will penetrate the air defense system and hit their targets the tu-160 can also carry freefall dumb bombs and other weapons it has an electro-optical bomb site the navigation and weapons aiming system are combined along with older gyroscopic instruments the system also includes a star tracker the tu-160 was the first Soviet aircraft with the satellite navigation system system especially developed for the 160 and in fact it predated the American GPS and the Soviet GLONASS systems so the new bomber was replete with the latest technologies by the mid-1980s the tu-160 was the most advanced Soviet aircraft around with much use of state-of-the-art avionics and other cutting-edge equipments new aircraft always have TV problems than the 160 was no exception but with the test program in full swing the military and political situation changed the military authorities couldn't wait they decided their newest aircraft had to be delivered to a combat unit it was an enormous risk but it turned out to be justified so military crews had to develop new skills to carry on the testing program of this new generation aircraft one eight four bomber regiment based at pre Lukie aerodrome in the pitama region was the lucky unit chosen to receive the tu-160 the air crew and the technicians were sent off to the Kazan plant to bone up on the tu-160 design they also went to kuiba chef where the engines were built and even met the chief engine designer Nicolay Kuznetsov himself the air crew also studied the new aircraft navigation and weapon systems in detail by early April 1 8 4 guards bomber regiment was ready to host a new strategic bomber on the 17th of April 1987 the first two mass-production airplanes landed at the pretty Lukie aerodrome major-general Lev Kozlov flew the first aircraft in he was then the 37 our fleet deputy commander in chief he became the first tu-160 military instructor just two months later the regiment aircrew achieved the first KH 55 missile launch from the tu-160 the military aircrew had got comfortable with the new bomber very quickly things were moving now the tu-160 started flying long distances day and night the aircraft seemed set for long service to the Soviet Union but the USSR disintegrated in 1991 and Soviet aviation as such was finished they'd originally planned to build about a hundred of them by the end of 1990 only 35 had been made as the Soviet Union splintered 19 of the 35 aircraft found themselves stationed in the newly independent Ukraine in April 1998 Ukraine decided to start scrapping the bombers under the nunn-lugar international Cooperative Threat Reduction agreement in November 1998 11 airplanes worth more than two billion dollars for ostentatiously chopped up at pre Luke II the United States provided a special metal cutting machine only a few of these strategic missile carriers remained in Russia they were stationed with one-to-one guards heavy bomber regiment at Engles airbase by 1994 the regiment had got six of them in 1999 Russia offered to buy eight tu-160s back from Ukraine they eventually signed the contract to pay two hundred and eighty five million dollars which was to be deducted from Ukraine's debt for natural gas 6th of November 1999 the first repatriated tu-160 arrives at angles air base from Ukraine the other seven came back two angles and the following month by February 2001 the tu-160 feet had grown to 16 it wasn't the hundred they'd planned in the 80s but times had changed the aircraft began patrolling the Russian borders and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in May 2003 two black Jack's took off from Engles aerodrome they headed south Iran provided a transit corridor for the Russian bombers they flew right across Iran to the Indian Ocean it was the first time the Russian bombers had flown to the west coast of India on 10th of September 2008 two Russian tu-160s landed in Venezuela as part of a military exercise as usual they'd been shadowed by NATO fighters as they flew over the Atlantic but to the surprise of the NATO pilots the Russian bombers hadn't turned for home as they'd always done before but instead continued their flight westwards the Russian bombers covered the 10,000 kilometer route to the Caribbean in 13 hours for the cruise it was a routine flight it was a training mission but a particular one Russian bombers had never been to this area before it was an unprecedented event cecelio on your quad you missed earth work ain't necessary to test the aircraft in another geographic region the climate in South America is different in Venezuela the humidity is very high so it was a good trial for our bombers another task for the mission was to check how we would provide proper maintenance when the aircraft is thousands of kilometers away from base from the Libertador airbase in Venezuela the Russian bombers flew for five hours off the coasts of Panama and Brazil the crews tested their equipment and avionics and conditions of high humidity and indeed in tropical thunderstorms since 1988 the tu-160 white swans have appeared at air shows at casino and later at Tchaikovsky in the Moscow region lastly blushing your birthday they've also flown in the Victory Day air parade over Moscow they've put on demonstrations for American politicians and military Senator Barack Obama the future US president visited Ingalls Air Base to have a look at the Russian strategic bombers in 2005 the President of Russia Vladimir Putin visited the zhukovsky air show he flew in the tu-160 to several hours the hotel Supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Federation must be familiar with the armament in our country's infantry beard a nuclear submarine tank or a modern combat aircraft flew for several hours and we showed mr. Putin the combat capabilities of our white swan' through the aircraft at high speed in fact we went supersonic was mortars we also did a simulated air refuelling which is an impressive maneuver but I guess the most interesting part of the demonstration was when we launched missiles mr. Putin was impressed that's a beautifully also showed him how we detect surface targets like ships and we flew at low altitude in the area of rolling a gore scare field so during the flight as a whole we demonstrated all the main capabilities of the tu-160 when the White Swan landed the president was told that the tu-160 bombers were still undergoing prototype testing he was very surprised but within a few months that testing was complete and the 1/60 officially entered service in the Russian Air Force's long-range aviation was excited about that because it had been nearly 20 years since the first tu-160s had arrived at pre Lukie airfield in 1987 tu-160 crews had begun practicing Air Refueling early in the new century was lethargic us we started training for Air Refueling in 2001 first we simulated it was much then we progressed to taking on ten tons of fuel we increased that to 15 20 tons and finally we took on the maximum 50 tons we asked ourselves how long the aircraft could stay in the air didn't want to take any risk mind we decided to take on two Lots for 50 tons each that should give us about 25 hours of nonstop flight you might say why didn't we fly longer well the trouble is the oil the engine oil has to be changed or we damage the engines so we took off and flew just about all round the Russian border the flight time was 24 hours and 24 minutes as I said we didn't want to take any risk when we landed we checked the oil we discovered we could have stayed airborne much longer when the tu-160 had come into service in the Soviet era only very experienced long-range aviation pilots flew it nowadays the aircraft captains are relatively young pilots young not very skilled pilots learn to fly the 160 in the flight simulator it's a near-perfect simulation of actually flying the aircraft they also practice emergencies like forced landings for instance they don't do that in real flight of course yester store I think our countries people should be proud of this aeroplane which serves the Russian Air Force so successfully and I'm very honored to be a tu-160 crew commander it's a big privilege to be in charge of such a beautiful plane it's unique it's a truly excellent performer probably the next minute it's more than 30 years since the t1 60s maiden flight it's been in service for a quarter of a century and requirements changed so the airplane has to be modernized so the aerodynamics are excellent but the electronic equipment on board needed to be updated no toilet in a minute now the aircraft are undergoing the first stage of modernization Caeser old units out-of-date equipment have gone they've stopped making that stuff where so the aircraft will get a deep upgrade there'll be new avionics new weapons control and reconnaissance systems new radar stations and the rest of them it always has to be done if we want this aircraft to continue to meet requirements our long-range aviation crews are expecting to receive their modernized tu-160s in the near future technologies develop very fast and we have to keep up with them with all these new systems the aircraft will get a second life I'm sure the tu-160 will stay in service for many years to come each tu-160 has its own name Russian pilot started this tradition of naming airplanes during the first world war the most famous aircraft then was the Ilya Muromets or engine heavy bomber er muhammad's is the archetypal Russian epic hero he's regarded as the greatest of all the legendary Russian Knights so his name was bestowed on this tu-160 it had the signal honor of leading the victory air parade in May 1995 now every tu-160 has its own name mostly they're the names of aircraft and engine designers commanders and pilots here are just a few of them long-range air force commander Vasily Rashad Nick off tu-160 designer Valentin bloosh nuke test pilot buries Farrow Maya has an aviation plant director Vitaly a couple off engine designer nicolay kuznetsov the history of the tu-160 airplane the great white swan is the history of its people
