Tupolev Tu-95 Tu-95N

The Tu-95N answered a requirement that now reads like science fiction. In 1955 OKB-256, led by Pavel Tsybin, began work on the "RS" supersonic strategic strike system, conceived as a two-stage composite: a carrier aircraft providing the range, and a small bomber that separated in flight, accelerated on two ramjets to around 3000 km/h and pressed home the attack. No return to the mothership was planned. Council of Ministers decree no. 1974-776, dated 30 July 1955, tasked OKB-156 with converting a series Tu-95 released by the Air Force into that carrier.

Design work started in the second half of 1956 under I. F. Nezval, first at the Zhukovsky flight test base and later at the Tomilino branch. The conversion proved deeper than expected: cutting the under-fuselage hatch that housed the RS meant reworking the adjoining structure, and the fittings that suspended and carried the parasite aircraft imposed loads the airframe had never been designed for. Total estimated range for the system was around 12500-13500 km. The aircraft was converted in 1958.

The line of development looked unpromising and was dropped soon afterwards; the system never became operational, and Western intelligence did not even detect it at the time. The carrier aircraft is preserved at the Air Force museum in Monino.