The Audacity of Modern Aviation's Greatest Slap in the Face | Tu-95 "Bear"

Video from the channel Aviacore DE about Tupolev Tu-95, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:11:52. Language: German. Video type: Documentary.

A German-language explainer documentary about the Soviet strategic bomber Tupolev Tu-95, known in NATO as "Bear". It covers its origin in the early years of the Cold War, the technical decisions behind its design, its role in the Tsar Bomba test, and the reasons it remains in service seven decades later. It also compares it with the American B-52, which first flew the same year.

After 1945, the Soviet Union had no long-range bombers comparable to the B-29. It copied interned examples of that aircraft to create the Tu-4, a stopgap solution against the American B-36. Andrei Tupolev, arrested in 1937 and released in 1941 after working in a sharashka, opted in the early 1950s for turboprops and a swept wing, prioritizing range over speed. The prototype first flew in November 1952. The documentary then follows the aircraft's operational life: interceptions by NATO fighters, the collapse of the 1990s, the scrapping of aircraft in Ukraine, and the resumption of long-range patrols in 2007.

Each of the four Kuznetsov NK-12 engines produces about 15,000 hp. They drive nearly 6-meter contra-rotating coaxial propellers whose tips exceed the speed of sound. According to the video, the noise can be heard from about 40 km away and can even be picked up by submarine hydrophones. On 30 October 1961, a modified, white-painted Tu-95 piloted by Major Andrei Durnovtsev took off from Olenya and dropped the AN602 bomb, the Tsar Bomba, weighing about 27 tonnes and yielding 50 Mt, over Novaya Zemlya. The shock wave made the aircraft drop about 1,000 meters and it returned with scorched paint. The Tu-95MS version carries seven crew members and flies missions of 18 to 20 hours. Its modernization has added satellite navigation, digital avionics, cruise missiles and electronic warfare systems.