Echoes of Soviet reality continue to excite the minds of ordinary people and researchers. This is especially true of the military-industrial complex, because its development was especially rapid during the Soviet era. Therefore, it is not surprising that, along with real facts, in the history of the Soviet defense industry one can find many myths that are not related to reality. Here are 5 of the most common legends about aviation of the era of the country of advice, which exist among the inhabitants, although they have long been refuted.
1. Tu-4
There is a fairly popular legend according to which the Tu-4 is an absolute copy of the American B-29 airliner. Fans of this myth even argue that even the camera, which, by coincidence, was hanging in the cockpit, was allegedly copied.
In reality, everything is not so simple. The Tu-4 was indeed similar to the B-29, but had a number of significant differences. First, the ASh-73TK engines were installed on the Soviet liner. In addition, fundamentally different were: equipment for identifying "friend or foe" SRZO "Barium", crew seats, which are also designed for placing a parachute in the seat), VHF radio stations, defensive armament of the NS-23 cannon, as well as a remote management. Regular modernization increasingly alienated the Tu-4 from the American original.
2. Tu-95MS
There is a widespread opinion about the Tu-95MS that they began to be engaged in their construction back in the days of Stalin. But in fact, this development went through a fairly serious path from several modernizations - there were models M, K, KM, RC, 142M, and only on the basis of the last Tu-95MS was it created. Therefore, it was launched into production only in 1981.
Interesting fact: the last model of the series, Tu-95MS, was completed only after the collapse of the USSR in 1992.
3. Tu-116
There are two legends about this plane at once: one says that Khrushchev flew on it to the United States, and the second is the opposite, they say, the secretary general refused to fly on it, citing the fact that the Tu-116 “has their ass ". There are also versions of the legend where these words belong to Khrushchev's wife.
In reality, the Tu-116 was created as a fallback, in case the design of the Tu-114 was delayed. And besides, the Tu-116 has too small a capacity - 24 people, and the Soviet delegation flying to the United States was quite large.
READ ALSO: A young family turned a Khrushchev into a real "candy"
4. IL-18
It is believed that the Il-18 aircraft began to be designed since 1946. In reality, the liner that everyone is talking about was created much later, and almost immediately after the end of the war, it was about another aircraft of the same name. On the basis of the first Il-18, they did not even begin to make the second - their only common feature was the diameter of the fuselage. Only the experience gained was used, and already familiar to us, the second Il-18 was completed only in the middle of the 50s of the last century.
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5. Tu-104
There is also a legend about the legendary Tu-104 jet liner. Like, after the disaster of the Tu-104A USSR-42362 and the death of the crew of Harold Kuznetsov on October 17, 1958, a meeting of the Civil Air Fleet was convened, where A.N. Tupolev allegedly accused the pilots of the inability to control the plane: “This is not a bad plane, you don’t fly on it you know how. "
In fact, historians have long refuted this myth based on research in the archives. So, they found out that two meetings about the jetliner really took place: the first, at the end October with the participation of Tu-104 pilots, and the second, on January 2, 1959, at the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Civil Air Fleet Marshal Zhavoronkova. The surviving protocols made it clear: Tupolev was simply not there at both meetings.
Do you want to know more about the jet miracle of the Soviet aviation Tu-104? Then read: Fatal "pickup" of Tu-104: how haste and stubbornness ruined the jet "Russian miracle"
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/171020/56416/