America’s Massive B-29 Bomber Once Fought for Russia (2025)

America’s Massive B-29 Bomber Once Fought for Russia (1)

Topic: Security

Blog Brand: The Reboot

Tags: B-29, History, Military, Russia, Technology, and World War II

January 1, 2021

By: Sebastien Roblin

Here’s What You Need to Remember:Ultimately, the B-29 proved an adaptable platform in both AmericanandSoviet service. The Soviet experience also proved, yet again, that few technological gaps are so great that they can’t be bridged by a littlereverse engineering among friends.

Few aircraft have as great a mark on history as the B-29, the pencil-shaped American four-engine bomber that dropped the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

What’s less well known is that the Soviet Union had its own B-29—as in,literallythe same airplane, in all but a few respects. And like its American counterpart, this duplicate B-29 would deliver the Soviet Union’s first air-dropped nuclear weapon.

In World War I, Russia pioneered the use of heavy bombers when it successfully fielded enormousSikorsky-designedIlyaMurometsfour-engine biplanes against Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany. The concept soon spread to all the major warring powers, and was elaborated into a doctrine of strategic bombing after the war. Strategic bombers are large aircraft that carry heavy bomb loads over great distances to hit strategic targets behind enemy lines such as factories, oil refineries, bridges and rail yards—or, as occurred frequently in World War I and II, urban population centers.

By World War II, however, the Soviet Air Force (theVVS) was largely a tactical air arm focused on hitting targets close to the frontline. TheVVSonly fielded ninety-three new four-enginePe-8strategic bomber during the war, while England and the United States deployed thousands of heavy bombers.

The United States’ most expensive weapons program during World War II was the development of the ultimate strategic bomber, the B-29Superfortress. The B-29 exceeded its predecessors in speed, range and bomb load. It also featured remote-controlled defensive machine-gun turrets, while the eleven-man crew benefited from a fully pressurized crew compartment.

The newB-29swere deployed to the Pacific theater starting in 1944, where their great range allowed them to launch raids on the Japanese home islands—ultimately including the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the even deadlierfirebombingof Tokyo. The first units operated out of bases in southern China until the United States captured island bases closer to the Japan.

At the time, the Soviet Union was receiving aircraft from the United States through the Lend-Lease program, so Moscow twice requested that the United States send overB-29s. Washington declined.

However, between July and November 1944, theB-29sRamp Tramp,DingHaoandGeneral H.H. Arnold Specialoperating out of China were forced to land in Vladivostok due to battle damage or equipment failures while embarking on raids against targets in Manchuria and Japan. A fourth B-29 crashed and was recovered.

Despite the U.S.-Soviet alliance during World War II, the Soviet Union was not (yet) at war with Japan, so the Soviet authorities seized the American aircraft—and refused requests that they be sent back! The crews were also interned for months before being released into neutral Iran.

Desiring a new strategic bomber as soon as possible, Stalin instructed theTupolevdesign bureau to abandon its own design program and instead make anexactcopy of the B-29. Which they proceeded to do—one screw at a time. One of the capturedB-29swas completely dismantled in the process, while the other two were used for reference purposes and flight training.

A major difficulty for the massive plagiarizing effort was that the B-29 had been designed according to imperial units of measurement (yards, feet, inches, etc.) while the Soviet Union used the metric system—not only were extensive conversions necessary, but newgaugesof sheet aluminum needed to be produced as well as many other entirely new components devised from scratch. The massive effort ended up involving sixty design bureaus and nine hundred different factories.

The resulting clone plane, dubbed theTu-4, weighed only slightly more than the original B-29. It did have a few differences. Most notably, theTu-4used Russian 2,400-horsepowerASh-73TKradial engines instead of the original 2,200-horsepower Duplex Cyclone engines. Additionally, the B-29’s .50 caliber machine guns were replaced with much heavier twenty-three-millimeter cannons.

TheTu-4was slightly slower than the B-29 with a maximum speed of 348 miles per hour, though the Russian plane boasted a higher service ceiling of thirty-six thousand feet to the thirty-one thousand of the B-29. Standard bomb load was also different: the B-29 could lug up to twenty thousand pounds of bombs, while theTu-4was intended to carry six 2,200-pound bombs. Most notably, theTu-4lacked the range of later modelB-29s, and was a limited to an effective round-trip range of nine hundred miles when carrying a significant bomb load.

With the entry of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan, Stalin eventually returned one of the lostB-29sin 1945. Two years later, Western observers at the Aviation DayairshowatTushinoAir Base were startled to behold a formation of what appeared to be fourB-29sflying overhead. NATOcodenamedthe aircraft the “Bull,” and had to hastily plan an air-defense strategy against the new strategic bomber threat.

The firstTu-4regiments were activated in 1949, and two years later the type was making history: a specially modifiedTu-4Awas the first Soviet aircraft to drop an atomic bomb, the forty-two-kilotonRDS-3Maryawhich fell onSemipalatinskon October 18, 1951. The plutonium-uranium compositeRDS-3had twice the power of the first Soviet nuclear weapon, theRDS-1, which was a Fat Man–style plutonium-core bomb.

A total of 847Tu-4swere built through 1952, and the type served as the mainstay of the Soviet Union’s strategic bomber force in the earliest years of the Cold War. However, theTu-4lacked the range to hit targets in the United States and return to base. A small number of the bombers were modified with in-flight refueling capability in an attempt to address this problem.

By themid-1950s, theTu-4began to be replaced by the jet-poweredTu-16Badger and thelong-serving and longer-rangeTu-95Bear. The lastTu-4swere retired from Soviet service in the1960s.

The sheer size of theTu-4meant it was suitable for testing out new technologies.Tu-4swere used as early test beds for aerial refueling technology, electronic warfare, and radiation reconnaissance. TheTu-4NMcould air-launch LA-16 drones, and there were alsoTu-4Kmaritime attack planes, which carriedunderwingKS-1Kometradar-guided anti-shipping missiles with a range of over fifty miles. After passing up prototypes for an airliner and cargo plane (theTu-70andTu-75, respectively), over three hundredTu-4swere later converted intoTu-4Dtroop transports.

Stalin also gifted tenTu-4sto China in 1953, which remained in service until 1988! The People’s Liberation Army Air Force even tried converting two to serve as its firstAWACsaircraft, though the radar dish proved excessively bulky. Some of the ChineseTu-4scan now be seen at the People’s Liberation Army Air Force Museum.

Ultimately, the B-29 proved an adaptable platform in both AmericanandSoviet service. The Soviet experience also proved, yet again, that few technological gaps are so great that they can’t be bridged by a littlereverse engineering among friends.

SébastienRoblinholds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring.

This first appeared in October of 2016.

Image: Wikipedia.

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America’s Massive B-29 Bomber Once Fought for Russia (2025)

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