Tupolev Tu-22

Tupolev Tu-22
Tupolev Tu-22PD in the Museum of Long-Distance Air Force in Engels
Type:	Medium-range bombers
Design country:	Soviet Union
Manufacturer:	OKB Tupolev
First flight:	June 21, 1958
Commissioning:	1962
Production time:	1962 to the end of the 1970s
Number of pieces:	311

The Tupolev Tu-22 ( Russian Туполев Ту-22 , NATO code name : "Blinder", originally "Beauty") is a Soviet medium-range bomber. From the mid-1960s onwards, the Tu-22 was developed into the heavily modified Tupolev Tu-22M .

description

On the Tu-22, the engines are mounted above the fuselage on both sides of the fuselage-vertical tail transition

The Tu-22 was developed by the Tupolev design office and was mass-produced from 1960. The aircraft was presented on July 9, 1961 at the air parade in Tuschino . There was also a single Tu-22B in flight, which could carry the missile Ch-22 . About 250 to 300 copies of different variants were made. In 1983 there were around 180 copies in service with the Air Force of the Soviet Union (WWS) and around 40 with the Naval Air Force (AW-MF). Iraq and Libya also received some Tu-22s.

The Tu-22 was developed as a result of the increased effectiveness of NATO air defense since the mid-1950s and was originally intended to be the successor to the Tu-16 . The Soviet Union needed a faster aircraft that could reach greater heights and bypass enemy air defenses. Therefore, the Tu-22 was designed as a supersonic bomber according to the area rule . Particularly noteworthy were the wings of the low-wing aircraft, which are strongly swept at 52 °, and the two rear-mounted engines. The engine inlets are ring-shaped and can be moved forward for take-off in order to enlarge the air inlet area with an opening gap. The fuel is housed in the fuselage above the wings. The main landing gear is retracted to the rear in two aerodynamically shaped containers which protrude over the trailing edge of the wing. Due to the small distance between the tail section and the runway during take-off and landing, the angle of attack is limited, which requires very high take-off and landing speeds, which in turn requires an infrastructure with correspondingly long take-off and landing runways. For braking after landing, the Tu-22 has two braking parachutes at the stern. The crew consists of three men who are housed in a pressure chamber in tandem. The ejection seats shot down. To get the crew into the aircraft, the ejection seats were moved down along the ejection rail to the lower edge of the fuselage and then brought into the flight position by winch with the pilot seated on them.

Tu-22 had range and payload issues. In view of the remarkably short service life of the American Convair B-58 , developed in the 1950s , it was no surprise in the West that a successor to the Tu-22 was presented as early as the late 1960s with the Tu-22M .

The Tu-22 "Blinder-C" was used by the naval forces for electronic and optical reconnaissance. For this purpose, sensors and cameras were installed in the bomb bay. By 1995, the type had disappeared from the inventory of the naval forces.

Use in Libya and Iraq

In 1972, a special training facility for the Arab crews and ground personnel was set up in Belarus because it was not desired to train them with the Soviet crews in Ryazan .

Libya received fourteen Tu-22B bombers for the first time in 1974, which were used in the 1110th and 1120th squadrons in Al-Jufra / Hun and in Ukba-Ibn-Nafi, respectively. Another ten Tu-22Bs were delivered by 1979. The background to the order was the lack of fighter planes in the Ramadan war that could have attacked Israeli targets from Libya. Two Tu-22s were sent to Uganda from 1978 to 1979 to support the dictator Idi Amin's war against Tanzania and flew at least two missions from the Nakasangola airfield. From 1978 Tu-22 bombers were used in the war against Chad and, among other things, flew missions against the Faya-Largeau oasis . In February 1986, a single Tu-22 attacked N'Djamena Airport . In the war that followed, Tu-22s bombed former Libyan bases in northern Chad to destroy the heavy weapons lost there, as in Fada . Two Tu-22s fell from the Libyan inventory on the Libyan base near Wadi Dum and one machine was shot down in an attack on August 8th. During the second attempt at an attack on N'Djamena on September 7, 1987, one day after the destruction of 26 aircraft of various types within Libya by Chadian troops, a Tu-22 was shot down.

Iraq also opted for the Tu-22 to be able to fly attacks against Israel from Iraqi territory. Fourteen machines were delivered in 1975. These planes were later used in the war against Iran , with Iran claiming to have shot down at least one specimen over Tehran . These planes were also used against Kurdish rebels. The remaining Iraqi Tu-22s were devastated during Operation Desert Storm .

Until 1992, Soviet technicians had been on site in both countries, which, according to Burdin's account, would largely have been operational. After these advisers left Iraq and Libya in 1992, operations apparently ceased soon.

variants

A Libyan Tu-22B (1977)

Tu-22RDM

• Tu-22 : the name of the Tu-105A in the armed forces
• Tu-22A : The name for R / RD versions that were converted to carry atomic bombs
• Tu-22B : Export version for Iraq and Libya
• Tu-22K (NATO code name "Blinder-B"): Missile carrier version with larger radar and air-to-ground missile Ch-22
• Tu-22KD : Tu-22K with air refueling device
• Tu-22KP : Version with Ch-22P guided missile to hold down the enemy air defense (NATO jargon: SEAD )
• Tu-22KPD : Like Tu-22KP, but with air refueling nozzle
• Tu-22P ("Blinder-E"): version developed from the Tu-22R for electronic warfare ; Variants were the Tu-22P-1/2/4/6/7
• Tu-22PD : Tu-22P with air refueling device
• Tu-22R ("Blinder-C"): Marine reconnaissance version with cameras and / or sensors in the weapon bay
• Tu-22RD : Tu-22R with air refueling device
• Tu-22RM : improved version of the Tu-22R, including side-view radar
• Tu-22RDM : Tu-22RM with air refueling device
• Tu-22RTK : experimental version with Kolessow RD-36-35 lifting engines to shorten the roll-on distance
• Tu-22U ("Blinder-D"): School and practice version with a raised cockpit behind the standard cabin for the flight instructor
• Tu-22UD : Tu-22U with air refueling device

Technical specifications

Plan drawing of the Tu-22

Parameter	Tu-22 data
crew	Pilot, navigator (in front of and below the pilot), gunner / radio operator (behind the pilot, sitting backwards)
span	23.50 m
length	42.60 m
height	10 m
Wing area	162 m²
Max. Takeoff mass	92,000 kg
Engine	two Dobrynin RD-7M-2 turbojet engines with 107.9 kN (dry) and 161.9 kN thrust each with afterburner
Top speed	1610 km / h (Mach 1.5) at an altitude of 12,190 m
Service ceiling	18,290 m
Operational range	4900 km
Use radius	2200 km
Armament	a remote-controlled 23 mm gun NR-23 up to 12,000 kg bomb load 1 × Raduga Ch-22 (AS-4 Kitchen) air-to-surface missile

Armament

Pipe armament for self-defense

• 1 × 23 mm automatic cannon NR-23 (remote controlled from the cockpit)

Drop weapons

Gun load of 12,000 kg in the bomb bay

Air-to-surface guided missiles ( cruise missiles )

• 1 × Raduga Ch-22 PG / N (AS-4A "Kitchen") - conventional 900 kg / nuclear 1000 kT warhead

Unguided bombs

• 1 × FAB-9000M-54 (9000 kg free fall bomb )
• 1 × FAB-5000M-54 (5000 kg free fall bomb)
• 2 × FAB-3000M-54 (3000 kg free fall bomb)
• 3 × FAB-1500-2600TS (2587 kg free fall bomb)
• 6 × FAB-1500M-54 (1551 kg free fall bomb)
• 12 × FAB-500M-62 (497 kg free-fall bomb)
• 18 × FAB-500M-54 (477 kg free-fall bomb)
• 24 × FAB-250M-54 (239 kg free-fall bomb)
• 24 × Basalt FAB-500M-54 (477 kg free-fall bomb)
• 24 × OFAB-100-HB (125 kg free-fall bomb)
• 1 × 7U-31 (246N) nuclear free-fall bomb

literature

• Types of aircraft in the world . Models, technology, data. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-593-2 , p. 883 (American English: The encyclopedia of world aircraft . Translated by Thema Produktmarketing und Werbung mbH, Munich).
• Sergey Burdin: Tupolev TU-22 , Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Bks, Pen and Sword Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84415-241-4

Web links

Commons : Tupolev Tu-22  - collection of images

• www.pripyat.de - Former Tu-22 airfield in Nischyn

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl-Heinz Eyermann , Wolfgang Sellenthin: The air parades of the USSR. Central Board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship, 1967. p. 39.
2. ↑ Types of aircraft in the world . Models, technology, data. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-593-2 , p. 883 (American English: The encyclopedia of world aircraft . Translated by Thema Produktmarketing und Werbung mbH, Munich).
3. ↑ Today's combat aircraft . Types, developments. Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1993, ISBN 3-7043-6028-7 .
4. ↑ Tupolev Tu-22 (Blinder) Medium Bomber / Reconnaissance Aircraft. In: militaryfactory.com. March 11, 2014, accessed October 25, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Sergey Burdin: Tupolev TU-22 , Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Bks, Verlag Pen and Sword, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84415-241-4 , p. 200.
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Tu-22. In: airwar.ru. Retrieved October 27, 2018.
7. ↑ Sergey Burdin: Tupolev TU-22 , Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Bks, Verlag Pen and Sword, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84415-241-4 , p. 242.
8. ↑ Libyan Wars, 1980–1989, Part 1 ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Tom Cooper / Chuck Canyon / Albert Grandolini: Libya's Air Force - from King Idris to Colonel Gaddafi. In: Flieger Revue Extra No. 29, pp. 17/18.
10. ↑ Libyan Wars, 1980–1989, Part 6 ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Tom Cooper, Farzad Bishop, Arthur Hubers, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Sadik: Bombed by Blinders , Part 1 ( Memento from July 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Tom Cooper, Farzad Bishop, Arthur Hubers, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Sadik: Bombed by Blinders , Part 2 ( Memento from February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ AIRCRAFT issue no.136
14. ↑ Exhumating the Dead Iraqi Air Force ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ Sergey Burdin: Tupolev TU-22 , Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Bks, Pen and Sword Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84415-241-4 , p. 252
16. ↑ Types of aircraft in the world . Models, technology, data. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-593-2 , p. 883 (American English: The encyclopedia of world aircraft . Translated by Thema Produktmarketing und Werbung mbH, Munich).
17. ^ Sergey Burdin: Tupolev TU-22 , Pen and Sword Large Format Aviation Bks, Pen and Sword Verlag, 2005, ISBN 978-1-84415-241-4 , pp. 262 and 265