Tupolev Tu-4 Bull – Photos & Video

Photo gallery of a Tupolev Tu-4 Bull, The Tupolev Tu-4 (NATO reporting name: Bull) was a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid-1960s. It was a reverse-engineered copy of the American-made Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

Source: Tupolev Tu-4 Bull on Wiki

The Tupolev Tu-4 Bull was a Soviet strategic bomber that was reverse-engineered from the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress. It was developed in the late 1940s and entered service in 1949. The Tu-4 was the first Soviet bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons to targets in the United States. It had a crew of 11 and could carry up to 9,000 kg of bombs. The Tu-4 had a range of 5,400 km and a maximum speed of 557 km/h. The Tu-4 was armed with 10 23 mm cannons for self-defense. The Tu-4 was a remarkable achievement of Soviet engineering, but it also had some drawbacks. It was heavy, slow, and vulnerable to jet fighters and anti-aircraft missiles. It also suffered from reliability issues and high maintenance costs. The Tu-4 was gradually replaced by more advanced jet bombers such as the Tupolev Tu-16 and the Tupolev Tu-95 in the 1950s and 1960s. The last Tu-4s were retired from service in 1965.