Nirmal Jayasinghe

Found this excellent image of a Tupolev Tu-22M3 floating down to a landing from Wikipedia. This aircraft is unique in the world in the sense that it belongs to the elite brethren of supersonic bombers. It started off as an early version in 1961, in a totally different format. A product of the famed Tupolev Design Bureau which made the world’s first supersonic transport [Tu-144] and the world’s fastest prop-driven transport [Tu-114],  the early version of this aircraft had a circular section fuselage (133ft long, area ruled) which almost contained fuel (80000lb), and the engines were mounted above it between which the vertical tail was fitted. Engines were Dobrynin VD-7s fed via plain inlets with movable front rings to increase air intake on takeoff.

Then came the definite Tu-22M version, first detected in 1969 by a spy satellite, which was a radically revised Tu-22. It was almost a completely new jet with little commonality more than the inboard wing and vertical tail with the original Tu-22. It had twice the weapons load of the original, 40% bigger range and ability to ‘dash’ at Mach 2 at high altitude. The big difference was it had variable geometry wings, which means the wings’ sweep angle could be altered in flight to the optimum setting for that particular flight regime. Engines with afterburning Kuznetsov NK-22 or Rybinsk RD-36-51 turbojets each rated at about 45000lb, coupled with a complex variable inlet/duct system. With a combat radius of about 2500 miles these are not designated as strategic bombers exactly, but very useful medium class jets which would’ve been deployed in a vast array of conflicts. The latest version is the Tu-22M-3 ‘Backfire C’ variant, of which the weapons load consist of various air-to-surface missiles and free fall weapons, engined with Kuznetsov NK-25 turbofan engines rated at 55115lb with afterburning, sporting a max. speed of 2000km/h at 36000ft,with a range of 1850km with 12-tonne combat load. They weigh about 54 tons empty and have a max. takeoff weight of 130 tons. Serves with both air force and naval aviation in Russia, being the numerically the most important aircraft in Russian Long Range Air Force inventory. Production numbers were like 211 for the -M2 version, and 268 for the -M3 variant. Russia remains the only operator of the potent Backfire, with the exception of Ukraine which inherited both M2/M3 aircraft from the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, where about 50 are equipping three Air Force heavy bomber units.