Tupolev summary

Tupolev, officially ANTK imeni A.N. Tupoleva formerly OKB-156, Russian aerospace design bureau that is a major producer of passenger airliners and military bombers. It originated in 1922 as a group within the U.S.S.R.’s Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute to develop military aircraft. Under Andrei Tupolev, it created the TB-1 (ANT-4) all-metal, cantilever-wing bomber (first flights 1925–26). After several years’ confinement for political reasons, Tupolev was freed, and in 1943 he reestablished his team as the design bureau OKB-156. At the end of World War II, the bureau built the Tu-4 strategic bomber, a copy of the U.S. B-29. In the 1950s it produced the turboprop Tu-95 heavy bomber (NATO, “Bear”), which became a Soviet mainstay, and the first Soviet jetliner, the Tu-104 (first flown 1955). Between the late 1950s and early ’80s, it introduced new supersonic bombers, including the variable-wing Tu-22M (“Backfire”) and Tu-160 (“Blackjack”), and airliners such as the Tu-114 turboprop, Tu-154 trijet, and Tu-144 supersonic transport. In 1989, in honor of Tupolev (died 1972), the bureau was renamed ANTK imeni A.N. Tupoleva. After the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, it became a joint stock company with the Russian government holding a limited financial interest. In the 1990s its projects involved jetliners such as the Tu-204 (in service 1996) and Tu-324.