Tu-16

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Tu-16

aircraft

Also known as: Badger

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Also called:: Badger

Key People:: Andrey Nikolayevich Tupolev

Related Topics:: bomber

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Tu-16, one of the principal strategic bombers of the Soviet Union, designed by Andrei Nikolayevich Tupolev (1888–1972) and first flown in 1952. More than 2,000 of the mid-wing monoplanes were built. Powered by two turbojet engines, it had a maximum speed of 652 miles per hour (1,050 km per hour) at 19,700 feet (6,000 m); its ceiling was about 49,200 feet (15,000 m), and with a normal bomb load its range was 4,475 miles (7,200 km).

The Tu-16 carried a crew of six and was armed with six or seven 23-millimetre cannons at nose and tail. It carried a maximum bomb load of 19,800 pounds (9,000 kg). The Tu-16 was used by the Soviet bomber force and was made available to the People’s Republic of China, Egypt, and Iraq.

Other Tupolev aircraft in the Soviet—and later the independent Russian—service were the Tu-28P (Tu-128) fighter, the Tu-95 and Tu-142 bombers, and the Tu-22M (or Tu-26, also called the Backfire Bomber). The Tu-144, tested in 1969 and produced from 1971, was the world’s first supersonic transport aircraft.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.