[Milsurplus] Re: Russian "B-29"...

Thu May 6 02:21:45 EDT 2004

Years ago at the Foothill College flea market (California) there was for =
sale a Russian "BC-348".Not an exact copy but very similar inside and =
out.If I'd had the cash then I'd be able to tell you all about it now... =
:-(
 Jay

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Mike Morrow
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 5:49 PM
To: Kenneth G. Gordon; [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Re: Russian "B-29"...

Ken wrote:

>The one they copied also had a large patch on one side, low down
>near the front on the left side which covered some battle damage.

There's been a considerable amount of debate over how many such reports =
are mythological.  With three B-29s for the Soviet engineers to examine, =
it would have been unlikely for battle-damage repairs on one aircraft to =
have been incorporated as a design feature into the Soviet version (the =
Tu-4, NATO-designated "Bull").

I wonder about how much of the B-29 avionics was duplicated.   The B-29 =
would certainly have had the AN/ARN-5/RC-103/RC-193 instrument landing =
system, but did the Soviets have any corresponding ground equipment to =
make it worth the effort to duplicate?  There was also a large amount of =
electronic countermeasures equipment and bombardment and fire control =
electronics which might have been worth duplicating.  I also wonder =
whether they duplicated the AN/ARC-8 (ART-13, BC-348).  Some time ago I =
saw a photo of the cockpit of a surviving Tu-4.  On the right side was a =
box that very clearly was an almost exact duplicate of the C-87/ART-13 =
control box.  That leads me to think that they likely copied closely the =
entire AN/ARC-8.  It would seem that the B-29's AN/ARC-3 VHF sets would =
have been worth duplicating.  Maybe there was a C-118/ARC-3 duplicate in =
the photo that escaped my notice.  I'd sure like to get a chance to =
crawl around in that Russian museum's Tu-4.  Too bad the USAF Museum at =
Dayton doesn't have some of these in its collection.

73,
Mike / KK5F

_______________________________________________
Milsurplus mailing list
[email protected]
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus