The TU-95 Bear Lives On
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London
Posts: 7,072
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Our "latest technology" .... which doesn't work very well..................... IIRC Boeing talked to the Russians about technology for working titanium for the 747 u/c - and the Russians were given some access to how to hang jet engines off the wing in pods... it's not always a zero sum game
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Leicestershire, England
Posts: 1,170
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
-RP
Boeing talked to the Russians about technology for working titanium
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
I wouldn’t doubt it. Firstly, why would Lockheed share any proprietary information with Boeing? Secondly a third of Boeng’s undercarriage forgings are made out of titanium by a joint Boeing-Avisma company called Ural Boeing Manufacturing in Russia - and they have a research lab employing around 1400 engineers researching new titanium alloys and aircraft parts.
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Braunfels, TX
Age: 70
Posts: 1,954
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Tu-95MS Bear H production ceased in 1992.
Page 29. http://www.oldwings.nl/st/cn_explanation_location.pdf
Page 29. http://www.oldwings.nl/st/cn_explanation_location.pdf
From that website: About 80 Tu-142Ms built by TMZ (factory # 86) at Taganrog-Yuzhny from 1975 to 1994.
Last edited by KenV; 20th Aug 2018 at 16:08.
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Braunfels, TX
Age: 70
Posts: 1,954
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Lockheed developed ways to bend, stamp, and drill/machine titanium sheet and plate for the A-12/SR-71. The Boeing stuff are heavy titanium forgings, very very different and Boeing had a Russian industrial partner, AVISMA, for their titanium parts. To this day AVISMA remains the worlds #1 producer of raw titanium and titanium parts which they sell worldwide, including to Airbus, Boeing, Lockheed, NASA, etc, etc.
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: New Braunfels, TX
Age: 70
Posts: 1,954
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
At some point "whatever it takes" to keep the engines going would likely make it cheaper to just replace the Bears with an entirely new platform. Will that be before or after the last BUFF with biz-jet engines gets retired/replaced? Who knows?
The Bear was fast, catching one at low level, there was another at high level trying to deceive us. We had the beam window open for photographs as he put on the power, we kept up as far as 10000ft, where we had to shut the window and give up the chase,
It seems Douglas was using titanium very early on. Interesting paper dated September 1957 on its use on the X-3 Stilletto but more importantly on the DC-7. The DC-7C nacelle and firewalls was skinned with titanium, in fact over 800 lbs of the material were used on the aircraft. Article details considerable fabrication problems.
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%201385.PDF
https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%201385.PDF