Originally Posted by
WHBM
I'm afraid you are. The "bomb aimer's window" on Soviet civil types is a complete urban legend, this is the navigator's position, forward and below the pilots, and entered through an opening concealed by a curtain. It gave the Nav a far better forward view, of course, than working at a desk behind the crew. If fitted there is a Soviet chin radar small bulge underneath, At an early 1960s stage on the Tu134 and others, on export aircraft only for some years, it was replaced by a mainstream nose radar unit, and the Nav was relocated. Initially on these export aircraft (to Eastern Europe and other Soviet client states) the radar was a western product. Although a few aircraft were modified, most of the existing stock were not changed as it meant a complete reworking of the whole flight deck to put the Nav position behind.
In 1969 Aeroflot from Heathrow was on the Ilyushin 62, but if they sent a charter aircraft for your group, likely a Tupolev 134, the initial ones had glazed noses. The Tu134B had the full radar nose.
A further myth about the glazed nose, especially from those who manage a closer look at one, is it carried a special spy camera fixed there. This is typically a mis-identification of the Nav's sextant, which is of course installed there !
Thanks for the clarification, although I am slighty disappointed that my theory about the bomb aimer has been thoroughly disproved after all these years !