Originally Posted by
andrasz
The old soviet aviation manufacturing standards prescribed 100% over design load limit before failure. This was because Soviet industry was not able to supply metals meeting required specifications with consistency.
Indeed. And they were also not able to guarantee that no 'Monday Morning' components were included in the assembly, because of poor working practices and poor management oversight. You only had to stroll around a USSR factory to see why that was - if the factory was dingy, dirty and rubbish strewn, what chance was there for consistently perfect component manufacture?
So yes, most USSR aircraft were designed to be bullet proof, as is witnessed by the number of Tu154 fuselages that survived a crash.