JFVicente Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Not mine, but I would like to bid for it: 1/1 scale Tupolev Tu-95MS. See the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/TU-95MS-Soviet-Bomber-/121288805711?forcerrptr=true&hash=item1c3d604d4f&item=121288805711&pt=Motors_Aircraft#ht_5331wt_1106 RGDS Juan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 That would get you noticed. And deaf! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flankerman Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) That would get you noticed. And deaf! I survived a flypast of three Bears at Zhukovsky in 2012 - thats TWELVE Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops..... They are not terribly noisy - just a low reverberating rumble - but not ear-splitting. After the three Bears came Goldilocks - another four NK-12's in the shape of the An-22.... Ken Edited March 7, 2014 by Flankerman Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Isn't that Lyudmia to the An-124's Ruslan? :) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChippyWho Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 I survived a flypast of three Bears at Zhukovsky in 2012 - thats TWELVE Kuznetsov NK-12 turboprops..... They are not terribly noisy - just a low reverberating rumble - but not ear-splitting. Ken, I always like to believe the myth rather than the reality! You know: ADC interceptor pilots reportedly 'feeling' the vibes of 32 prop blade tips breaking the sound barrier (did they really go round that fast??) long before actually sighting the quarry...then taking the iconic photo! Maybe they were 'coasting' a little for the fly-past gig? (And is there anything that hasn't been 'shopped into a photo of the Big Bear? I swear I've seen a pic of a Ford Focus alongside one somewhere!) Many thanks for the awesome photos! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Flankerman Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 Apparently the low rumble from the engines/props could be picked up by the underwater submarine monitoring system - SOSUS - strung across the Greenland/Iceland/UK gap. Or so the legend goes..... Ken Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jennings Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 A friend of mine got the only Bear intercept ever made by a T-33 (yes, a T-33!). He was out on a training mission from Keflavik and got vectors to a Bear-D transiting down to the fraternal socialist paradise of Cuba. He made the intercept, and said when the Bear saw him the pilot poured on the coal and left him in the dust :) Several F-15 pilots I talked to at Elmendorf said you could feel the Bear rumbling in your chest when you got close enough. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 I believe the thing with the contraprops of the NK12s on the Tu-95, Su-22s etc was that to get the speed those planes were capable of without the props having to go supersonic was that they ran them at very coarse pitch, far more so that was normal for a prop aircraft & it was this that contributed to the loud growl that intercept pilots reported. I've long thought that if intercept pilots & Sosus could hear them, what must they have been like for crews on the extended missions these aircraft were capable of? :unsure: Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bigasshammm Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Just saw this. Pretty cool at the end that they're going so fast the camera can't keep up. And the prop blur is real cool. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stevehnz Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 Nice vid & interesting in that it shows up the coarse pitch these ran at, & that is not confusing the middle section where the port inner props appear to be feathered.:) Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Slartibartfast Posted March 10, 2014 Share Posted March 10, 2014 (edited) Edited March 10, 2014 by Slartibartfast Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hawk10 Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Back in the early 80's I was working for an air tanker operation and the boss bought a pair of DC-7s which we hung tanks on and sent them forth to fight forest fires. Now let me say that the Wright R3350 equipped with power recovery turbines is somewhat less than a reliable engine in the environment that we were operating them in. (I'll bet we averaged replacing at least one engine every two weeks over the 2 years we operated the Diesel 7s). Near the end of the period we operated them, several of us started to push the idea that the boss should call the Soviet Embassy in DC and see if they would sell us a 1/2 dozen of the NK12 engines. Then we would remove the 4 Wrights and install 2 of the NK12s (IIRC the HP of the Wright was 3500 hp for a total of 16000 hp per AC while each NK12 had 15000 HP which is 30000 hp per AC. That thing would have had 2 power settings ON and Off!) Luckily, saner heads prevailed (the FAA???)and we sold both aircraft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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