Details have emerged of the flight of two Tu-160 strategic supersonic missile carriers that covered more than 20,000 kilometers. The planes were in the air for more than 25 hours. Thus, the record of the range and duration of the flight was updated.
Major General Oleg Pchela, commander of the 22nd guards heavy bomber aviation division of the Donbass red banner division, told Krasnaya Zvezda about how these record results were achieved.
According to him, the most experienced flight and engineering personnel were involved in the flight. During the flight at an altitude of more than 6,000 meters and at a speed of about 500 kilometers per hour, Il-78 refueling aircraft refueled 130 tons of fuel each Tu-160 three times.
"This is the first time that this type of aircraft has performed such a number of refueling operations and received such a volume of fuel in a single flight," notes Oleg Pchela.
He also said that the pilots had to spend more than 16 hours in special marine suits during the flight over the neutral waters of the Central Arctic ocean, the Pacific ocean, the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi and Barents seas.
According to the major General, the onboard equipment allows the crew to prepare food, make coffee or tea. The plane even has an analog of a modern microwave oven. This allows you to provide the necessary conditions for such a long flight.
By the way, the pilots who landed said that they were ready to continue the flight.
"This flight, as well as many others, showed that long - range aviation is able to perform tasks anywhere in the world," Oleg Pchela emphasizes.
Mikhail Rusin
