The flight is not planned, the interlocutor of TASS noted
MOSCOW, November 29. /tass/. The Tu-160M strategic missile carrier, assembled from scratch, will run along the runway for the first time at the S. P. Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Plant (a branch of PJSC Tupolev) in December 2021. This was reported to TASS by a source in the aircraft industry.
"The plane is in the hangar ready, refueled. By the end of the year, the Tu-160M will definitely make a run on the runway. The flight is not planned," the agency interlocutor said.
According to him, the test date of the new missile carrier is "floating" and depends on the leadership that will be at the event.
TASS does not yet have an official confirmation of this information.
On July 30, the head of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), Yuri Slyusar, reported that work was underway at Tupolev to assemble a completely new Tu-160M built from scratch. Also, according to him, the plant is completing work on the manufacture of the second such aircraft, converted from the old Tu-160.
About the "White Swan"
The Tu-160 ("product 70", according to the NATO codification - Blackjack, the unofficial Russian name is "White Swan") is a Soviet, then Russian supersonic strategic bomber-missile carrier with variable wing geometry. Along with the Tu-95MS, it forms the basis of the modern fleet of Long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Designed to defeat nuclear and conventional weapons targets in remote areas. The largest supersonic aircraft in the history of military aviation.
In 2015, it became known about the decision to resume production of the Tu-160 in an upgraded version. In early November 2020, the deeply modernized strategic missile carrier Tu-160M made its first flight with new NK-32-02 engines from the airfield of the Kazan Aircraft Factory. According to the UAC, the updated general-aircraft systems and avionics installed during the modernization of the aircraft were checked during the flight, as well as the performance of the new NK-32 02 series engine was evaluated.
In 2020, the Tu-160M entered the list of the most significant world achievements in the field of military aviation compiled by the famous American profile magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology.
