In numbers Through the lens Video
NATO reporting name: Blackjack
A supersonic strategic swing-wing missile-carrier powered by four NK-32 25.000-kgf turbofan engines. The aircraft is designed to destroy vital enemy installations deep in the enemy rear area, in the ocean and on the enemy's overseas territories with both conventional and nuclear weapons.
The Tu-160 prototype first flew on 18 December, 1981. Its series production has been underway at the Kazan aircraft production association (KAPO) since 1984.
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| Tu-160 Blackjack: Schematic image of an internally carried weapon on the aircraft with X-55 (Kh-55) and X-15 (Kh-15) missiles. Drawing: K. Panitsidi |
As of 2001, about 30 aircraft have been built. In the mid-1990s, under the defence industry conversion programme, the Tu-160 strategic CM-carrying bomber was used to derive the Burlak aerospace system comprising the Tu-160SK carrier and a missile delivering a 300-500-kg satellites to the 500-700-km polar orbit.
Three-view drawing
Technical specifications
| DESIGNER | OKB Tupolev |
| COUNTRY | Russia |
| TYPE |
Strategical bomber
|
| CREW | 4 |
| POWER-PLANT |
Four turbofan engines with afterburning Kuznetsov ΝΚ-32
|
| Thrust, kgf | |
| - with afterburning | 4x25.054 |
| - without afterburner | 4x13.990 |
|
DIMENSIONS
|
|
|
Length, m
|
55,70 |
|
Height, m
|
13,20 |
|
Wing span, m
|
|
| - with sweep 65ο | 35,65 |
| - with sweep 35ο | 50,7 |
| - with sweep 15ο | 41,7 |
| Wing area, m2 | 202,00 |
| WEIGHT | |
| Maximum take-off, kg | 275.000 |
| Normal take-off, kg | 267.600 |
| Empty aircraft, kg | 110.000 |
| Internal fuel, kg | 148.000 |
| Warload, kg | |
| - in standard configuration | 22.500 |
| - maximum | up to 40.000 |
| PERFORMANCE | |
| Maximum speed (at high altitude), km/h | 2.000 |
| Maximum speed in low height, km/h | 1.030 |
| Cruising speed, km/h | 850 |
| Range, km | |
| - with weapon load, standard configuration | 14.000 |
| - maximum weapon load | 10.500 |
| Endurance, h | 15 |
| Rate of climb, m/min | 4.200 |
| Service ceiling, m | 15.600 |
| Maximum overload, g | 2 |
| ARMAMENT | 2 drum with Cruise missiles Kh-55 and Kh-55L (Χ-55 or Χ -5M/SM (X-555 or X-101), with 12xKh-15 with nuclear and HE warhead, thermonuclear and free fall bomb, mine. |
Photos Tu-160 Blackjack
