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Bull and Boot - Tu-4 Bull with Tu-91 Boot attached - Soviet engine testbed


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I'm calling it finished.... it's an Academy B-29 painted as a Tu-4 Bull with a Modelsvit Tu-91 Boot attached as an engine testbed :analintruder: - it really did exist - as shown in this photo....

Tu-91_12.jpg

A lot of hacking, filling and sanding later......

Tu-91_42.jpg

Because I used Milliput to form the rear end of the cut-down Tu-91 fuselage, it is very tail heavy - so I had to fit a support prop under the Tu-4 tail.

Tu-91_43.jpg

Tu-91_44.jpg

Tu-91_45.jpg

I reckon if they removed the turboprop engine and put a few seats in the Tu-91, they could have made a neat passenger version of the Tu-4 :whistle:

Tu-91_46.jpg

My attempt at repicating the photos of the real thing......

Tu-91_47.jpg

Tu-91_48.jpg

Tu-91_49.jpg

Tu-91_50.jpg

Comments welcome - more photos of the build are here

I'm going for a lie down in a dark room now.....

Ken

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Well done Ken, there's not going to be many of those around! All the hard work has certainly paid off.

Enjoy the lie down.....

Steve

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A very nice model of an interesting subject, as others have said you won't see many of these around.

I can't help wondering why the Russians went to the trouble of fitting the complete Tu-91 forward airframe including glazing when they just wanted to test the engine!

Duncan B

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A very nice model of an interesting subject, as others have said you won't see many of these around.

I can't help wondering why the Russians went to the trouble of fitting the complete Tu-91 forward airframe including glazing when they just wanted to test the engine!

Duncan B

My thoughts exactly.

There are few details about it - in fact it was the publication of Yefim Gordon's / Schiffer hardback book that brought it to my attention.

He had previously mentioned it in his Red Star Tu-4 softback, but only published three actual photos in the Schiffer book.

There are so many questions that it raises -

how many flights were made? -

how did the Tu-4 handle that assymetric thrust? -

was the Tu-91 cockpit fully fitted out? -

if so was it manned for the flights?? -

if not - how was the Tu-91's TV-2M turboprop controlled?

All fascinating stuff.

Ken

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Now that is different and impressive work.

Guy

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Wow! That looks extremely impressive. Absolutely fascinating choice of subject and very nicely made. Well done :)

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Now there's one you don't see every day, Ken! I doubt at your local IPMS show someone's going to walk by the table muttering 'Not another one...'. Great job!

Regards,

Jason

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