Why Soviet Pilots Called It “Man-Eater” and “Booze Carrier”: The Tupolev Tu-22 Story

It created a noticeable immersion effect that the pilot had to always be aware of and compensate quickly if necessary. But this did not end even after landing. The Tu-22 had a rare and rather unpleasant defect

called

"galloping", which is a strong vibration of the landing gear bogies. It significantly complicated control of the aircraft while on the ground and, in the worst case, caused one of the landing gears to collapse, causing damage to the aircraft and injuries to the crew. But that would be the least of the crew's worries, compared to one of the plane's main and possibly deadliest features: the downward ejection system.

Unlike most modern aircraft in which the pilot would be pushed upwards in an emergency, making safe ejection possible even at 0 altitude, the Tu-22's ejection system pushed the crew downwards, with the Minimum altitude for safe ejection of 350 meters. . Considering that most accidents in aviation occur during takeoff or landing, imagine for a second the usual stress of the Tu-22 crews who knew that if something happened to the plane below 350 meters, I wouldn't leave them any chance. to survive. Not to mention that on the early Tu-22s, due to the imperfection of the seat locks, there were multiple cases where the seats would simply fall out of the plane.

Fortunately, it happened on the ground, but frequent spinal injuries as a result of such falls did not help matters. Not surprisingly, the

pilots

did not like the aircraft and there were even multiple cases where they refused to fly the Tu-22. Production of the Tupolev Tu-22 was canceled in 1969. However, by the end of 1975, of 311 Tu-22s built, at least 70 had already been lost in accidents, making the Tu-22 the aircraft with the highest accident rate of the century. Soviet Air Force. Thanks to this, in addition to Pricker, which was the nickname given to the Tu-22 due to its shape, the list of aircraft names was expanded to include Error-plane and Defectocraft.

But since most accidents, unfortunately, included the loss of aircrew,

pilots

increasingly began to call the Tu-22 the Man-Eater. To be fair, the situation with the Tu-22 improved somewhat after the mid-1970s, when the aircraft's most dangerous defects were finally fixed, but still the Tu-22 remained an extremely difficult aircraft to fly that He did not forgive the pilots. any mistakes. Only the best bomber pilots were selected to fly the Tu-22, which was the only Soviet Air Force aircraft whose pilots received flight training, not in schools, but directly in Air Force Units. The training program was significantly improved with the introduction of the Tu-22U, a training version of the aircraft that became incredibly popular and highly regarded in the Soviet Air Force.

And not because of the second cockpit, which was made for the student pilot, but because of the air conditioning system, which was twice as large in the training version of the Tu-22, and which earned the plane the famous nickname: Supersonic Booze. Transporter. After almost the first day when the Tu-22 appeared in the units of the Soviet Air Force, the aircraft received the nickname Supersonic Booze Carrier. There were also other less common names, such as "Flying Liquor Store" and "Vodka Truck", but the reason was the same: the impressive amount of alcohol on board, which was used as a refrigerant in the plane's air conditioning system. .

Of course, the Tu-22 was not the first aircraft to use alcohol in the system. It had already been widely used, for example, on the previous Tu-16, which also had alcohol in its anti-icing system. However, the quantities on board were usually quite modest and used industrial rectified alcohols. Meanwhile, the liquid mixture used in the Tu-22 consisted of 60% distilled water and 40% of the purest ethyl alcohol, which in fact was no different from normal Soviet vodka. The air conditioning system was very simple and efficient. To put it in very simple words, to give you an idea: the hot air taken from the engine compressor passes through the pipes to the evaporator, which is placed in the tank full of refrigerant, then the air is cooled and passes to the ventilation system of the aircraft crew cabin.

As the alcohol evaporated, it removed heat and cooled the ventilated air. As simple as that. The consumption of the alcohol mixture depended on the mode of operation of the engines but, importantly, it could be controlled by the captain during the flight, who could adjust its consumption to a minimum or even turn it off. The standard consumption rate of the alcohol mixture was usually set at 40 liters per flight hour. And unlike other systems on the aircraft, the air conditioning always worked perfectly using the alcohol mixture to the last drop in the tank. At least, that's how it seemed in official reports and documents.

But in reality, Soviet aviators immediately appreciated all the advantages of this brilliant engineering solution. The unused alcohol mixture was typically drained from the plane and then used directly, either as an alcoholic beverage or as liquid currency. Without delving too deeply into what life was like in the USSR, alcohol was frequently used as an unofficial method of payment in the Soviet Union for various types of goods or services, whether it was hiring workers to build your country house or paying for your education. of their children. in college. It all depended solely on the amount of alcohol you drank.

And the Tu-22 provided a lot of that. The volume of the liquid tank, which soon became known as the drunk tank, varied depending on the type of aircraft: being 225 liters in fighter aircraft and up to 400 liters in the training version of the Tu-22. The first thing the young pilot would do, after arriving at the Air Force Unit from Flight School, would be to buy a boat, a very important and essential item for any pilot while serving in the Tu-22. According to unwritten rules, one-third of the alcohol mixture saved after the flight would go to the plane crew.

The ground maintenance service, which was responsible for refilling and removing the alcohol mixture, with the appearance of the Tu-22 in the Air Force became one of the most respectable units at Soviet air bases. The funny thing is that even in jobs that consume a lot of time and energy, such as clearing snow or covering the plane, unlike other aircraft, when it came to the Tu-22 there was always a long list of candidates. There were even unofficial standard rates for different types of work, usually measured in warmers, since the rubber warmer, which could hold approximately 3 liters of liquid, was one of the most convenient ways to carry alcohol without anyone noticing. .

As one technician re

called

, all the people returning home from working on the Tu-22 looked slightly pregnant because of the alcohol-filled rubber h

eater

s hidden under their jackets. The mixture had different names depending on the military branch. For example, in naval aviation it was called shlyomka, derived from shlem, the Russian word for flight helmet, which according to tradition was filled with alcohol for young pilots to drink after completing the Tu-22's first flight. But the most common was the name used in long-range aviation: shpaga, the Russian word for sword. The name is due to the resemblance of a long metal ruler that was used to measure the level of the alcohol mixture in the tank with the fencing weapon.

Unfortunately, not everyone could adequately cope with the excessive amounts of free alcohol. And for some air units, Shpaga became a real problem. The increasing number of family conflicts and divorces forced the Air Command to strictly limit the consumption of the mixture and, in the worst cases, even to prohibit pilots from using air conditioning on flights. Although based on good intentions, that order made flying conditions for the aircrew close to those of a sauna. At some point, when dangerous rumors about Shpaga reached the Air Ministry, they even considered replacing it with some non-consumable industrial liquid. But Air Force representatives quickly pointed out their concern that the imperfection of the air conditioning seal already brings the smell of alcohol into the cockpit and if they used industrial liquid, any damage to the seal would fill the cockpit with poison. gas.

They even did an experiment and Ministry representatives, sitting in the cockpit of the Tu-22, confirmed that they had indeed detected a slight smell of alcohol. Of course, they did not know that before the experiment, one of the air technicians was asked to put a cotton cloth moistened with vodka in the ventilation tube that would produce the necessary aroma in the cabin. Sure, there's a chance it's just one of the many Air Force legends, but still the question of replacing the shpaga hasn't arisen since. Surprisingly, despite all the problems caused by the Tu-22, the aircraft had a fairly long career and remained in the Soviet and then Russian Air Forces until the late 90s.

It is really difficult to find anything distinctively positive about the first Soviet supersonic bomber. For starters, it completely failed as a bomber, the role for which it was actually designed. Of the 311 Tu-22s ever built, only 20 were in bomber configuration and the rest of the aircraft were mainly rocket

carrier

s and reconnaissance aircraft, a role in which the Tu-22 proved to be relatively good. Despite all the corrections made to the plane, flying was always difficult and dangerous, making it extremely unpopular among Soviet pilots. The Tu-22 arguably caused more problems for its own Air Force than for the enemy.

But, to be fair, the Tu-22 served quite well in making quite an impression on NATO. The aircraft was first seen during the Soviet air parade in 1961 and caused great concern among the NATO command. The thing is, the main interceptor aircraft in Europe at the time was a Mach 2 F-104 Starfighter, which was capable of intercepting the Tu-22, but 1961 was just the beginning of the deployment of Starfighters in Europe. Sure, there was exceptional English lightning, but it was only in Britain and, furthermore, still in relatively small numbers. There was a magnificent French Mirage III, but 1961 was the year of its introduction, so at that time its total number in service was little or none.

Of course, there was the supersonic F-100 Super Sabre, but its total number was also relatively small and, most importantly, its top speed did not guarantee successful interception of the Tu-22. The fact is that most of the fighters in Europe at that time were subsonic and the presence of the Soviet bomber capable of reaching supersonic speeds was a real threat to Western Europe. Only later did NATO finally deploy a sufficient number of new supersonic interceptors in Europe, and it was only later that they learned about the real capabilities of the Tu-22, but before everything happened, the USSR had already received political advantages, as well as This is how it began. the development of the new Tu-22M.

Although it had the same designation, the Tu-22M was a fundamentally different aircraft that had nothing in common with its predecessor except perhaps the problematic start to its career, but the Soviet Union would not be the Soviet Union if, although that is a

story

completely different. If you like aviation and stories like this, press the Like button to support new episodes on this channel and watch my video about the incredible

story

of the F-11 Tiger, the fighter that was shot down by its own bullets. That's all for now, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.

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