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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 1902.PDF
TU-95MS BEAR FACTS seat. A fold-down jump seat is also available between the radio-operator and the flight-engineer positions. The tail gunner's position is cramped and the view from it is not particularly good. The turret armament is a pair of belt-fed twin Gsh-23s. The four 23mm cannon can be aimed with a radar- directed and ranging-reflector gunsight, with optical reversion. In the top left of the turret (facing aft) is a repeater scope for the Box Tail radar and the radar- warning receiver. Toilet facilities consist of a bucket under the seat "and great willpower". One gunner told me that he had completed a 40h flight (with three in-flight refuellings) although 12-14h was more usual. The Bear's 80t maximum fuel load is stored in wing tanks. For the flight to Fairford, it had fuel for 8h and, although acceleration on take-off was marked, the climb-out was notably protracted, at about l,900ft/min (lOm/s), after the gear m and flaps were raised. The Bear's in-flight refu elling probe dominates the view ahead from the pilots' seats. To help engage errant tanker drogues, the probe can be "fired" — extended telescopically by com pressed air — to hit the drogue. Deputy Commander of DA, Col Gen Anatoly Solov- iev says: "It is much easier than the wingtip-to-wingtip refuelling system we used on the Tu-16 [Badger]. That really did take a lot of juggling to engage and dis engage. The tanker would trail its hose and you had to place your wingtip on top of it, then slide back, in contact, until it engaged in a special capture unit on your wing. Then you had to stay in perfect formation while fuel was transferred, but all the while the tanker's exhaust was trying to blow your wingtip around and the wings, if you let them overlap, would try and. suck to gether. Disconnecting was a reverse proc ess. Believe me, hose and drogue is easy." Each Bear crewman has a seat-pack parachute with a standard four-point har ness. Leather flying helmets are worn and throat-microphones used. The parachute pack forms the base of the seat and, after donning the parachute, the oxygen mask is fastened to the bail-out oxygen bottle and a parachute-release static line is clipped to the seat. CREW ESCAPE The crew-escape procedure is interesting. If the crew have to bail out, the landing gear is dropped and the crew entry hatch, just aft of the nosewheel, is blown off. The rear navigator pulls a lever on his seat, which drops the seat back, and he rolls out backwards. The tactical navigator rolls out to his left and the crew member in the spare seat to his right. As the hatch is jettisoned, the cockpit aisle floor turns into a compressed-air powered walkway/conveyor belt, which runs for 6min. The crew, sitting up forward, drop on to it in turn and are propelled to the hatch and out. "It is in case they are wounded or hurt or there is a high g force," says Soloviev. Has the escape system ever been used in anger? "Yes", says Soloviev. "About two years ago, a -95 had all four engines stop because the anti-icing system failed. The crew got out at low level, about 500m [1,600ft], except for the two pilots, who were killed as they tried to put the aircraft down." The rear gunner blows his hatch and drops out feet first to escape. The Bear conversion course for pilots lasts nine months and includes 60 flying hours. Pilots must fly a minimum of lOOh a year to maintain currency and crews undergo a combat-training course when they join their regiment from the DA's type-conversion unit. First-class pilots face a standardisation flying test once a year thereafter and second-class pilots have two tests a year. All pilots have a major theory examination every year. After about 5h flying time, the Bear's famous growl starts to play tricks in your head and you fancy that the harmonics merge to produce organ-like snatches of music and, as for the propeller-disc rain bows dancing in harmony with the en gines' heavy beat, that's another story. D The Bear's rolling-floor escape system is unusual FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 4 - 10 August, 1993 27
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