A team of aircraft designers from the Novosibirsk State Technical University (NSTU NETI) will restore the rare Tu-2 bomber for the centennial of the Tupolev Design Bureau. This was in an exclusive conversation with RT, the head of work, professor of the department of strength of aircraft NSTU NETI Vladimir Burns.

  • The goal is heaven: in Novosibirsk, restorers will fly the Tu-2 front-line bomber

The Tu-2, also known as the ANT-58 and the “103” aircraft, is a twin-engine Soviet high-speed aircraft from the Second World War, and is considered the best front-line bomber of the USSR of that time. At the same time, according to restorers, the aircraft did not manage to enter mass production during the war.

At the end of August, two such bombers, purchased by the winged memory of the Victory military-historical fund for the preservation of military historical aircraft from the War Eagles Air Museum in the US state of Nevada, were made available to the university.

If successful, the first flying Tu-2 in the world will appear - all the remaining surviving aircraft of this model are inoperative museum exhibits.

  • Unloading the disassembled Tu-2 bomber
  • © NSTU

“Previously, we restored planes that were raised from marshes or from the bottom of northern lakes, they were quickly sucked in by silt. Such devices had little contact with oxygen, so the mechanical characteristics of aluminum did not change. And that brought to us after storage in the air must be checked. According to preliminary data, both arriving aircraft were stored in Nevada, it is dry there, so there is hope that the metal retained its strength. But in order to find out, we will have to check their nodes at special stands and even destroy some of them.

We have not yet encountered such work, it will be difficult, but we will do it, ”says Vladimir Burns.

In a conversation with RT, Burns said that his team has been restoring aircraft since 1992. They managed to put on the wing of more than 20 units of Soviet military aircraft. Interest in this work inside the country is growing, and now many models made to order and sold abroad are bought out by compatriots. In Russia, the aircraft of Novosibirsk aircraft designers participate in various events and often act in films, Burns claims.

At the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky, which opens on August 27, aircraft designers will present reconstructed aircraft, including the legendary Il-2 and MiG-3, and there will be a separate stand dedicated to “carcasses”.

“On our IL-2 last year we even flew to the Berlin air show on the route Moscow - Bryansk - Kaluga - Grodno - Warsaw - Poznan - Berlin. It is impossible to imagine the history of military aviation without Soviet-made technology. We had a resounding success there, ”Burns says.

Due to the increased interest in the technology of the war years, the team of Professor Burns now does not even have free space to start work on the restoration of the Tu-2. There are so many orders that for a new project you will have to rent or build a separate room, says the specialist.

  • Restoration work should be completed by the 100th anniversary of KB Tupolev
  • RIA News
  • © Alexander Kryazhev

“We already have six aircraft in operation, even there is not enough space yet. During the MAKS we will negotiate with the Tupolevites to help us. In three years they should have time to restore the Tu-2, ”concluded Burns.