Tupolev Tu-106

I simply didn't find the time to really build any planes lately. But hey, I cobbled something together...

In the early 60's, the Tupolev Design Bureau started work on a "deep modernization" of the Tu-22. The 22 entered service only a few years earlier, but it wasn't really any good -hence the modernization plans.
For starters, the upgraded plane -given the designation Tu-106- would get new NK-B powerplants, arranged in a single nacelle at the rear of the fuselage. Each engine would have a large, rectangular intake and an air channel optimized for supersonic flight speeds. But the designers played around with other parts of the plane as well; all kinds of options were explored -they looked at thinner wings, delta wings, different wing placements and so on. And then they went on to look at 3- and 4-engine designs. These of course were no longer the kind of upgrades they could do on existing planes, but rather a whole new plane.

It might even have looked cool, something like a small-ish sixties version of the Tu-160. In the end though, the project was shelved. Some years later, Tupolev launched a completely redesigned Tu-22 (the "Backfire") of which parts were based on their research for the Tu-106 project.

The good thing about paper-only ghost planes like the Tu-106? There's no single, definitive design drawing... and so you get to play around. This version has the swing-wing which later reappeared on the "Backfire", and the new engines in their chunky tail nacelle. At least it looks menacing enough...

Controls

• AG1 : swing wing control
• AG2 : arm the large Kh-22 missile
• AG3 : brake chutes

Armament

I admit: I made this build for the sole purpose of decking it out with lots of "bang".

The big boy in the center of the plane is a Kh-22 (NATO: AS-4 "Kitchen") missile, designed as a stand-off weapon to take out entire battle groups at sea. It's nuclear-tipped, so be sure to get well out of the way when it goes off.

The smaller missiles are Kh-15's (NATO: AS-16 "kickback"). These didn't see service until 1980, but no matter -if the Tu-106 had actually been built, it would probably still have been around in the 80's.
The Kh-15 was actually designed as a replacement for the rather large Kh-22; there are versions with nuclear and conventional payloads, and the Tu-106 is equipped with a few of both. The Kh-15 doesn't have the range (or the explosive power) of its larger predecessor, but it still packs a punch.

The blasts of the "nuclear" weapons have been, ehm, scaled down a bit though, to avoid blowing yourself out of the sky too often...

Have fun with this mongrel...