What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

Discussions on alternate history, including events up to 20 years before today. Hosted by Terry Duncan.
Post Reply
User avatar
Hendryk
Member
Posts: 10
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 13:18
Location: France

What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#1

Post by Hendryk » 07 Jun 2017, 15:52

The landing of four B-29 on Soviet soil was a boon to its aircraft industry, and allowed Tupolev to develop a reverse-engineered version, the Tu-4. So what course would the Soviet heavy bomber program have followed in the early post-WW2 years if no B-29 were at hand to study? Would the development of the Tu-64 have continued, and if so, how long would it have taken for the plane to reach operational status? Or would the project have hit enough snags that the Soviets might have decided to leapfrog the piston-powered stage altogether and moved straight on to turboprops and/or turbojets? Either way, would they have had a nuclear-capable bomber ready by 1950?

User avatar
T. A. Gardner
Member
Posts: 3546
Joined: 02 Feb 2006, 01:23
Location: Arizona

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#2

Post by T. A. Gardner » 10 Jun 2017, 01:57

Well, it would have presented the USSR with a whole raft of technology issues they probably would have taken much longer to solve.

Remote control turrets and the very advanced (for the time) fire control system the B-29 used.

The engines wouldn't have been available. Those were a major advance too.

Pressurization systems.

The big one would have been the lack of ability to do really complex projects that the B-29 allowed by the Soviets copying it and the production systems the US was using. The B-29 was several orders of magnitude greater in complexity than any other contemporary aircraft.

I think they could have still managed a nuclear capable bomber by 1950, even if it lacked the sophistication of the B-29.


User avatar
Hendryk
Member
Posts: 10
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 13:18
Location: France

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#3

Post by Hendryk » 10 Jun 2017, 22:00

T. A. Gardner wrote:The engines wouldn't have been available. Those were a major advance too.
What were the most powerful piston engines the Soviets had prior to reverse-engineering the Wright R-3350?

User avatar
T. A. Gardner
Member
Posts: 3546
Joined: 02 Feb 2006, 01:23
Location: Arizona

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#4

Post by T. A. Gardner » 11 Jun 2017, 01:01

Prior to that, the Soviets relied heavily on engines developed from French and US pre-war manufacturers. I'd say the most powerful radial they had in their inventory was the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 that they got when the US sent a small batch of P-47 to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease.

They could have used that engine, or a derivative, with the turbo-supercharger technology of the P-47 or turbocharger technology of a P-38 to get a reasonably powerful high altitude engine in service. But, that doesn't give them the other, really ground breaking technologies of the B-29.

That fire control system was a tour de force of engineering at the time and well in advance of anything any other nation had in service:

This live demonstration gives you some idea of just how complicated this system was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h4yBxydz0E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nskFayhBcy0

User avatar
Hendryk
Member
Posts: 10
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 13:18
Location: France

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#5

Post by Hendryk » 11 Jun 2017, 20:32

T. A. Gardner wrote:That fire control system was a tour de force of engineering at the time and well in advance of anything any other nation had in service:

This live demonstration gives you some idea of just how complicated this system was.
Impressive indeed!

User avatar
sitalkes
Member
Posts: 471
Joined: 18 Feb 2013, 01:23

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#6

Post by sitalkes » 14 Jun 2017, 03:30

There were lots of Soviet spies in the USA during WW2 - they would have got the technology from them, instead, though maybe it would have taken longer.

User avatar
T. A. Gardner
Member
Posts: 3546
Joined: 02 Feb 2006, 01:23
Location: Arizona

Re: What if no B-29 landed in the USSR?

#7

Post by T. A. Gardner » 14 Jun 2017, 07:10

sitalkes wrote:There were lots of Soviet spies in the USA during WW2 - they would have got the technology from them, instead, though maybe it would have taken longer.
That's not necessarily true. Spies are usually hit and miss in what they bring to the table in terms of information. They usually steal individual pieces of a big jigsaw puzzle. Sure, over time they can provide an answer or technology, but only if that technology isn't rapidly changing. In the late 40's through the 60's technology was rapidly shifting so spying was always behind the curve so-to-speak.

Post Reply

Return to “What if”