Not something you see every day

Max2147 · 08-03-09, 10:02 AM

The Russians do copy some stuff, but I think it's overplayed.

The Tu-4 was a straight copy. Stalin ordered that it be identical to the B-29, and Tupolev had to follow that order. Tupolev said that he could improve on the design, but Papa Joe refused and said he wanted a bolt-for-bolt copy.

For the Tu-144, they started copying the Concorde, but the British caught it pretty early. The Brits then decided to have some fun with their Russian counterparts and cooked up some fake designs and passed them off to some French designers who they knew were working for the Russians. One example was a tire compound design, which was basically jelly. The Brits amused themselves with thoughts of the poor Russian scientists pulling their hair out and poring over the data trying to figure out how their super-special tire compounds kept turning out wrong!

Buran was partly copied from the Space Shuttle, although there were some pretty key differences (no rockets on Buran). But the Space Shuttle was never classified. One NASA engineer said that NASA probably would have mailed somebody the blueprints if they had asked. It's worth noting though that Buran was actually a superior design in a lot of ways.

The Russians also tried to copy the 747. They tried to bribe the chief engineer on the project into giving them all the design requirements, but he didn't bite. There was a top-secret tech transfer with the Russians in the 1970s, where Boeing gave the Russians info on podded engines in return for Russian knowledge on titanium (Boeing was trying to build an SST out of titanium). When the next Russian airliner (the Il-86) came out with podded engines, those who didn't know about the tech transfer assumed espionage.

08-03-09, 10:02 AM	#12
Max2147 Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 714 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	The Russians do copy some stuff, but I think it's overplayed. The Tu-4 was a straight copy. Stalin ordered that it be identical to the B-29, and Tupolev had to follow that order. Tupolev said that he could improve on the design, but Papa Joe refused and said he wanted a bolt-for-bolt copy. For the Tu-144, they started copying the Concorde, but the British caught it pretty early. The Brits then decided to have some fun with their Russian counterparts and cooked up some fake designs and passed them off to some French designers who they knew were working for the Russians. One example was a tire compound design, which was basically jelly. The Brits amused themselves with thoughts of the poor Russian scientists pulling their hair out and poring over the data trying to figure out how their super-special tire compounds kept turning out wrong! Buran was partly copied from the Space Shuttle, although there were some pretty key differences (no rockets on Buran). But the Space Shuttle was never classified. One NASA engineer said that NASA probably would have mailed somebody the blueprints if they had asked. It's worth noting though that Buran was actually a superior design in a lot of ways. The Russians also tried to copy the 747. They tried to bribe the chief engineer on the project into giving them all the design requirements, but he didn't bite. There was a top-secret tech transfer with the Russians in the 1970s, where Boeing gave the Russians info on podded engines in return for Russian knowledge on titanium (Boeing was trying to build an SST out of titanium). When the next Russian airliner (the Il-86) came out with podded engines, those who didn't know about the tech transfer assumed espionage.