Design
The Tu-123 was a long-range, high-altitude supersonic strategic reconnaissance unmanned aircraft, in the form of a big dart, conceptually somewhat similar to the United States' D-21. It carried both film cameras and SIGINT payloads.
The Tu-123 was ground-launched with RATO booster and powered by a KR-15 after-burning turbojet in flight. The KR-15 was an expendable version of the R-15 engine used on the twin-engine Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 Foxbat interceptor. The Tu-123 itself was expendable, parachuting its payload to the ground for recovery.
Read more about this topic: Tupolev Tu-123
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