Tupolev Tu-22 - Design

Design

The Tu-22 has a low-middle mounted wing swept at an angle of 55°. The two large turbojet engines, originally 159 kN (35,273 lb_f) Dobrinin VD-7M, later 162 kN (36,375 lb_f) Kolesov RD-7M2, are mounted atop the rear fuselage on either side of the large vertical fin, with a low mounted tailplane. Continuing a Tupolev OKB design feature, the main landing gear are mounted in pods at the trailing edge of each wing. The very swept wings gave little drag at transonic speeds, but resulted in very fast landing speeds and a long take-off run.

The Tu-22's cockpit placed the pilot forward, offset slightly to the left, with the weapons officer behind and the navigator below, within the fuselage, sitting on downwards-firing ejector seats. The cockpit design had bad visibility (doing nothing for the Tu-22's poor runway performance), uncomfortable seats and bad location of instruments and switches.

The Tu-22's defensive armament, operated by the weapons officer, consisted of a tail turret beneath the engine pods, containing two 23 mm AM-23 or R-23 cannon. The turret was directed by a small PRS-3A 'Argon' gun-laying radar to compensate for the weapons officer's lack of rear visibility. The bomber's main weapon load was carried in a fuselage bomb bay between the wings, capable of carrying up to 24 FAB-500 general-purpose bombs, one FAB-9000 bomb, or various free-fall nuclear weapons. On the Tu-22K, the bay was reconfigured to carry one Raduga Kh-22 (AS-4 'Kitchen') missile semi-recessed beneath the fuselage. The enormous weapon was big enough to have a substantial effect on handling and performance, and was also a safety hazard.

The early Tu-22B had an optical bombing system (which was retained by the Tu-22R), with a Rubin-1A nav/attack radar. The Tu-22K had the Leninets PN (NATO reporting name 'Down Beat') to guide the Kh-22 missile. The Tu-22R could carry a camera array or an APP-22 jammer pack in the bomb bay as an alternative to bombs. Some Tu-22Rs were fitted with the Kub ELINT system, and later with an under-fuselage palette for M-202 Shompol side-looking airborne radar, as well as cameras and an infrared line-scanner. A small number of Tu-22K were modified to Tu-22KP or Tu-22KPD configuration with Kurs-N equipment to detect enemy radar systems and give compatibility with the Kh-22P anti-radiation missile.