This enormous project was triggered in December
1962 by the need to intercept the B-70
(or RS-70), 'A-11' (A-12, later SR-71), Hound
Dog and Blue Steel. At an early stage the mission
was changed to strategic reconnaissance
and strike for use against major surface
targets. It was also suggested that the basic air
vehicle could form the starting point for the
design of an advanced SST. From the outset
there were bitter arguments. Initially these
centred on whether the requirement should
be met by a Mach-2 aluminium aircraft or
whether the design speed should be Mach 3,
requiring steel and/or titanium. In January
1963 Mach 3 was selected, together with a design
range at high altitude on internal fuel of
6,000km. General Constructors
Sukhoi, Tupolev and Yakovlev competed,
with the T-4, Tu-135 and Yak-33 respectively.
The Yak was too small (in the TSR.2 class)
and did not meet the requirements, and
though it looked like the B-70 the Tupolev
was an aluminium aircraft designed for Mach
2.35. From the start Sukhoi had gone for Mach
3, and its uncompromising design resulted
in its being chosen in April 1963. This was
despite the implacable opposition not only
of Tupolev but also of Sukhoi's own deputy
Yevgenii Ivanov and many of the OKB's
department heads, who all thought this demanding
project an unwarranted departure
from tactical fighters. Over the next 18 months
their opposition thwarted a plan for the former
Lavochkin OKB and factory to assist the
T-4, and in its place the Boorevestnik OKB and the TMZ factory were appointed
as Sukhoi branch offices, the Tushino
plant handling all prototype construction. A
special VVS commission studied the project
from 23rd May to 3rd June 1963, and a further
commission studied the refined design in
February-May 1964. By this time the T-4 was
the biggest tunnel-test project at CAHI
(TsAGI) and by far the largest at the Central Institute
of Aviation Motors. The design was
studied by GKAT (State aircraft technical
committee) from June 1964, and approved by
it in October of that year. By this time it had
outgrown its four Tumanskii R-15BF-300 or
Zubets RD-17-15 engines and was based on
four Kolesov RD-36-41 engines. In January
1965 it was decided to instal these all close together
as in the B-70, instead of in two pairs.
Mockup review took place from 17th January to 2nd February 1966, with various detachable
weapons and avionics pods being offered.
Preliminary design was completed in
June 1966, and because its take-off weight
was expected to be 100 tonnes the Factory
designation 100 was chosen, with nickname
Sotka (one hundred). The first flight article
was designated 101, and the static-test specimen
100S. The planned programme then included
the 102 (with a modified structure
with more composites and no brittle alloys)
for testing the nav/attack system, the 103 and
104 for live bomb and missile tests and determination
of the range, the 105 for avionics integration
and the 106 for clearance of the
whole strike/reconnaissance system.
On 30th
December 1971 the first article, Black 101,
was transferred from Tushino to the LII
Zhukovskii test airfield. On 20th April 1972 it
was accepted by the flight-test crew, Vladimir
Ilyushin and navigator Nikolai Alfyorov, and
made its first flight on 22nd August 1972. The
gear was left extended on Flights 1 through 5,
after which speed was gradually built up to
Mach 1.28 on Flight 9 on 8th August 1973.
There were no serious problems, though the
aft fuselage tank needed a steel heat shield
and there were minor difficulties with the hydraulics.
The VVS request for 1970-75 included
250 T-4 bombers, for which tooling was
being put in place at the world's largest
aircraft factory, at Kazan. After much further
argument, during which Minister P V Dement'yev
told Marshal Grechko he could have his
enormous MiG-23 order only if the T-4 was
abandoned, the programme was cancelled.
Black 101 flew once more, on 22nd January
1974, to log a total of 10hrs 20min. Most of the
second aircraft, article 102, which had been
about to fly, went to the Moscow Aviation Institute,
and Nos 103-106 were scrapped. Back
in 1967 the Sukhoi OKB had begun working
on a totally redesigned and significantly more
advanced successor, the T-4MS, or 200. Termination
of the T-4 resulted in this even more
remarkable project also being abandoned. In
1982 Aircraft 101 went to the Monino museum.
The Kazan plant instead produced the
Tu-22M and Tu-160.
Yefim Gordon and Bill Gunston "Soviet X-Planes", 2000
