It also had an interesting undercarriage – a ‘bicycle’ arrangement with two four-wheel bogies for and aft of the large weapons bay.

The outrigger wheels retracted into bulged wingtips just inboard of the wingtip engines.

To provide the necessary angle of attack, the front undercarriage leg is much longer than the rear – and on takeoff the whole front bogie pivots about the leg so that only the rearmost pair of front wheels is actually on the runway – thereby further increasing the angle of attack.

The undercarriage system was tested on a converted Tu-4 (B-29) bomber.

The entire fin was ‘all moving’ – a single structure pivotted in the centre.

Allthough the crew claimed it went supersonic – the ground-based recording equipment said it didn’t.

It was cancelled – due to Kruschev’s fascination with strategic missiles.

Ken