Don’t read much of a sinister conspiracy intgo the Soviets not getting B-29s….remember the USAAF was having trouble getting them and keeping them in the air.

I never said anything about a conspiracy. I was explaining the lack of enthusiasum regarding the A-20s in Soviet service. A bit like the US asking the Soviets for assistance in transporting stuff to Afghanistan and Iraq because of the cost of the C-17 and problems with C-5 and the Soviets offering An-12s. Of course the An-12 is a fine aircraft and has many useful features, but it isn’t an Il-76 or An-124.
The article tried to suggest that the soviets would not have survived the war without the A-20s, yet they already had plenty of twin engine bombers in the same class as the A-20 already in production and service, what they lacked is what they asked for and never got. (under lend lease anyway…)

[quote]Any security issues aside, I doubt if the Soviets could have maintained them so far away from US suppliers. I say that not out of disrespect to the Russians, but rather as a practical matter of logistics.
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Once the Soviets had gotten their hands on a B-29 I doubt they would have wasted time making a direct copy like the Tu-4. The urgency for the Tu-4 came from the end of WWII and the start of the cold war with the Soviets without a long range bomber. If the Soviets had a B-29 in the middle of 1943 or a B-17 earlier they probably would simply have used most of them to bomb Berlin, but a few would have been examined and the technology copied… if they got B-17s they probably would have made their own successor and not needed any B-29s except to look at. Equally if they had gotten B-29s they wouldn’t have copied it directly, they would have used existing copies and designed an entirely new design based on the knowledge gained. As such maintainence wouldn’t have been a problem any more than maintainence with the Tu-4 for which they got no spares or support at all from the US with was dealt with… and no that is not a dig at the USAF to suggest they might have problems but the Soviets wouldn’t. 😀