Despite being on opposing sides, 4,500 km and 6 years apart basically the same planes were used for the same milestone. The Tupolev Tu-4 and Boeing B-29. A specially modified Tupolev Tu-4A piston-engined strategic bomber was the first Soviet aircraft to drop an atomic bomb – the 41.2-kiloton RDS-3. The standard Tu-4 (reverse-engineered from the American Boeing B-29) was not capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Ten of the Tu-4s were converted for use as atomic bombers and designated as the Tu-4A ( the A was for Atomiy, “Atomic” in Russian).…
Read MoreTupolev Tu-4 and Boeing B-29 – The first planes to air drop A-bombs
