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World’s First Aerial Bombing

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Bomb dropping had been a constant topic among aviation pioneers and military leaders since early 1910. Even the respected Scientific American magazine ran cover stories about it. They all imagined cities reduced to rubble, fortifications destroyed, entire battle fleets sunken; all by the perceived power of this new dimension of warfare. The first man to make an aerial bombardment was an Italian lieutenant and pilot Giulio Gavotti, who fought in the Italo-Turkish War. He set another first in the history of aerial warfare of heavier-than-air flyers besides an aerial bombardment.…

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Tupolev Tu-4 and Boeing B-29 – The first planes to air drop A-bombs

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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).…

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Soviet B-29 Clone- The Tupolev TU-4

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During WWII the Russians didn’t need help with tanks – they had arguably the best all-purpose tank of the war in the T-34. Cannons? When Berlin was surrounded in 1945, it is estimated that the Soviets had close to 10,000 guns aimed at just that one city. Planes? The Russians had decent fighters by wars’ end. The Americans even gave them P-39 Airacobras, but that was because American pilots hated them. What the Soviets lacked was a strategic bomber force. They saw first hand the damage done to German cities…

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Dutch Fighters Intercept Two Russian Tu-95 Bear Bombers

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On Wednesday, April 23, 2014 a pair of Dutch F-16 was scrambled to intercept two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 bombers that violated Dutch airspace. Tu-95’s were a half-mile inside Dutch airspace. Royal Dutch Air Force F-16 escorted two bombers across the border. Audio – Dutch Fighters Intercept Two Russian Tu-95 Bear Bombers 19.10.2010Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) Leeuwarden QRA ( AJ06 / 43 ) intercept two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers (tailnumbers 21 and 22) together with Danish and British QRA.British QRA was the first to arrive next to the Bears.

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