Tu-95 Bear
ICAO TU95A turboprop bomber with contra-rotating propellers, and the loudest aircraft in the world. Live Tu-95 Bear positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No Tu-95 Bear is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Tupolev
- Role
- Strategic bomber and maritime patrol
- Class
- L4T — Landplane, 4 turboprop engines
- Crew
- 7
- First flight
- 12 November 1952
- In service
- 1956
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the Tu-95 Bear
The Tu-95 is a strategic bomber with propellers, which sounds like an anachronism until you look at the numbers: its contra-rotating blades turn supersonically at the tips, giving it a cruise speed close to a jet's and a range no jet bomber of its era could match.
It is also, by some margin, the noisiest aircraft ever built. The blade tips going supersonic generate enough noise to be detected by submarines underwater, which was a genuine operational problem.
Like the Tu-160 it flies long patrols toward NATO airspace that are intended to be seen, and like the Tu-160 it does not transmit ADS-B. Expect this page to be empty; the aircraft is usually reported by the fighters sent to look at it.
Callsign prefixes
- RFF
- Russian Federation Air Force
How to recognise it
- —Four turboprops, each with two contra-rotating four-blade propellers — eight blades per engine.
- —A heavily swept wing, unusual on a propeller aircraft, and a glazed nose.
- —Unmistakable in sound long before it is visible.
Common questions
+ Why does a strategic bomber have propellers?
Range. In the 1950s no jet engine offered the fuel efficiency to cross the Arctic and return. The contra-rotating turboprops gave near-jet speed with far better endurance, and the design has never needed replacing for that role.
+ Is the Tu-95 really that loud?
Yes. The propeller tips exceed the speed of sound in normal cruise, producing noise loud enough to be picked up by submarine sonar and to be heard from a considerable distance on the ground.
+ How old are the Tu-95s flying today?
The current Tu-95MS aircraft were built in the 1980s and early 1990s, on a design that first flew in 1952. Like the B-52, it has outlived several intended replacements.