Myasishchev M-50 NATO Code: Bounder

The Myasishchev M-50 (NATO reporting name Bounder) was a Soviet prototype four-engine supersonic bomber which never attained service. Only one prototype was built, which was believed to have first flown in 1957. The M-50 was constructed by the Myasishchev design bureau.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Myasishchev
• M-50
• NATO
• Code:
• Bounder

[cupwithhandles]

I do not mean this in a pejoratively sense, but the M-50 reminds me of an imaginative futuristic design you would find in the sketch book of a day-dreaming 10 year boy. That is what I find fascinating about it.

[xoio]

This plane 'should' have been very FAST ... but for some stupid reason, NO shock wave reduction systems were in place at the front of the engine pods to keep the airspeed below mach 1at the engine face ... Thus the aircraft could barely get over mach 1, when it was designed to be Mach 2+.

Rediculous really considering that other Soviet agencies had built other supersonic aircraft, & knew about shockwave compression. Just look at the nose cone of the Mig-21, this is what the M-50 needed.

[Modellpecs]

It was a huge MIG-21 :)

[skeilak]

@boffinboy100

Dude, just stop it.

Congratulations, you're a swell troll. But now, you're just making a fool of yourself.

[boffinboy100]

@skeilak

How can you let sleeping dogs lie, if you let the cat out of the bag? T-4 is not a copy! Like MiG 29 & Su27 not F15 copies, and Su25 not an A10 copy. Different design.

XB-70 project cost $1.5bn, $750000 per unit. The T-4 still cost A LOT. Figures unknown. The 250 order was revoked because funds were needed for a larger order of MiG23s (approx $15m per plane).

Frankly, any country that afford either project isn't a poor country.

Some class JSF as a Yak141 copy,

[skeilak]

@boffinboy100

You can split hairs 'til the cows come home, but you are as much as admitting the T-4 is a cheap-ass copy of the XB-70.

[boffinboy100]

@skeilak

Seriously, the design differs. All Russian military machines are cheaper for the same effectiveness (few exeptions). the spec was issued to capitalise on the achievements seen in the XB-70, for a smaller anti-aricraft carrier bomber.

I have doubts as to its tactical effectiveness, but as experimental aircraft, both encountered financial & airframe difficulties.

Whether a "poor man's" or not, there are many differeing features which make it a plane influenced, not a copy of XB70

[skeilak]

@boffinboy100

Dude, look at the aircraft. It is an obvious copy of the XB-70.

Also, I specifically said, it was a "poor man's" copy.

Additionally, I would suggest you do a bit more reading, and a bit less pontificating.

[boffinboy100]

@skeilak

The T4 and XB70 have different designs. It is easy enough to spot. XB-70 wings can fold, with a twin tail and 6 engines. T-4, single tail, 4 engines, drop nose.

[boffinboy100]

@skeilak

The soviets took the concept, not the design.

Tu4=B29 copy, with the Tu144, all they stole were inital plans, not enough to create their own machine, but enough to give them the thought.

MiG25 & A5, no real similarity. 2 different design proposals, 2 different purposes, drastically different performance. The MiG15's engine was a reverse engineered Rolls-Royce nene, bought from the UK. Blame Cripps.

With the Buran, similar design, why change something that works.

[skeilak]

@boffinboy100

The Soviets were never adverse to ripping-off a good idea, when they saw one.

Note their B-29 copy, the Tu-4, read how they stole the plans for the Concord, and produced the Tu-144, learn how they stole the metallurgy for the MIG-15's engine, also note the uncanny similarity of the MIG-25 to the US Navy's A-5 Vigilante, as well as the Soviet's miniaturized copy of the US Space Shuttle.

So yes, clearly, the Sukhot T-4 was a poor man's knock-off of the US XB-70.

[boffinboy100]

@skeilak

No XB-70 Clone. That is the Sukhot T-4 Supersonic high-altitude experimental bomber. Possibly the first fly-by-wire plane(considered too secret to say at the time). XB-70, different aircraft design. XB-70, 1964, Sukhoi T-4, 1972