The work on a Tu-160 successor began already in the early 1980s, when the bomber was still in the flight test phase. OKB Tupolev produced two designs with different cruise speeds. Tu-260 (Aircraft 230) was designed for Mach 4 and a range of 10,000 km. The Tu-360 was much more ambitious: it was to carry a 10,000 kg offensive load to a distance of 15,000 km at a speed of Mach 6. The design team was led by V. A. Andreyev, who was in charge of aircraft designs powered by natural gas and liquid hydrogen at Tupolev. The Tu-360 was to be powered by six variable-cycle turboramjet engines fuelled with liquid hydrogen. Armament was to be carried in two weapon bays located in the wingroots. Crew consisted of two pilots. According to the draft design, the range requirement could not be achieved, maximum range at Mach 6 being 9,000-10,000 km.
Development of the Tu-360 was closely connected to the Tu-2000 single-stage aerospace plane similar to the American NASP. The prototype Tu-2000A was planned to test technologies for both vehicles, but only some construction work had been carried out before funding for the project stopped in 1992.
NOTE: Because MSFS allows a maximum of four engines in an aircraft, the simulated Tu-360 does not have six but four engines. Also due to MSFS limitations you cannot reach Mach 6, but speeds well above Mach 2.5 should be possible. If you can tweak the flight model further towards the game limits, please contact me :).
Basic characteristics
=====================
Length: 100 m
Wingspan: 40.7 m
Height: 30 m
Wing Area: 1,250 m2
Engines: Six liquid hydrogen fuelled turboramjets
Maximum Speed: Mach 6
Service Ceiling: 30 km
Maximum Range: 10,000 km
Empty Weight: 200,000 kg
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 350,000 kg
Maximum Fuel Load: 106,000 kg
Maximum Weapons Load: 10,000 kg
Installation
============
Copy the folder Tu-360 into the \aircraft folder of your FS2002 installation.
NOTE: This version is for Flight Simulator 2002. There is a separate download for Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight.
Panel
=====
The panel is aliased to the default Boeing 747-400. Feel free to change it to any other four-engine jet if you desire. If you would like to design a panel for this aircraft yourself, the main panel texture in the virtual cockpit is $tu360_1.bmp, the center console panel is $tu360_2.bmp, and the panel above the center console is $tu360_3.bmp. All are sized 512x512 pixels.
Sound
=====
No sound files are included in this package. If you have the XB-70 by Massimo Altieri (xb-70_fs9.zip) or the Tu-160 by Ying-Feng Zhu et al (available from www.avsim.ru), you can alias the sounds to either of them, or any other jet you feel suitable.
Copyright
=========
This add-on is copyright Tuomas Närväinen. It is released as freeware. Under no circumstances may any part of this add-on be used for any commercial purposes. You may freely modify any of the files included, provided that you
a) give proper credit to me as the original author AND
b) only redistribute the modified files, not the whole package.
This download is intended to remain free. If you paid for this package you have been cheated.
Disclaimer
==========
This add-on should not harm you or your computer. However, I may not be held responsible for any damage caused by the use of the files included in this package.
Main Sources
============
Tu-160 'Blackjack' article by Piotr Butowski in International Air Power Review vol.2
Tu-360 at Testpilot.ru (http://www.testpilot.ru/russia/tupolev/360/360.htm)
Tuomas Närväinen
tuomas.narvainen@pp.inet.fi
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/foxfour/
