We hope you’ve had a great weekend, FighterSweep fans! For those of you dads out there, we wish you a Happy Father’s Day!
You know we love airplanes and we love flying, so it shouldn’t shock anyone when we get excited about the opportunity to go inside the cockpit–regardless of what it is, where it is, or how it flies. We’re always eager to take a look at different airplanes and more than happy to bring you along for the ride.
This evening we bring you another video, this one pretty rare in that it takes us inside the cockpit of the Russian Air Force (Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily Rossii) Tupolev Tu-160 “Blackjack” strategic bomber. It is the world’s largest supersonic aircraft, featuring variable-geometry wings, and eerily similar to the (Boeing) Rockwell B-1B Lancer fielded by the United States Air Force.
An RAF Tornado F3 intercepts a Russian Tupolev Tu_160 “Blackjack” supersonic strategic bomber as it nears British airspace in 2010. (MoD Photo)
In service with the Long Range Aviation Branch (Dalnyaya Aviatsiya) of the Russian Air Force, reports indicate less than a half-dozen Blackjacks are actively flying, and only one has received any type of modernization since entering service in the late 1980s.
Even so, this a pretty cool video as it gives us a glimpse at life inside the cockpit of this beast, as well as a look at the operating environment of the Arctic. You’ll see some low-altitude flying, as well as medium to high-altitude formation work with a second Blackjack.
So take a look and enjoy the perspective!
(Featured photo courtesy of YouTube)