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Tupolev Tu-2 — History, Specs & Stories

Tupolev Tu-2 twin-engine Soviet WWII bomber preserved at the Polish Aviation Museum
Aircraft Museum › Bomber › Tu-2

Tupolev Tu-2
“Bat”

The Soviet fast medium bomber that could outrun fighters — designed by Andrei Tupolev while he was a prisoner of the very state he was building it for.

521 km/hTop speed · faster than many fighters
~3,000 kgMaximum bomb load
~2,257Aircraft built
1941–1950sFirst flight · to retirement
Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
RoleFast medium & dive bomberEraWWII & early Cold WarДвигатель2 × Shvetsov ASh-82 radialOriginUSSR · TupolevStatusRetiredCan you fly a Tu-2 today?
История

Tupolev Tu-2: the fast bomber designed behind bars

In 1937, at the height of Stalin’s purges, the Soviet Union arrested its most brilliant aircraft designer. Andrei Tupolev was charged with absurdities — sabotage, selling secrets to Germany — and swept into the Gulag. Yet the state still needed his mind. Tupolev was set to work in a sharashka, a prison design bureau known as TsKB-29, where jailed engineers drew warplanes under guard. The aircraft he sketched there, “Samolyot 103,” would become the Tu-2 — one of the finest bombers of the Second World War, created by a man the regime had branded a traitor.

The design that emerged was fast. Powered in its definitive form by two big Shvetsov ASh-82 air-cooled radials of about 1,850 hp each, the Tu-2 could reach roughly 521 km/h — quicker than many contemporary fighters and far faster than the Petlyakov Pe-2 it was meant to complement. It carried a heavy bomb load, could dive-bomb accurately, bristled with cannon and machine guns, and gave its four-man crew a rugged, well-liked aircraft. First flown on 29 January 1941, it looked like a war-winner from the start.

But its path to the front was tortuous. When Germany invaded in June 1941, Soviet industry was thrown into chaos and evacuated east; priority went to cheaper, simpler types, and Tu-2 production was actually halted in 1942 in favour of fighters. Only a handful reached combat units at first. It was 1944 before the aircraft was built in real numbers and became a mainstay of Soviet bomber regiments in the last year of the war, pounding German positions from Belorussia to Berlin. Tupolev himself was released and eventually rehabilitated — the bomber conceived in a prison cell outlived the war that made it.

Postwar, the Tu-2 had a long second life. The USSR passed hundreds to the new People’s Republic of China and to North Korea, and the type saw combat again in the Korean War and in China’s offshore-island campaigns of the 1950s. NATO gave it the reporting name “Bat.” Reliable, fast and adaptable, it soldiered on into the 1950s — and, in Chinese hands, right up to about 1982. Around 2,257 were built, though counts run higher once postwar production is included.

A “traitor’s” aircraft that helped win the war.The Tu-2 — drawn in an NKVD prison, flown to Berlin
01The Tupolev Tu-2’s prison origins: how a jailed designer built a war-winner

TsKB-29 was one of Stalin’s sharashki — secret design bureaus staffed by imprisoned specialists. Behind its walls sat some of the greatest names in Soviet aviation, all of them prisoners: Andrei Tupolev, Vladimir Petlyakov, and Robert Bartini among them. Petlyakov’s team there produced the Pe-2; Tupolev’s produced the “103,” the future Tu-2. The engineers were told that a successful design might buy their freedom.

It worked. The quality of the Tu-2 helped win Tupolev his release during the war and, in time, full rehabilitation, a Stalin Prize and the highest honours of the state that had jailed him. It is one of history’s strangest aircraft pedigrees: a front-line bomber, admired by its crews, drawn up by convicts who did not know whether the work would end in freedom or a firing squad.

Design & Engineering

What makes the Tu-2 special

01

A bomber drawn in a Gulag design bureau

The Tu-2 was conceived inside TsKB-29, a prison design office where jailed engineers worked under guard. Its lead designer, Andrei Tupolev, was a convict when he laid out the aircraft. The result was no makeshift — it was among the most capable medium bombers of the war, and its success ultimately bought its creator his freedom.

02

Two Shvetsov ASh-82 radials — and fighter-like speed

Early prototypes used liquid-cooled AM-37 engines, but shortages forced a switch to the reliable, plentiful Shvetsov ASh-82 air-cooled radial of roughly 1,850 hp. Far from a compromise, it made the Tu-2 quick: about 521 km/h, enough to outpace some of the fighters sent to stop it.

03

Level bomber, dive bomber and scout in one

The Tu-2 was unusually versatile. It could bomb from level flight or in a dive, carried up to about 3,000 kg of bombs between an internal bay and external racks, and defended itself with two 20 mm ShVAK cannon and several machine guns. Reconnaissance and torpedo-carrying versions followed.

02The Tupolev Tu-2’s engines: from the AM-37 to the ASh-82 radial

The “103” prototype flew in 1941 on Mikulin AM-37 liquid-cooled V12s, which promised high performance but were troublesome and in short supply as the war disrupted Soviet industry. The design was reworked around the air-cooled Shvetsov ASh-82 radial — the same family that powered the La-5 fighter — which was rugged, available and easy to maintain. The change delayed the programme but saved it: the radial-engined Tu-2S became the definitive version and the one built in the thousands.

03The Tupolev Tu-2 in the Korean War: North Korean and Chinese bombers over the front

By the Korean War the Tu-2 was obsolescent, but China and North Korea flew it in anger. On 30 November 1951, in an action American airmen dubbed “Black Tuesday,” a formation of Tu-2s escorted by MiG-15s and piston fighters was intercepted by USAF F-86 Sabres near Namsi; several Tu-2s were shot down. It was a stark lesson that a fast wartime bomber had become vulnerable in the jet age — yet the type kept flying in Chinese service for three more decades.

Технические данные

Tupolev Tu-2 full specifications

Airframe & Performance

Экипаж
4 (pilot, navigator, radio operator, gunner)
Длина
13.80 m
Размах крыльев
18.86 m
Высота
4.13 m
Max takeoff weight
~11,360 kg
Max speed
~521 km/h at altitude
Крейсерская скорость
~442 km/h
Служебный потолок
~9,000 m
Диапазон
~2,020 km
Bomb load
~1,500 kg normal · up to ~3,000 kg

Propulsion & Systems

Engines
2 × Shvetsov ASh-82FN radial
Power (each)
~1,850 hp
Gun armament
2 × 20 mm ShVAK cannon + 3 machine guns
First flight
29 January 1941
Service entry
1942 (mass production 1944)
Built
~2,257 (1941–1952)
NATO reporting name
Bat (assigned 1949)
Unit cost
No reliable public figure (Soviet state product)
Cost per flight hour
No reliable public figure exists
04The Tupolev Tu-2’s cost: why no dollar price exists

The Tu-2 was a wartime Soviet state product, built to plan and never sold on an open market, so a firm flyaway unit price simply does not exist in the public record — and no credible cost-per-flight-hour figure exists for the type either. Costs were counted in rubles, labour and scarce materials inside a command economy under siege, not in dollars. Any precise price you see attached to a Tu-2 is, in practice, a modern estimate rather than a sourced historical figure.

Timeline

From prison drawing board to Korean War

1937

Tupolev arrested

Andrei Tupolev is swept up in Stalin’s purges and put to work in the TsKB-29 prison design bureau.

1941

First flight

The “103” prototype — the future Tu-2 — makes its maiden flight on 29 January, weeks before the German invasion.

1942

Stalled by war

A few reach the front, but production is halted as Soviet industry concentrates on cheaper fighters.

1943

Radial rebirth

Re-engined with Shvetsov ASh-82 radials, the definitive Tu-2S is readied and production restarts.

1944

Mass production

The Tu-2 finally reaches Soviet bomber regiments in numbers and becomes a front-line mainstay.

1945

On to Berlin

Tu-2s support the final Soviet offensives into Germany in the closing months of the war.

1951

Black Tuesday

Chinese and North Korean Tu-2s fight in Korea; on 30 November USAF F-86 Sabres down several near Namsi.

~1982

The last Bats

China finally retires its Tu-2s, ending some four decades of service for a bomber begun in a cell.

Stories & Eyewitnesses

From the front: twelve Tu-2 stories

Origins

Designed in a prison

The Tu-2 was drawn inside TsKB-29, a design bureau staffed by imprisoned engineers.

Read the full story
Andrei Tupolev was arrested in 1937 and accused of fantastical crimes. Rather than shoot him, the state exploited his genius: he was set to work in TsKB-29, a sharashka where jailed aircraft designers worked under NKVD guard. There, as a prisoner, he led the team that created the aircraft the world would come to know as the Tu-2.
The name

“Aircraft 103”

Before it was the Tu-2, the design was known simply by its bureau number, the “103.”

Read the full story
Soviet prototypes carried plain project numbers, and Tupolev’s bomber began life as the ANT-58 and then the “Samolyot 103.” Only later, once Tupolev was rehabilitated and the “Tu” prefix honoured his name, did it become the Tu-2 — a designation that quietly records a designer’s journey from convict to celebrated chief.
Prototype

Faster than the fighters

The 1941 prototype impressed everyone with speed few expected from a bomber.

Read the full story
When the “103” first flew in January 1941 it proved genuinely fast — around 521 km/h in its later radial-engined form — quick enough to give some interceptors real trouble. For a medium bomber built to carry a heavy load and defend itself, that turn of speed was remarkable and became one of the type’s defining traits.
Setback

The production that was cancelled

In 1942 the Tu-2’s production was actually stopped in favour of fighters.

Read the full story
The German invasion of June 1941 threw Soviet industry into crisis. Factories were dismantled and shipped east, and every resource went to aircraft that could be built fast and in bulk. The complex, capable Tu-2 was a casualty: its production was halted in 1942, and for a time it looked as if the excellent bomber might never reach the war in numbers.
Engines

Radials to the rescue

Swapping troublesome V12s for ASh-82 radials saved the whole programme.

Read the full story
The prototype’s Mikulin AM-37 liquid-cooled engines were powerful but unreliable and scarce. Reworking the aircraft around the air-cooled Shvetsov ASh-82 radial — rugged, available and shared with the La-5 fighter — delayed things but rescued the design. The radial-engined Tu-2S became the version built in the thousands.
Comeback

1944: the Tu-2 goes to war for real

After years of delay, the bomber finally reached the front in force.

Read the full story
By 1944 the crisis had passed and Soviet factories could spare capacity for quality as well as quantity. The Tu-2 poured off the lines at last and equipped bomber regiments across the front, delivering accurate, heavy blows in the great offensives that pushed the Wehrmacht back toward Germany. Crews prized its speed, toughness and hitting power.
Tactics

A medium bomber that could dive

Unusually, the Tu-2 could attack in a steep dive as well as from level flight.

Read the full story
Most medium bombers bombed only from level flight; the Tu-2 could also dive-bomb, putting its load on point targets with precision unusual for its size. Combined with a strong defensive battery of cannon and machine guns, that flexibility let one aircraft do the work of several specialised types.
1945

Over the Reich

Tu-2 regiments supported the final drive into Germany.

Read the full story
In the last months of the war the Tu-2 was a familiar sight over the collapsing Eastern Front, hammering strongpoints, rail junctions and troop concentrations ahead of the Red Army’s advance. The bomber that had almost been cancelled ended the war as one of the Soviet Union’s most respected combat aircraft.
Redemption

The convict becomes a Hero

The Tu-2’s success helped turn its imprisoned designer into a decorated hero of the state.

Read the full story
The quality of his prison-drawn bomber helped win Andrei Tupolev his freedom during the war and, later, full rehabilitation, a Stalin Prize and the Soviet Union’s highest honours. The man once branded a traitor would go on to lead the design of the USSR’s first jet bombers and, eventually, its supersonic airliner.
Китай

Hundreds of Bats for Beijing

The USSR handed large numbers of Tu-2s to the new People’s Republic of China.

Read the full story
After 1949 the Soviet Union transferred hundreds of Tu-2s to China, which pressed them into hard use. Chinese Tu-2s bombed Nationalist-held positions and took part in the 1955 campaign against the offshore Yijiangshan Islands. Remarkably, some remained in Chinese service into the early 1980s — the aircraft outliving the country that designed it.
Korea

Black Tuesday

On 30 November 1951 US Sabres shattered a Tu-2 formation over Korea.

Read the full story
North Korean and Chinese Tu-2s flew bombing missions in the Korean War. On 30 November 1951 a Tu-2 formation, with fighter escort, was intercepted near Namsi by USAF F-86 Sabres; several bombers were shot down in minutes. American pilots called it “Black Tuesday” — proof that a fine piston bomber had been overtaken by the jet age.
Legacy

The bomber that outlived Stalin

Begun under Stalin’s purges, the Tu-2 flew on for decades after his death.

Read the full story
From a 1937 prison cell to Chinese squadrons of the 1980s, the Tu-2 had one of the longest and strangest careers of any WWII bomber. It helped launch the Tupolev bureau’s postwar dominance, and it stands as a reminder that some of the Soviet Union’s best aircraft were built by the very people it had locked away.
Gallery

The Tu-2 in pictures

A preserved Tupolev Tu-2S at the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow a rare complete survivor.
A preserved Tupolev Tu-2S at the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow — a rare complete survivor.Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
A Soviet Tu-2 in red-star markings over a European city, June 1945.
A Soviet Tu-2 in red-star markings over a European city, June 1945.Photo: SDASM Archives · Public domain
A full side profile of the Tu-2S twin ASh-82 radials and a slim, fast fuselage.
A full side profile of the Tu-2S — twin ASh-82 radials and a slim, fast fuselage.Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
Head-on: the glazed nose and the two air-cooled radial engines that saved the design.
Head-on: the glazed nose and the two air-cooled radial engines that saved the design.Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Tu-2s twin tail and rear fuselage, seen from behind.
The Tu-2’s twin tail and rear fuselage, seen from behind.Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
The bomb-aimers glazed nose in close-up.
The bomb-aimer’s glazed nose in close-up.Photo: Zala · CC BY-SA 4.0
Watch

The Tupolev Tu-2 up close

OFF TRACK PLACES: a detailed 4K walk-around of a preserved Tu-2S, taking in the cockpit, glazed nose, ASh-82 engines and defensive gun positions — a close look at a genuinely rare aircraft.

Operations

Where the Tu-2 flew — and fought

Combat Record

Tupolev Tu-2: the combat record

The Tu-2 came to the war late but hit hard. In the last year of WWII it was one of the Soviet Union’s most effective bombers; postwar, in Chinese and North Korean hands, it fought on through the Korean War and China’s coastal campaigns — until jet fighters made a piston bomber’s work deadly.

~3,000 kgBomb load carried to the front
1944–45Its year as a Soviet front-line mainstay
Korea & ChinaCombat over two more wars after 1945

Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of August 2026.

Questions & Answers

Everything people ask about the Tupolev Tu-2

Can I fly in a Tupolev Tu-2?
No — there are no airworthy Tu-2s anywhere today, and no passenger rides in the type exist. A small number survive as static museum exhibits in Poland, Russia and China. You can, however, fly in several genuine ex-military jets right now — see migflug.com/flights-prices/.
Who designed the Tupolev Tu-2?
Andrei Tupolev, working as a prisoner inside the TsKB-29 “sharashka,” a Soviet prison design bureau. He had been arrested in 1937 during Stalin’s purges; the Tu-2’s success helped win him his freedom.
How fast was the Tu-2?
About 521 km/h at altitude — fast for a medium bomber, and quick enough to give some contemporary fighters trouble. It was notably faster than the Petlyakov Pe-2 it complemented.
What engines did the Tu-2 use?
The definitive Tu-2S used two Shvetsov ASh-82 air-cooled radial engines of roughly 1,850 hp each. Early prototypes flew on liquid-cooled AM-37 V12s before the switch to the more reliable radials.
How many Tu-2s were built?
Roughly 2,257, most of them from 1944 onward. Some counts run higher — toward 2,500 — once postwar production into the early 1950s is included.
Did the Tu-2 fight in the Korean War?
Yes. Chinese and North Korean Tu-2s flew bombing missions. On 30 November 1951, USAF F-86 Sabres shot down several Tu-2s near Namsi in an action American airmen called “Black Tuesday.”
What was the Tu-2’s NATO reporting name?
“Bat,” assigned in 1949 when NATO began giving Soviet aircraft codenames.
Are any Tu-2s still around?
The type is long retired — China, its last operator, withdrew it around 1982. A handful of complete airframes survive in museums, including the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow.
The part of the collection you can touch

You can’t fly the Tupolev Tu-2.
These, you can.

Some legends only live in museums — others are fuelled and waiting. MiGFlug has put civilians in real military jet cockpits since 2004.

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Sources & Further Reading

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