The unusual but ill-fated Blinder was to be the replacement for the subsonic Tu-16 Badger. Capable of Mach 1.5, the plane was typical of the times, with a slender, wasp-waisted fuselage designed around the area rule, and steeply swept-back wings. The aircraft was hastily designed, and had very high takeoff and landing speeds, poor low-speed handling, and a bad cockpit layout with limited visibility. It did have very good transonic performance for the time, and its two 36,000-lb thrust engines provided respectable speed for a bomber of that era. In the event, the plane just did not live up to expectations and had a short service life, being replaced by the much more modern and effective Tu-22M Backfire. No examples of the Blinder remain flyable today, according to all credible reports. Still and all, the plane has its place in history and no collection of USSR bombers is complete without it.

*** For FSX STEAM EDITION only ***

Features

ONE model and ONE livery, the KD Missile Carrier
very high detail texture set with realistic weathering (texture masters available)
native FSX model included with all FSX features (bump mapping, self-shadowing etc)
highly authentic flight model with very detailed and carefully illustrated checklist
all aircraft flying foibles and 'challenges' carefully replicated
three animated crew hatches (shift-e)
all three crew seats descend out of aircraft on 2nd exit command (shift-e+2)
animated afterburner petals
very highly detailed and authentic (Russian text) cockpit, many mousable switches
photo-realistic highly authentic all-xml 2D panel, several custom pop-ups for autopilot, high level of mousability, many unique functions such as setting fuel level by mouseclick
automatic (on throttle) staged animated afterburner visual effect with corresponding performance boost and smoke trail
simulated Tu-22 soundset included
automatic smoke trail, wing surface vapour flash and wingtip vortices effects