Taking off for the first time in 1953, not long after the B-52 Stratofortress was officially launched, the Myasishchev M-4 surprised the Americans
They could not have imagined that the Soviet Union was capable of building such a long-range jet bomber
In the early 1950s, the V. M. Myasishchev Experimental Design Bureau (OKB-23),
under the direction of Major General of Engineering Vladimir M. Myasishchev, began designing a four-engine jet strategic bomber
In 1954, the Myasishchev M-4, NATO reporting name Bison, made its first appearance at the 1954 Victory Day parade
surprising the US and forcing it responded by building hundreds of Boeing B-47s and B-52s to counter this perceived threat
The first M-4 (Bison-A) prototype flew on 20 January 1953, and was handed over to state acceptance trials in March 1954
with production beginning later that year
It entered service in 1955, with 34 being built including two prototypes
It has a length of 47.2 m, a wingspan of 50.5 m, a height of 14.1 m, an empty weight of 79.7 tons, and a maximum take-off weight of 181.5 tons
The M-4 was made mostly of aircraft aluminum alloys with some steel and magnesium components
It had wings swept at 35-degrees and powered initially by four Mikulin AM-3A engines with a maximum thrust of 85.8 kN
but later upgraded to RD-3M-500 turbojets with a maximum thrust of 93.2 kN
There were 18 bladder fuel tanks in the fuselage and wings, providing a total fuel capacity of 123,600 liters
this gave the aircraft a range of 9,500 km (5,900 mi),
although this fell short of the 12,000 km (7,500 mi) range initially specified
It had a payload of 24 tonnes in various configurations
Defensive armament consisted of six AM-23 23 mm cannons with a rate of fire of 1,250 rpm each
in a manned twin tail turret with 400 rounds per gun and two twin remote controlled turrets in the top and bottom fuselage with 300 rounds per gun each
The aircraft had a crew of eight: a navigator/bombardier in the nose; pilot and copilot in the cockpit
radar operator, flight engineer, radio operator, and dorsal turret gunner in a compartment behind the cockpit; and a tail gunner
Although the M-4 had less range than the Tupolev Tu-95, it had a greater speed and payload
Then Myasishchev began working on aerial refueling, with the 3MN-1 version
The M-4s were never in combat and none were converted for low-altitude attack like the American B-52s
and were never exported to Soviet allies
The aircraft was discontinued in 1963, by which time 93 had been built
Myasishchev jet bombers caused a real panic in America
After the launch of the M-4
the Americans assumed that the Soviet Union was capable of mass-producing new strategic bombers capable of reaching the United States
That was why the US military has significantly increased defense spending and built long-range aviation over a long period of time
However, the Americans' fears did not materialize
Despite improvements, the M-4s were never capable of hitting the United States
Production ended in the early 1960s
Most of the M-4s were scrapped and some served as refueling aircraft until the mid-1990s