H-6 Bomber Aircraft Discussions

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
Now I'm confused, I thought the H-6A used in China's first nuclear test was aircraft numbered "50671" and the same one was used for the famous test no. 6.

The very first nuclear test AFAIR occurred on 14 May 1965, when a 25kT yield nuclear device (other sources say a yield of 35kT was achieved) was used during China’s second nuclear test at the Lop Nur (Lop Nor) nuclear test site in Malan/Xinjiang and in fact a military rated version of China’s first nuclear device known as "Project 596".

Or am i wrong? ... so they had two carrier aircraft for these test?
I believe the H-6 (straight vanilla Tu-16, assembled in China and specially modified for the mission) responsible for first nuclear test had the serial 4201:
d62a6059252dd42a55c2e588073b5bb5c8eab8ce.jpg
Note the heat resistant paint on the underbelly. Although this aircraft was modified for dropping nuclear bomb and the picture refer to it as H-6A it's not really a H-6A as that variant was approved on 15/05/1966, a year after the first nuclear bomb test.
 

Deino

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
I believe the H-6 (straight vanilla Tu-16, assembled in China and specially modified for the mission) responsible for first nuclear test had the serial 4201:
View attachment 65441
Note the heat resistant paint on the underbelly. Although this aircraft was modified for dropping nuclear bomb and the picture refer to it as H-6A it's not really a H-6A as that variant was approved on 15/05/1966, a year after the first nuclear bomb test.


Thanks ... and so it seems as if there were two - name 4201 for the first nuclear test and 4251 for the first hydrogen-bomb test - ... and my information on an aircraft numbered "50671" was wrong?!

Any more info and images of this particular one with the serial 4201?
 

by78

General
A high-resolution image of a H-6N.

50587585856_aa2bf3bbd5_k.jpg
 

xyqq

Junior Member
Registered Member
Good missiles truck, with probably an excellent maintenance hours per flight hour ratio. The low cost for flying these bombers will probably let them be active for the next 30 years. I like the center section curves and the way the engines are angled to the center of gravity to make it easier to fly if an engine quit.

Good point. Following the area rule, the designs of center-section curves as well as the streamlined wheel fairings behind the wings minimize the wave drag that starts to appear as H-6 travels near Mach 1.
H-6D-Iraq-black.jpg
 
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