Andrei Tupolev was one of Soviet Russia's great aircraft designers, a man of wide-ranging talents with a record of outstanding designs going back to the 1930's. His talent was never more evident, not even in his famed Tu-95 "Bear" long range bomber, Tu-104 jetliner and Tu-144 supersonic transport, than in this obscure, imaginative creation, a credit to someone who could think outside the box to meet a unique and uniquely Russian situation. While American astronauts were picked up by the U.S. Navy in the oceans that bracketed North America, Russian cosmonauts returned from their journeys in space to the vast tundra of Siberia. Recovering them meant covering large distances in a forbidding environment, beyond frigid in winter, swampy in summer and unpredictable in spring and fall, beset by violent, unpredictable winds that made helicopters impractical much of the time. Tupolev's solution was unique: this N007 air boat. Powered by a 9-cylinder air-cooled radial engine rated 365hp, its wing-shaped hull lifts it just above the snow, ice, sparse foliage and marshes of the tundra, covering ground at up to 80mph. A canard airfoil controls lift on its dashes across the desolation while elegant fins with rudders on each side of the innovative 4-bladed propeller, itself some 25% more efficient than conventional separate-element props, effect yaw control. The cockpit is taken up with seating for three (pilot, mechanic and doctor) and super-secret communications so the recovered cosmonaut went from his space capsule to another one on the N007's exterior. The engine has a compressed air starting system since no electrical starter would function in the near-cryogenic temperatures of Siberia in winter. Fully functional, this Tupolev N007 has been reconditioned and was recently tested, but cautiously. Its awesome power, performance and intricate controls remain to be fully experienced. Its N007 designation is poetic. Had Cubby Broccoli (producer of the first James Bond movies) known of its highly secret existence there can be little doubt he would found a way for Ian Fleming's 007, James Bond, to steal one for an epic chase across the steppes and tundra -- probably with a sexy female agent riding shotgun in the cosmonaut's capsule. It comes with a variety of helpful instruction and technical manuals -- helpful, that is, to those who read Cyrillic. A relic of the Cold War, fabulous spy schemes and billions spent on epic nationalistic challenges, it is a singular tribute to one of the genuinely gifted, imaginative, innovative aircraft designers of the time. Andrei Tupolev (an honorary member of both the British Royal Aeronautical Society and the U.S. Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a singular accolade from fierce and idealistic competitors), Lockheed's Kelly Johnson and Artiom Ivanovich Mikoyan of the MiG design bureau, were visionaries whose insights and creativity made the middle years of the 20th century a golden era of design and innovation.
