[IreneE]

Is that “bear” a prop plane?

Great photo.

There’s a youtube video of Palin addressing an international committee and I think she mentions she is pregnant on it... or just had the baby.

[Eye of Unk]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/tu-95.htm

The Tu-95 ‘Bear’ first flew in 1954 and entered service little more than a year later. It is a classic post-war aircraft design, with jet-type performance provided by four extremely powerful turboprops, each driving massive contra-rotating propellers and mounted on swept flying surfaces. Powered by four turboprop engines, driving contra-rotating four-blade propellers 18 ft across, the Bear is one of the world’s noisiest military aircraft. ‘Bears’ were initially operated by Long Range Aviation, which was the Soviet strategic air force. The Bear was also use by the Soviet Navy as a long range maritime reconnaissance and ASW aircraft. The successor states of the Soviet Union still operate about 125 Bears in strategic roles. The original ‘Bear-A’ is a strategic Bomber, with a 20 ton payload of free-fall weapons. ‘Bear-Bs’ and ‘Bear-Gs’ are missile carriers, while the latest ‘Bear-H’ is a dedicated long-range cruise missile carriers, armed with 10 AS-15 ‘Kent’ air launched cruise missiles.

[GonzoGOP]

"Is that “bear” a prop plane?"

Turboprop. It is actually fast for a turboprop, but still much slower than a jet. In compensation the engines are much more fuel efficient than jet engines. Back in the 50's when these were designed, the Soviets were behind us in mid air refueling technology. So they built a bomber that could fly to any target in the US from Russia and back without refueling.

This has proved a great benefit now that the TU-95s are used for maritime surveillance as they can cover an enormous amount of territory. They also can carry cruise missiles when used to attack defended targets. And the Soviet/Russian missiles are much larger than ours, some of them were the size of a fighter aircraft.