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High above the atlantic, a new terror has emerged.

A soviet supersonic bomber with a special purpose… to hunt and destroy US aircraft carriers…

In the 1960s, the russians developed in secret, a state of the art bomber that was unlike anything the west, or frankly, the world had ever seen.

Sukhoi bureau might have been well known for its fighter and attack aircraft, but this new bomber could’ve been a game-changer for the USSR and may have even changed the course of the cold war…

So join me today to find out about the amazing engineering and the story behind the Soviet Valkyrie.

This is the Sukhoi T-4 Sotka.


In the 1960s, the cold war was playing out in a world wide game of spy vs spy. These espinagiage missions, much like james bond, would bring over secrets to each side - some of which were plain terrifying.

For the soviets, one unsettling breakfast meeting was interrupted by the news of a new US supersonic bomber that outdid anything they could muster… the XB-70

Scrambing to defend the communist utopia they were building, the Soviets launched 2 important programs to counter this new threat.

One was to be the development of a new high-speed interceptor that could eliminate the threat of Mach 3 enemy aircraft and the other one was focused on the creation of a new supersonic bomber, which was to be, well, very similar in design to its US counterpart, however with a completely different purpose.

This first program led to the MiG-25 of course, but the ot her one is what we are covering today.

Tupolev, Yakovlev and Sukhoi bureaus applied for this top secret new bomber project, with the Tupolev being the logical choice because of the long tradition in bomber aviation, however, Pavel Sukhoi was always known to push for new technologies and concepts, and so it came to be that his bureau won the contract and it was to be the first supersonic bomber in his portfolio.

The goal of the project was clear, a speed of 3200km/h or Mach 3 and the ability to carry large anti-ship missiles.

And so the work started on the new Izdeliye 100 aircraft, nicknamed Sotka.

T-4 was very innovative for the time, and the USSR especially, where it’s said that nearly 600 patents are directly linked to the program, and soon you’ll understand why.

You see, when flying Mach 3, the same rules don’t apply as with ordinary aircraft. Aluminium simply couldn’t handle the heat generated during flight so instead of it, Titanium, as much stronger and more resistant to heat was to be used for most of the surfaces of this new bomber. Just like the fuselage of the legendary SR-71 was around 85% titanium.

T-4 was also the first Russian fly-by-wire aircraft, which was a giant technological leap for the Soviet aviation and experiences from the project helped a lot with the development of the Su-27.


Sotka had a crew of only 2, pilot and weapons operator, and the design of the cockpit was very unusual.

It was very similar to a fighter jet cockpit, and the pilot would use a centre stick instead of a yoke to control the aircraft.

As with the other large supersonic aircraft, the nose of the aircraft had different positions during the flight. While taking off or landing, the nose of the T-4 would rotate downwards 12 degrees to allow the crew better visibility.

In subsonic speeds, the nose would be rotated slightly upwards and when going supersonic the nose would move further up and close the cockpit completely.

The pilot would fly on instruments from this point on and 2 smaller windows were positioned on each side just for psychological comfort.

The aircraft was powered by 4 powerful Kolesov RD-36 engines located centred on a gondola at the bottom of the fuselage.

After all the ground testing, with 4 prototypes in production, it was time for the first flight.