I’ve spent many hours flying on the wing of those guys while escorting them around the Carrier Battle Group. They’re faster than you would think and the Bear-D versions I escorted did have guns…top, belly, and tail IIRC. I have some good photos of their tail gunners and other crew members in the observation windows.
Their pilots in WestPac were A-holes and would try to turn into you at low altitude and drag you off on the water or a ship’s superstructure. On the other hand, the guys we encountered in the North Atlantic were pretty professional. I flew formation on one Bear off of Norway for a couple of hours in clouds from 25,000’ down to 500’ and they didn’t scare me at all. My RIO kept me posted on turns but the copilot would signal before a turn or descent/climb. It was actually pretty cool.
What was really annoying was that you could feel the props pounding the air and if the crew wanted, they could de-synchronize the props and create a “beat” that you would feel in your chest sort of like the a top fuel dragster.
Love this post. Thank you. These are the gems which make it worthwhile to wade through the boomer/fu boomer/this country sucks/I want to move back to mother Russia posts.
