Rare inflight footage from inside a Russian Tu-95 shows the Bear's coaxial contra-rotating propellers

Fine piece of machinery.

Here’s an interesting footage filmed form inside a Russian Tu-95 Bear bomber like the ones that skirt northern Europe’s airspaces every now and then.

Although it does not show anything special about the plane, the rare video lets you have a close look at the eight-bladed coaxial contra-rotating propellers Kuznetsov NK-12 engines of the Tu-95.

Indeed, the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operational use today, features the typical two propellers, arranged one behind the other, which increase efficiency and performance.

An in-flight, engine shutdown and restart cycle can be seen in the clip.

H/T to @Missilito for the heads-up

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

I’m no expert at interpreting how movie cameras make props appear to almost stop when they are actually spinning quickly. But the fact that when these appear to be slowed down in this video, the two coaxial props actually turning at slightly different speeds seems to suggest that they’re not synched to the same speed. One might be going 1100 RPM CW and the other might be going 1050 RPM CCW.

Does anyone know if that’s true?

FoilHatWearer says:

February 16, 2015 at 5:21 PM

Here’s my elementary understanding of it: video is not constant, it is a series of pictures that are moved to fool your eye into thinking the motion is completely fluid like you’re looking at it for real (essentially, a really fast slide show). A spinning prop appears stopped when your frame rate matches the RPM of the propeller (or is a whole-number multiple of it) so that at each frame, the prop is in the same position for the snapshot. Since it’s happening so fast, the video looks fluid and it appears that everything is happening normally EXCEPT that the props appear stopped. There’s a popular YouTube video of a helicopter flying around with stopped props, it is really weird.

Have you ever noticed the car commercials where the car wheels appear to spin BACKWARDS? In that case, the wheel position is always slightly behind the last frame so that the wheels appear to spin backwards. It’s funny, they do that in 99% of the car commercials that you see.
thud says:

March 6, 2015 at 5:01 AM

From what I saw it appeared that the props could be at different speeds. I suspect they use separate turbine wheels for power and synch speeds by adjusting blade pitch and thus turbine loads. But I could be wrong .I’m an aircraft mech and thats what it looks like to me.he separate rotational speed was evident during shutdown.

InklingBooks says:

February 15, 2015 at 1:38 AM

I’m no expert at interpreting how movie cameras make props appear to almost stop when they are actually spinning quickly. But the fact that when these appear to be slowed down in this video, the two coaxial props actually turning at slightly different speeds seems to suggest that they’re not synched to the same speed. One might be going 1100 RPM CW and the other might be going 1050 RPM CCW.

Does anyone know if that’s true?
- FoilHatWearer says:
  
  February 16, 2015 at 5:21 PM
  
  Here’s my elementary understanding of it: video is not constant, it is a series of pictures that are moved to fool your eye into thinking the motion is completely fluid like you’re looking at it for real (essentially, a really fast slide show). A spinning prop appears stopped when your frame rate matches the RPM of the propeller (or is a whole-number multiple of it) so that at each frame, the prop is in the same position for the snapshot. Since it’s happening so fast, the video looks fluid and it appears that everything is happening normally EXCEPT that the props appear stopped. There’s a popular YouTube video of a helicopter flying around with stopped props, it is really weird.
  
  Have you ever noticed the car commercials where the car wheels appear to spin BACKWARDS? In that case, the wheel position is always slightly behind the last frame so that the wheels appear to spin backwards. It’s funny, they do that in 99% of the car commercials that you see.
- thud says:
  
  March 6, 2015 at 5:01 AM
  
  From what I saw it appeared that the props could be at different speeds. I suspect they use separate turbine wheels for power and synch speeds by adjusting blade pitch and thus turbine loads. But I could be wrong .I’m an aircraft mech and thats what it looks like to me.he separate rotational speed was evident during shutdown.
Matt says:

February 15, 2015 at 6:44 AM

Am I crazy or is this an old headline? I know I’ve seen the video before.
Andrew Tubbiolo says:

February 15, 2015 at 7:08 AM

I almost ran to my shop to go put my hearing protection on. What a beautiful noise, if a tad loud. C-130’s are pretty lout too, you can feel the acoustic energy in your body. The Bear must be bone jarring. I wonder how that kind of noise and vibration affect the crews on long flights. I’d have to take drugs to sleep in that kind of racket.
- big john ok says:
  
  February 16, 2015 at 3:13 PM
  
  I flew on c-130s and p-3s in the navy and I loved the drone of those turbo props. It made sleeping easy for me during long transits when I wasnt required to be on “duty”.
R.Lopaka says:

February 15, 2015 at 7:22 AM

Fine piece of machinery……..Can’t wait for the NEW A380 or A400M Atlas with Counter-Rotating fine piece of machineries. LOL.
- R.Lopaka says:
  
  February 19, 2015 at 11:22 PM
  
  Plz list the successful post 1952 “fine piece of machinery” contra turbo prop AC and then ALL the successful non contra turbo prop turbojets. Perfect fit would be the A400 Atlas. So why not?
John Schaeffer says:

February 15, 2015 at 3:15 PM

I wonder what sort of condition the brain is in after a long flight with that racket. I know the crew wear ear protection but you have to wonder what it’s like being around that for 8+ hours straight. Still, a modern marvel…very cool.