Cold War Era legend "White Swan" Soviet Tu-160M supersonic strategic bomber has been reborn from the ashes. According to state-owned news agency TASS, the new Russian Tupolev Tu-160M has been built from scratch in two decades and is now ready for testing.
The source states that the aircraft stands in the hangar. It will start taxiing test this month. The maiden flight is not planned yet.
The new aircraft will be the first Tu-160 produced since the production was officially ended in 1994.
There were some attempts to rebuild it. Some of them were left uncompleted or delivered to Ukrainian Air Force.
Viktor Bondarev, commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, revealed in May 2015 that the Russian Defense Ministry had chosen to restart manufacturing of the aircraft, claiming that up to 50 additional Tu-160s will be produced.
