A little hole was found on the left wing of the aircraft. No aero-
dynamics or durability expert had the slightest idea what the hell it was
for. There was no tube or wire attached to it and there was no equivalent
hole in the right wing. The opinion of a commission of experts was that
the little hole had been bored by a factory drill at the same time as the
other holes for the rivets. So, what to do? Most probably, the hole had
been drilled by mistake, and later no one had bothered to fill it in as it
was much too small. The chief designer was asked his opinion.
'Do the Americans have it?'
'Yes.'
'So why the hell are you asking me? Weren't we ordered to make them
absolutely identical! Alike as two peas?'
So, for that reason, a very small hole indeed, made with the thinnest
possible drill, appeared on the left wing of all the TU-4 strategic
bombers.
" ....
"Here's a narrow pipe, through which one can crawl on all fours the
whole length of the aircraft, and it has been painted light green (some
design bureau or other struggled for a very long time in an attempt to
copy it exactly) but, at its very end, several metres have been painted
white. Maybe some soldier simply did not have enough paint. But the
order was to copy it exactly, which is why all the Soviet bombers are the
same colour as the American one. It was calculated exactly how much
green paint there was and how much white paint. Later, this ratio was
included in all instruction books on how to paint the interior of the
bomber....."
"
.....Meanwhile, another two B-29s made forced landings on Soviet
territory. It was discovered that there was no hole in their wings, while
the paint on one of them was light green and that on the other white. The
chief designer was again asked what to do. But, once again, Tupolev had
no problem. He had been ordered to copy the bomber which had landed
first, and there were no orders concerning the others. So just go on
copying!"
