Tupolev Tu - 14 The Tupolev Tu - 14 ( NATO reporting name : Bosun ) ( USAF / DOD reporting name : Type 35 ) , was a Soviet twin - turbojet light bomber derived from the Tupolev Tu - 73 , the failed competitor to the Ilyushin Il - 28 ' Beagle ' . It was used as a torpedo bomber by the mine - torpedo regiments of Soviet Naval Aviation between 1952 – 59 and exported to the People ' s Republic of China . Development . The Tu - 14 had its origin in the three - engined Tu - 73 design which used a pair of RD - 45 turbojets , an unlicensed copy of the Rolls - Royce Nene , under the wings and a single Klimov RD - 500 , an unlicensed copy of the Rolls - Royce Derwent , in the tail , in an installation much like that of the central engine of a Boeing 727 . The availability of the Klimov VK - 1 , a more - powerful version of the Nene , allowed the RD - 500 to be deleted from the preliminary design , which was given the internal designation of " 81 " . The other major change was the addition of a PSBN navigation radar which required a fifth crewmember to operate . This was rejected by the VVS and Tupolev reworked the design to eliminate the dorsal and ventral turrets and reduce the crew to only three , a bombardier - navigator , a pilot and a tail gunner . It retained the two fixed Nudelman - Rikhter NR - 23 cannon in the fuselage nose , but the design of the fuselage was changed to give the gunner his own separate pressurized compartment and a KDU - 81 tail turret armed with another pair of NR - 23 guns . Construction of the prototype began in August 1949 using components from the canceled Tu - 73S prototypes , and was completed in October . The manufacturer ' s tests were conducted between 13 October 1949 and 21 January 1950 . Its State acceptance trials lasted from 23 January to 27 May 1950 and it was accepted for production provided that the problems with the KDU - 81 turret were resolved and that ejection seats were provided for the pilot and gunner , a hot air deicing fitted and the gun mount in the nose revised . The first five pre - production aircraft did not incorporate these changes as they were built using Tu - 73S components after the factory in Irkutsk had prematurely begun production of that bomber . One of these was sent to Moscow where it was evaluated by Soviet Naval Aviation for use as a torpedo bomber . The sixth aircraft did incorporate all these changes as well as the navigator ' s ejection seat requested by Naval Aviation and it was evaluated in May 1951 . It was recommended for production as the Tu - 14T and entered service in 1952 with Naval Aviation . About 150 were produced and served with the mine - torpedo regiments of Naval Aviation until 1959 . It was given the NATO reporting name Bosun . After it was withdrawn from service , several were used for various test programs , including one evaluating ramjet engines . Up to 50 used Tu - 14Ts were delivered to the Chinese People ' s Liberation Army Air Force although quantities and dates cannot be confirmed . The second pre - production Tu - 14 was converted into a day or night photographic reconnaissance aircraft with the OKB designation of " 89 " . The conversion was fairly minor and involved an unpressurized central cabin that housed two automatic pivoting cameras , two fuel tanks and another camera fitted in the bomb bay and another camera for oblique photography was mounted in the aircraft ' s tail for the daylight photography role . All cameras and their viewports were electrically heated to prevent misting and icing at altitude . For night photography , the fuel tanks and camera in the bomb bay were removed and a variety of flare bombs were carried to illuminate the targets . In addition , the screen of the PSBN - M navigation radar could be photographed by a special camera and both the pilot and navigator could record their own observations using a voice recorder . However , the VVS had already decided to use the Il - 28R reconnaissance version of the standard Il - 28 by the time that the " 89 " first flew on 23 March 1951 and Tupolev decided not to submit it for State acceptance trials .