A Cold War era model of a Tupolev Tu-22 supersonic jet bomber. Farnborough, circa 1960.

The model is copper plated mahogany, mounted on a later presentation stand.  

The model was made by the British military to ascertain flight and radar characteristics of this potential threat to UK airspace, which was designed to carry a nuclear device, the model was produced by RAE Farnborough and RSRE Malvern in the early 1960s, where it was tested to establish the radar and radio wave signatures of the aircraft. 

Length: 201 cm

Wingspan: 120 cm

Height on stand: 175 cm.

Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder:

The Tupolev Tu-22 was the first supersonic bomber to be produced by the Soviet Union, making her maiden flight in the summer of 1958 during the darkest period of the Cold War. The Tu-22 was both feared and respected by NATO, giving rise to many “legends”, never before had a military aircraft been subject to such an amount of speculative analysis. The gracefully curved swept wing aircraft by the design bureau led by Andrei Tupolev received the NATO reporting name the Beauty which was considered too complimentary, and finally called the Blinder. The Blinder exhibited almost fighter like performance similar to the British bombers, the Avro Vulcan and the Handley Page Victor. The Blinder was retired by the Russian Air force in the 1990s having never been called upon to be used in anger by the Soviet Air Force.

See: Burdin, Sergey; Dawes, Alan E. (2006). Tupolev Tu-22 Blinder.