We wondered how did they do this, how did they manage it, how did they get the material and the human resources ... the discipline?
It was measured and copied and photographed, and then someone would get the assignment to replicate a part, like an altimeter.
What he wanted to do was close a vulnerability to the West; to have an intercontinental, long-range bomber equal to the B-29, which became even more crucial after 1949 with the first Soviet atomic weapon.
Tupolev ... had radio links out to the various factories, and they would report almost daily on their progress. It was the equivalent of their Manhattan Project -- high priority.
They took it apart component by component, panel by panel, almost rivet by rivet,
