A Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber piloted by Capt. Howard R. Jarrell is damaged by flak during an attack on the Showa Steel Works at Ashan, Japan. Unable to make the flight back to the Marianas, Jarrell lands on the small Soviet airfield at Tarrichanka where he and the crew are interned. Two other B-29s fall into Soviet hands by the end of the year, and the Soviet government asks the Tupolev Design Bureau to copy the advanced American aircraft. The Tupolev-built copies are designated Tu-4, the Soviet Union’s first strategic bomber.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
