Tupolev Tu-91 "Bychok"
The Ugly Duckling of Soviet Ground Attackers

Considerations for the eventual creation of the Tupolev Tu-91 carrier-based attack aircraft were first made in the late 40s when the Soviet Union - at that point still under Stalin - had intentions to develop it´s own fleet of aircraft carriers. While dedicated carrier aircraft were often either derived from existing aircraft or rarely left project stages, the attack aircraft for the new carriers - called Project 91 - was in fact produced and flown. A project of the venerable Tupolev design-bureau, the Tu-91 looked rather odd and was powered by a TV-2M turboprop mounted mid-fuselage with a shaft running through the cockpit to a counter-rotating propeller at the front. Together with a cockpit-design refined for good downward visibility the plane looked quite odd. When carrier-plans were reduced after Stalin´s death, the plane was to become a land-based one, but fell victim to the then accute "high-speed-obsession" of the upper echelons of soviet leadership.

The kit from Modelsvit does apparently not include the special pods housing the proposed rocket-armament, I will likely build a metal-finish prototype.