Book excerpt: This book gives the full story of how the Soviet Union's most potent strategic bomber, the Tupolev Tu-160 (know to the Western world as the Blackjack) was designed, built and put into operational service. The author reveals many unknown aspects of the Tu-160 story, including the development tender in which many of the Soviet Union's top-class aircraft design companies participated. Bolstering its strategic potential in order to offset the reduction in ballistic missiles, Russia is now resuming production of the Tu-160.