Tupolev Deputy CEO for Design and R&D, Valery Solozobov, told TASS that his company has received requests from wealthy individuals to convert the firm’s supersonic bombers into private business jets.
By Alex Beltyukov [CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL 1.2], via Wikimedia Commons
“Big business tycoons in different countries (an Arab sheikh, a millionaire in Australia and a wealthy Greek among them) keep asking us to make a personal supersonic plane on the basis of the missile-carrying Tupolev-160 or long-range bomber Tupolev-2M3. We get such messages regularly, some of them through the Rosoboronexport agency,” Solozobov was quoted as saying.
However, such requests have been turned down as the bombers contain classified technology. Its not ideal for private jets to have variable swept wings as well, Solozobov added.