A key component of the three competing aircraft, was the "Toriy" ("Thorium") centimetre waveband NII-17 radar at Tikhomirnov NIIP - (NIIP for Nauchno-Issledovatel'skiy Institut Priborostroyeniya, or "Research Institute of Instrument Engineering"), which was capable of detecting a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber at a range of 20 kilometers .