Has the Tupolev Tu-95/142 Bear ever broken the sound barrier?

Mach 1 has never officially been achieved by anything sporting a propeller.The Soviet "Bear" bomber with contra-rotating turboprops was subsonic.Top reported speed on the Tu-95 is 572mph. Mach 1 at sea level is roughly 760mph, and roughly 660mph at altitudes above 35,000 feet. Although the aircraft wasn't supersonic, it's props did exceed the speed of sound .The noise of the props on the Tu-95 props constantly breaking the sound barrier had a definite bad effect on the physical and mental health of the crews. I SAID ,"THE NOISE OF THE PROPS..." I'LL TELL YOU WHEN WE GET HOME ! NO, NOT WHEN WE'RE ALONE! WHEN WE GET...NEVER MIND!
---(08-05-05)--John, roger that,one cannot see the actual *boom*, but one can often see the shock wave produced in the air. There are many photos of such shock waves of planes and other objects such as bullets, there are a lot of fake ones too, some funnier than others, like the one of the two seater Piper Cub "breaking the sound barrier." I may have seen the same photo Phalanx saw, there are other planes whose prop tips break the barrier, if memory serves, and my memory usually serves up a mish mash hash mess of leftovers that bear no resemblance to the original serving, in the '50's the P-51 Mustang was fitted with a huge five bladed prop that broke the barrier and almost shook the plane apart plus making it extremely dangerous to land due to the diameter.

---(02/03/06)--
Sorry, Henry, it is a nice legend, but it just aint so. And even the legend doesn't claim it was done routinely. And just where are these public records.

from http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3901/is_200410/ai_n9438499/pg_3 ( I've added the caps for emphasis,nmj)
"The Thunderbolt could... dive like the proverbial brick which gave rise to the MYTH that the P-47 had broken the sound barrier during a power dive. Two ... pilots were amazed to find their airspeed indicators registering well over 700-mph after power dives. ...the Army proclaimed that the sound barrier had been broken....as understanding of the physical characteristics of the sound barrier... grew, the Army realized that there was no way in which the Thunderbolt or ANY OTHER PROPELLOR DRIVEN FIGHTER could break the sound barrier ."

Charles 'Chuck' Yeager, was the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947 in the rocket powered Bell X-1.
It could have been Thunderbolts instead of Mustangs that were fitted with those monster props though.

the tupolev it self has not brken the sound barrier. but, the propellers do break the sound barrier with every rotation. the tips of the props spin at nearly mach 2.

After speaking with TU-95 Bear pilots, copilots, navigators, and Flight Engineers from Kipelovo AB, Russia, I got the confirmation that this airplane HAS NEVER BROKEN THE SOUND BARRIER. However, its 32 blades routinely did, causing an incredible noise that could be heard from about 3 miles away.