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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 2686.PDF
EUXV^f The European helicopter forum in St Petersburg highlighted the Mil and Kamov design bureaux. ALEXANDER VELOVICH/MOSCOW HIGH-RANKING representatives of major helicopter manufacturers from Europe and the USA attended the Euro pean helicopter forum in St Petersburg, Russia, from 2 August-2 September intent on exploring market opportunities opening in Russia and the CIS states. Mil's Moscow helicopter plant is a market leader, with about 25,000 machines produced since its foundation in the late 1940s. This fig ure accounts for 95% of the total number of helicopters built in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Some 13,000-15,000 Mil helicopters are still operational and, as Mark Vainberg, Mil's general designer, says: "It is hard to find a country where there are no Mi- designated helicopters flying." Official records account for more than 3,000 Mil helicopters exported; sales of secondhand machines increase this substantially. During the 1970s and 1980s, between one-third and one-half of machines were exported. For many years, the geography of the then Soviet Union dictated intensive use of civil heli copters. Vast, scarcely inhabited areas (such as Siberia and the Polar North) and the mountain ous regions of the Central Asian republics, could be reached only by helicopter. Without machines such as the Mil Mi-6 and the widely used Mi-8, the extraction and export of oil from Siberian oilfields would not have been possible. The Mi-8/-17 therefore became the most widely produced type in the Soviet Union. More than 10,000 Mi-8 variants were built, starting in the early 1960s, of which about 2,000 were exported. In 1987, design work on a new-generation Mi-38 medium helicopter began. The Klimov TV-7-117 turboshaft engine originally selected was replaced by the TVD-3000, with a take-off rating of 1,875kW (2,500hp) and an emergency rating of 2,800kW. The need to increase power was dictated by the safety requirement to con tinue take-off in case of engine failure. Take-off design weight was increased from 14,750kg to 15,600kg, providing payload capacity of 5,000kg internally, or 6,000kg externally. This allows the Mi-38 to be a substitute for the Mi- 8/-17 and partially for ageing, heavy, Mi-6s. The Mi-8's major shortcoming was outdated, unreliable avionics, as well as its lack of an inter national certificate. The Mil bureau, therefore, launched a search for international partners and, in 1990, talks began widi Eurocopter. The result was the establishment of the Euromil joint venture in October 1994, in which Mil, Eurocopter, the KVPO Kazan series-produc- FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 20 - 26 September 1995 33
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