Mil Mi-26T Heavy-Lift Helicopter
The Mil Mi-26 (NATO reporting name Halo) is a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter, designated as Project 90 during manufacture. Operated by both military and civilian operators, it is the largest and most powerful helicopter to have gone into series production.
The Mi-26 was designed to replace earlier Mi-6 and Mi-12 heavy-lift helicopters and act as a heavy-lift helicopter for military and civil use, having twice the cabin space and payload of the Mi-6, then the world's largest and fastest production helicopter. The primary purpose of the Mi-26 was to transport military equipment such as 13-tonne amphibious armoured personnel carriers and mobile ballistic missiles to remote locations after delivery to remote air bases by military transport aircraft such as the Antonov An-22 or Ilyushin Il-76.
The first Mi-26 flew on 14 December 1977 and the first production aircraft was rolled out on 4 October 1980. Development was completed in 1983 and by 1985, the Mi-26 was in Soviet military and commercial service. Subsequently, over 300 have been built.
The Mi-26 was the first factory-equipped helicopter with a single, eight-blade main lift rotor. It is capable of flight in the event of power loss by one engine (depending on aircraft mission weight) thanks to an engine load sharing system. The helicopter has a crew of five. It is 40m in length and the rotor diameter is 32m. Empty, it weighs 28.2 tonnes and maximum take-off weight is 56 tonnes. It is the second-largest and heaviest helicopter ever constructed, after the experimental Mil V-12. For a sense of scale, the five-blade tail rotor has about the same diameter and thrust as the four-bladed main rotor fitted to the MD Helicopters MD 500.
In the spring of 2002, a civilian Mi-26 recovered a US Army MH-47E Chinook helicopters from a mountain in Afghanistan. The Chinook, operated by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, was one of two badly shot-up during Operation Anaconda and was at an altitude of 2,600m. Stripped, it was estimated to weigh 12 tonnes, beyond the capacity of the US Marine Corps' Sikorsky CH-53E, which was limited to 9.1 tonnes at that altitude.
Later that year, 127 men (of 142) aboard an overloaded Mi-26 were killed in the world's worst helicopter incident, when it was shot down by Chechen separatists.
Seen here in Aeroflot colours, RA-06089 was at the 1992 Farnborough Air Show, when the Russians brought a large number of different airframes in what was presumably a major sales push following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mil Mi-26T Heavy-Lift Helicopter
The Mil Mi-26 (NATO reporting name Halo) is a Soviet/Russian heavy transport helicopter, designated as Project 90 during manufacture. Operated by both military and civilian operators, it is the largest and most powerful helicopter to have gone into series production.
The Mi-26 was designed to replace earlier Mi-6 and Mi-12 heavy-lift helicopters and act as a heavy-lift helicopter for military and civil use, having twice the cabin space and payload of the Mi-6, then the world's largest and fastest production helicopter. The primary purpose of the Mi-26 was to transport military equipment such as 13-tonne amphibious armoured personnel carriers and mobile ballistic missiles to remote locations after delivery to remote air bases by military transport aircraft such as the Antonov An-22 or Ilyushin Il-76.
The first Mi-26 flew on 14 December 1977 and the first production aircraft was rolled out on 4 October 1980. Development was completed in 1983 and by 1985, the Mi-26 was in Soviet military and commercial service. Subsequently, over 300 have been built.
The Mi-26 was the first factory-equipped helicopter with a single, eight-blade main lift rotor. It is capable of flight in the event of power loss by one engine (depending on aircraft mission weight) thanks to an engine load sharing system. The helicopter has a crew of five. It is 40m in length and the rotor diameter is 32m. Empty, it weighs 28.2 tonnes and maximum take-off weight is 56 tonnes. It is the second-largest and heaviest helicopter ever constructed, after the experimental Mil V-12. For a sense of scale, the five-blade tail rotor has about the same diameter and thrust as the four-bladed main rotor fitted to the MD Helicopters MD 500.
In the spring of 2002, a civilian Mi-26 recovered a US Army MH-47E Chinook helicopters from a mountain in Afghanistan. The Chinook, operated by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, was one of two badly shot-up during Operation Anaconda and was at an altitude of 2,600m. Stripped, it was estimated to weigh 12 tonnes, beyond the capacity of the US Marine Corps' Sikorsky CH-53E, which was limited to 9.1 tonnes at that altitude.
Later that year, 127 men (of 142) aboard an overloaded Mi-26 were killed in the world's worst helicopter incident, when it was shot down by Chechen separatists.
Seen here in Aeroflot colours, RA-06089 was at the 1992 Farnborough Air Show, when the Russians brought a large number of different airframes in what was presumably a major sales push following the collapse of the Soviet Union.