Mil |
Mi-24 "Hind" |
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Photo: Robert
Deering 4/9/2019 Technik Museum Speyer, Germany |
The Mil Mi-24 is
a large helicopter gunship, attack
helicopter and low-capacity troop
transport with room for eight passengers. It
is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter
Plant and has been operated since 1972 by
the Soviet Air Force and its successors,
along with more than 30 other nations.
In NATO circles, the
export versions, Mi-25 and Mi-35,
are denoted with a letter suffix as "Hind D"
and "Hind E". Soviet pilots called the Mi-24
the "flying tank", a term used historically
with the famous World War II Soviet Il-2 Shturmovik armored
ground attack aircraft. More common
unofficial nicknames were "Galina" (or "Galya"),
"Crocodile", due to the helicopter's
camouflage scheme and "Drinking Glass",
because of the flat glass plates that
surround earlier Mi-24 variants' cockpits.
During the early 1960s, it became apparent
to Soviet designer Mikhail
Leont'yevich Mil that the trend towards
ever-increasing battlefield mobility would
result in the creation of flying infantry
fighting vehicles, which could be used to
perform both fire support and infantry
transport missions. The first expression of
this concept was a mock-up unveiled in 1966
in the experimental shop of the Ministry of
Aircraft's factory number 329, where Mil was
head designer. The mock-up designated V-24
was based on another project, the V-22
utility helicopter, which itself never flew.
The V-24 had a central infantry compartment
that could hold eight troops sitting back to
back, and a set of small wings positioned to
the top rear of the passenger cabin, capable
of holding up to six missiles or rockets and
a twin-barreled GSh-23L cannon fixed to the
landing skid. Mil proposed the
design to the heads of the Soviet armed
forces. While he had the support of a number
of strategists, he was opposed by several
more senior members of the armed forces, who
believed that conventional weapons were a
better use of resources. Despite the
opposition, Mil managed to persuade the
defence minister's first deputy, Marshal Andrey
A. Grechko, to convene an expert panel to
look into the matter. While the panel's
opinions were mixed, supporters of the
project eventually held sway and a request
for design proposals for a battlefield
support helicopter was issued. The
development and use of gunships and attack
helicopters by the US Army during
the Vietnam War convinced the Soviets of the
advantages of armed helicopter ground
support, and fostered support for the
development of the Mi-24. Mil engineers
prepared two basic designs: a 7-ton
single-engine design and a 10.5-ton
twin-engine design, both based on the 1,700 hp
Izotov TV3-177A turboshaft. Later, three
complete mock-ups were produced, along with
five cockpit mock-ups to allow the pilot and
weapon station operator positions to be
fine-tuned. The Kamov design
bureau suggested an army version of their Ka-25 ASW
helicopter as a low-cost option. This was
considered but later dropped in favor of the
new Mil twin-engine design. A number of
changes were made at the insistence of the
military, including the replacement of the
23 mm cannon with a rapid-fire heavy machine
gun mounted in a chin turret, and the use of
the 9K114 Shturm (AT-6 Spiral) anti-tank
missile. A directive was
issued on 6 May 1968 to proceed with the
development of the twin-engine design. Work
proceeded under Mil until his death in 1970.
Detailed design work began in August 1968
under the codename Yellow 24. A full-scale
mock-up of the design was reviewed and
approved in February 1969. Flight tests with
a prototype began on 15 September 1969 with
a tethered hover, and four days later the
first free flight was conducted. A second
prototype was built, followed by a test
batch of ten helicopters.
Acceptance testing
for the design began in June 1970,
continuing for 18 months. Changes made in
the design addressed structural strength,
fatigue problems and reduced vibration
levels. Also, a 12-degree anhedral was
introduced to the wings to address the
aircraft's tendency to Dutch roll at speeds
in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph), and the Falanga missile
pylons were moved from the fuselage to the
wingtips. The tail rotor was moved from the
right to the left side of the tail, and the
rotation direction reversed. The tail rotor
now rotated up on the side towards the front
of the aircraft, into the downwash of the
rotor, which increased the efficiency of the
tail rotor. A number of other design changes
were made until the production version
Mi-24A (izdeliye 245) entered
production in 1970, obtaining its initial
operating capability in 1971 and was
officially accepted into the state arsenal
in 1972. In 1972, following
completion of the Mi-24, development began
on a unique attack helicopter with transport
capability. The new design had a reduced
transport capability (three troops instead
of eight) and was called the Mi-28, and that
of the Ka-50 attack helicopter, which is
smaller and more maneuverable and does not
have the large cabin for carrying troops. In
October 2007, the Russian Air
Force announced it would replace its Mi-24
fleet with Mi-28Ns and Ka-52s by 2015.
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