Central Museum of the Russian Air Force. Helicopters.
It probably wasn’t that hard to guess what the next topic of the review would be. If there is a Tu-4 on the site to the right of the entrance, then to the left is the Mi-12. And each of them, depending on the direction of the walk around the site, is either the first or the last exhibit of the review.
Main publication: Central Museum of the Russian Air Force. Introduction.
Previous publication: Central Museum of the Russian Air Force. Bombers.
The Mi-12 amazes with everything: the unusual transverse arrangement of the propellers, the height of a four-story building, thick braced pipes, etc. Looking at it, you don’t understand only one thing: how does this thing even fly? And not only did it fly with its take-off weight of 100 tons, but it also lifted a hell of a lot of cargo.
The remaining helicopters are located compactly on the other side of the demonstration field, between two hangars. Just as the surname Tupolev dominates in bomber aviation, so in helicopter manufacturing it is Mil. And the line of its helicopters is quite widely represented. At the time of my visit there was no Mi-1, but I came across photographs of the museum with its participation. But the Mi-2 is present.
True, no museum plaque. The next one in the line is the Mi-4, although it has a sign, but it is very far away – you can’t really see it.
There are also two Mi-8s in the backyard: a civilian and a military transport. They are frequent guests of museum sites, but the Mi-10 deserves a closer look.
It is clear that all the helicopters cannot be brought to the front line, so at least they were given access to them. Moreover, there are paths, but they are closed.
I wasn’t very upset about this. I looked at all the giants in sufficient detail at the UTair airline show last year.
There are two copies of Mi-6 here. And if one of them looks ordinary,
then the second one is a fire helicopter!
Please note that it does not have “wings”. This is to make it easier to control in hover mode.
There is also a giant here that “buried” the Mi-12, the notorious Mi-26
Previously, it seemed to me to be much larger than its fellow Mi-6, twice as large. Because they didn’t come across me close. And here – quite comparable sizes.
Since we have run out of conventionally civilian helicopters, let’s move on to the military assortment. The museum displays two seemingly identical Mi-24Vs.
But I was more attracted to their brother, or rather the forerunner, the Mi-24A.
Take a close look at it. For example, it didn’t immediately dawn on me: he has the cockpit of the original version – with the pilot and navigator sitting side by side.
This helicopter was given the nickname “Glass”. And anyone originally from the USSR will understand what glass we are talking about.
Mil OKB helicopters make up the majority of the helicopter fleet, but not entirely. The museum displays a helicopter from the Kamov Design Bureau.
and from the Yakovlev Design Bureau.
This exhibit was used as… a pipelayer! In my opinion, pipe layers are something like this:
But it turns out there is this!
