Mil Mi-26

  • CountryRussia
  • TypeUltra heavy lift utility helicopter
  • PowerplantsTwo 7457kW (10,000shp) ZMKB Progress (Lotarev) D-136 turboshafts driving an eight blade main rotor and five blade tail rotor.
  • PerformanceMax speed 295km/h (160kt), typical cruising speed 255km/h (137kt). Service ceiling 15,100ft. Hovering ceiling in ground effect 14,765ft. Range with max internal fuel at max takeoff weight with reserves 800km (432nm), range with four auxiliary fuel tanks 1920km (1036nm).
  • WeightsEmpty 28,200kg (62,170lb), normal takeoff 49,600kg (109,350lb), max takeoff 56,000kg (123,450lb).
  • DimentionsMain rotor diameter 32.00m (105ft 0in), tail rotor diameter 7.61m (25ft 0in), length overall rotors turning 40.03m (131ft 4in), fuselage length 35.91m (117ft 10in), height to top of rotor head 8.15m (26ft 9in), height tail rotor turning 11.60m (38ft 1in). Main rotor disc area 804.3m2 (8657sq ft), tail rotor disc area 45.5m2 (489.5sq ft).
  • CapacityFlightcrew of four comprising two pilots, flight engineer and navigator, plus loadmaster. Four seat passenger compartment behind flightdeck. Main cabin typically accommodates freight (max payload 20 tonnes/44,090lb), but can seat 63 passengers at four abreast. Firefighting version can carry 7500 litres (1650Imp gal/1980US gal) of fire retardant. Medical version comprehensively equipped with operating theatre and accommodation for stretcher patients and medical attendants.
  • ProductionApproximately 300 built, mostly for military use.

Mil's Mi-26 is the biggest helicopter on the planet by a critical edge, with a most extreme takeoff weight more prominent than that of the Fokker F-100, more than twice that of the Boeing Chinook and an inner cargo hold close in size to that in the L-100 Hercules.

Improvement of the Mi-26 started in the early 1970s and brought about a first flight on December 14 1977. Despite the fact that primarily in military utilize, the first plan necessity expressed that the helicopter would be for common utilization, and that it ought to have a most extreme takeoff weight one and a half times that of any past helicopter. Preproduction machines were fabricated from 1980, creation machines at some point after that. The main Mi-26s are comprehended to have ended up operational with the Soviet military amid 1983.

The Mi-26 is outstanding for its eight edge primary rotor, influential 7457kw (10,000shp) D-136 turboshaft motors and monstrous size, and a few common variants have been created or proposed. These incorporate the fundamental tanker Mi-26t, Mi-26a with computerized methodology and plunge aeronautics, Mi-26ms medevac variant, Mi-26p 63 traveler aerial shuttle, Mi-26tm flying crane with undernose gondola to permit supervision of sling operations, and Mi-26tz fuel tanker.

The enhanced Mi-26m is a work in progress and peculiarities new 10,700kw (14,350shp) class ZMKB Progress D127 turboshafts, better hot and superior, expanded most extreme payload, composite principle rotor sharpened pieces of steels, enhanced the study of air and EFIS flightdeck.

The Mi-26 has been traded to a few nations, basically for military administration. They were conveyed to the Air Forces of e.g. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Peru, India, Cambodia, and Mexico.

Pictures of Mil Mi-26