Trumpeter Aircraft 1/35 Mil Mi17 Hip-H Russian Helicopter Kit
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The vast territories of the former Soviet Union were made for this helicopter. The Mil OKB, the design bureau named for its chief designer, Mikhail L. Mil, was the moving force behind rotary-winged aviation in the former Soviet Union. Its first principal workhorse for the Soviet Army was the Mi-4, codenamed Hound, which bore a strong resemblance to its Russian-American cousins, the Sikorsky H-19 and H-34 series.
With the availability of turbine power, the United States fielded the Bell UH-1 Iroquois in the late 1950s (then designated as the HU-1A, where it gained its nickname ‘Huey’), which would become one of the most widely used helicopters in the world. Within a few years of the UH-1, Mil was given the green light to develop a new turbine-powered utility aircraft, the V-8. This prototype flew in 1961 and bore a strong resemblance to the Mi-8 of today with one exception; it only had a single engine. Mil wisely added a second engine to the production versions that followed.
The Mi-8 was employed as the Soviet Army’s principal workhorse, and with its spacious interior, it would be adapted into a troop transport, cargo aircraft, communications aircraft, gunship, electronic warfare platform, airborne command post, rescue helicopter, and more. With the addition of a boat hull, the Mi-8 would become an amphibious anti-submarine warfare and SAR aircraft, re-designated as the Mi-14. When the US took the powertrain from a UH-1 and build an attack helicopter that would become the AH-1 Cobra, the Mil OKB adapted the best parts of the Mi-8 and Mi-14 to create the Mi-24 Hind.
With the availability of turbine power, the United States fielded the Bell UH-1 Iroquois in the late 1950s (then designated as the HU-1A, where it gained its nickname ‘Huey’), which would become one of the most widely used helicopters in the world. Within a few years of the UH-1, Mil was given the green light to develop a new turbine-powered utility aircraft, the V-8. This prototype flew in 1961 and bore a strong resemblance to the Mi-8 of today with one exception; it only had a single engine. Mil wisely added a second engine to the production versions that followed.
The Mi-8 was employed as the Soviet Army’s principal workhorse, and with its spacious interior, it would be adapted into a troop transport, cargo aircraft, communications aircraft, gunship, electronic warfare platform, airborne command post, rescue helicopter, and more. With the addition of a boat hull, the Mi-8 would become an amphibious anti-submarine warfare and SAR aircraft, re-designated as the Mi-14. When the US took the powertrain from a UH-1 and build an attack helicopter that would become the AH-1 Cobra, the Mil OKB adapted the best parts of the Mi-8 and Mi-14 to create the Mi-24 Hind.
The Mi-17 would become the export version of the improved Mi-8, the Mi-8MT. The main visual difference between the previous Mi-8s and the Mi-8MT/Mi-17 is the tail rotor. The previous Mi-8s had the tail rotor on the starboard side, the later on the port side. Over 11,000 Mi-8/Mi-17 have been produced and sold around the world, where they continue to serve today.
