Mi-24 is an army attack helicopter. Mi-24 (helicopter): specifications

In the event of war, airborne troops and other special units must perform combat missions in the enemy's rear. They are well prepared, well equipped, but they can still be doomed to death or captivity if they are not provided with timely support. The paratroopers are cut off from the supply and can rely only on their own forces. The first war, in which helicopters were massively used to deliver manpower, cargo, evacuation of the wounded and killed, as well as to strike ground targets, was Vietnamese. In the USSR, between the military specialists of the senior level, disputes over the appropriateness of borrowing American experience continued during the 1960s. Eventually, the supporters of the "rotor-wing cavalry" won, but with a certain reservation. An expression of the Soviet concept was the Mi-24, a helicopter designed to carry out two combat functions at once - landing and assault.

The difference between the concepts of military helicopter construction in the USSR and the USA

The American experience was based on the specialization of rotorcraft. The most used "horse" of the air cavalry of the United States was the famous "Huey" UH-1 (also called the Iroquois - a small, compact and capacious machine). Another advantage of the "flying jeep" was its tremendous reliability and survivability (in this it really looks like "Willys"). It was this helicopter that landed the assault forces, provided them with ammunition and all necessary, sometimes directly during the battle and under fire. On the "Huey" the wounded were taken out. He could carry out a cover himself, cassettes with rockets were installed along the sides, and through the doorway the machine-gunner fired. However, this helicopter can not be called fully shock, its possibilities are limited. Therefore, in a pair with him usually worked "Cobra" AH-1. This car had almost the same power plant as the Huey, but everything else was different. The body is predatory-narrow, armored, the lantern of the glazing is bullet-proof, in the bow the rapid-fire cannon, and along the sides on the wings-pylons - reinforced missile armament. The capabilities of these two machines was to unite the Mi-24, the BTR-helicopter, as the distinguished aircraft designer Mikhail Leontievich Mil defined it.

Departmental disputes

ML Mil possessed considerable experience in the construction of rotorcraft. The machines created by him were intended for peaceful work, but he did not forget about the defense. The world's first helicopter, equipped with built-in small arms, was the Mi-4, created in 1949. With all its outstanding flying and performance qualities, this car in the second half of the sixties already needed a replacement. But Mikhail Leontievich went further, he expressed the desire to build an unprecedented machine and spoke at the USSR Defense Ministry with a report in which he outlined his technical idea (1967). It was perceived ambiguously. General Epishev called the idea of nonsense and even suggested planting a general designer on a helicopter and send him somewhere to war. But General Molotkov, who supervised the Central Research Institute-30 and understood in technical terms somewhat more than the chief of political administration, got carried away with the idea. Eventually, the supporters of the new concept won, and the Mil Design Bureau began to prepare its proposal already at the level of a technical draft project. So in 1968, Mi-24, an army attack helicopter with the possibility of delivering a paratroopers division, became a "swan song" of Mikhail Leontievich Mil. Before its completion the outstanding designer has not lived.

New technical ideas

The composition scheme was chosen to be classical, with a single rotor having five blades (like the Mi-8, but a little shorter) and a three-bladed propeller steering at the end of the supporting tail beam. The chassis was decided to be retractable to improve aerodynamics. The novelty manifested itself in the inclination of the rotor axis not only forward (4.5 °), but also sideways (to the right) by two and a half degrees, in order to partially compensate the torque during the flight in a straight line. For the first time the position of an operator of weapons was introduced. The bearing wing, which reduces fuel consumption due to the lifting force, has already been used in the Mi-6 design. He received it and Mi-24, the helicopter became more stable, after he was given a negative V-shape. The power plant together with the transmission is generally borrowed from the Mi-8 with some changes due to the combat assignment of the new machine.

Design

Turbine engines are two, TV3-117 (in modern versions), with 2200 "horses" each. The points of the arrow and the pilot are arranged in a tandem-stupene manner, with some shift of the symmetry axis to improve the view. The layout of the crew was repeatedly processed, to an optimal option engineers did not come immediately. Armored glass with flat fronts caused one of the servicemen to associate with the glass, because of which one of the unofficial names Mi-24 appeared. The helicopter has some more joking nicknames: "crocodile" (for the elongated predatory silhouette), "Galina" and even "deer" (Hind - so obviously for the swiftness, it was nicknamed the military experts of NATO).

A pilot may be behind the pilot, a folding seat is provided for him, but in real combat conditions he is not always taken to the flight.

Next comes the compartment, called the cargo compartment, in which eight fighters are placed in full equipment. The tail part is filled with equipment and niches for the main pillars in the retracted state.

Refinement of the helicopter

In the beginning of 1970, ML Mil died. The new general designer MN Tishchenko had to finish the case initiated by the senior comrade. There were enough problems. The glazing of the lantern, for which the aircraft of the early modifications was called a "veranda" or a "glass", was not very successful, as was the location of the crew places. Not everything was good with transverse stability. At the time of leaving the factory assembly shop of the first Mi-24, the helicopter had not yet received the armament. In the final stage was the complex "Sturm" and rapid-fire machine gun. It was decided to establish so far 2 PTRA "Falanga-M". The K-4V machine gun was also used temporarily, it was already in service with the Mi-4 and Mi-8. It was necessary to equip the machine with NUPS units and bomb-throwers. The final view, known today to the whole world, the Mi-24 attack helicopter found in 1973. During the debugging, he changed several indexes. All this time he was called a "product" (for reasons of secrecy) with the numbers (245, 244, 246).

Flight characteristics

In terms of its parameters, the car, if we do not take into account its ability to carry the landing force, is close to the wartime aircraft.

The cruising speed (270 km / h) and the maximum (335 km / h) are even slightly less than the illustrious "flying tank" IL-2. The practical range is 450 km. The main working ceiling is 1400 m, but if necessary (especially in a mountainous area) the machine is able to climb almost 5 km. At one hour, the military Mi-24 helicopter spends 780 liters of kerosene, of course, more than the "civilian" Mi-8 counterpart.

Weighing parameters

Machine can not be called easy. The mass was affected by many features of the design, booking and duplication of functions to improve reliability in the event of damage to units and assemblies. It was this circumstance that gave grounds to some military experts to criticize the Mi-24 helicopter. The technical characteristics of the universal machine were not the best for the percussion unit. At the same time, amphibious capabilities also proved to be modest - only eight fighters (for comparison, the Iroquois takes on board 14 people, while in Vietnam, when the wounded were exported, there were more). However, the possibility of dual application of the machine had its positive aspects. The weight of the empty helicopter is 7.58 tons. To obtain the maximum take-off weight, it is necessary to add three tons (the capacity of all tanks) and a combat load of 2.4 tons (not too little). Do not forget that the crew with the landing is also not incorporeal. In total, about 11.5 tons is produced.

First experience - Ethiopia

In the late seventies, many local armed conflicts occurred. In one of them, in the Ethiopian-Somali war of 1978, for the first time the Mi-24 helicopter lit up. The technical characteristics of the machine fully corresponded to the nature of the fighting, it successfully "worked" on the columns of armored vehicles and the positions of the Somali troops, the assistance of the Ethiopian army was provided by Cuban pilots-volunteers trained in the USSR. The main weapon in this war was unmanaged C-5 missiles. The enemy was not able to kill a single helicopter, several units were lost during a ground attack on the aerodrome of Asmar, where the aircraft was based. But the main combat experience was ahead ...

Carrying out the international duty

Since the end of 1979, the Mi-24 combat helicopter has become a permanent resident of the red-hot Afghan sky. The operating conditions here were not just heavy, they can be called infernal. Dust, sand and mud damaged turbine blades, maintenance was often carried out without compliance with technical regulations. But all the "ground" problems were dimmed in comparison with the fire impact, to which machines were subjected from the sides of the Mujahideen detachments daily and hourly. In the opinion of many participants in the hostilities, the Mi-24 became the materialized symbol of the Afghan war. The helicopter covered the disembarkation of combat groups, evacuated ambushed ambushes, shot NURSs and bombed volumetric charges with fortified areas. It is difficult to overestimate his role in this war, as well as count the number of soldier's lives that he saved.

Crocodile abroad

After the disintegration of the single Soviet state, the Mi-24 military helicopter, built in record numbers (3,500 pieces), was at the disposal of almost all newly-formed states. In addition, it is based on the armies of more than two dozen countries, including exotic ones - Senegal, Sierra Leone and Myanmar. Without a case, he does not have to stand idle. It is relatively easy to operate (which is typical for Soviet-made aircraft), it is unpretentious to operate, and few combat aircraft have the ability to surpass the Mi-24 helicopter. Its characteristics are optimal for action in the conditions of local wars. In 1982, the Iraqi pilot even managed to hit a supersonic F-4 Font plane by the Iranian Air Force with a missile salvo.

This rotary-wing vehicle is also used in humanitarian humanitarian missions of the United Nations, in this case it is painted white. To fight "Crocodile" was in two and a half dozen wars. Some of them continue to this day.

Toys

Such a popular car, famous for its characteristic silhouette in the whole world, was prearranged in advance for the role of the "star". In two dozen computer games as one of the characters involved Mi-24. The army attack helicopter became a hero of films both artistic and documentary. His miniature copies are made by many companies specializing in the manufacture of prefabricated models and models. Today, no one is surprised that a radio-controlled Mi-24 helicopter can be offered to the customer on the counter, which can be piloted using a remote control. Well, people like to play war games ...