Date Posted: 15-Apr-2004
INTERNATIONAL DEFENSE REVIEW – MAY 01, 2004
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Production standard Rosvertol Mi-28N makes first flight with revised transmission and rotor
Piotr Butowski
The first series-produced new- generation Mil Mi-28N attack helicopter made its first flight on 25 March 2004 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. The series production version has been considerably updated when compared to the first OP-1 prototype of the Mi-28N, built by the Mil design bureau in Moscow, which first flew on 14 November 1996. That original prototype made only a few flights, after which the program was stopped while awaiting certain key subsystems, notably a new main transmission.
Tests with OP-1 were resumed on 24 April 2002 with the new VR-29 transmission (instead of the VR-28) adapted for greater power, and with the new KhR-29 tail rotor gear.
The first series production helicopter, built by the Rostvertol factory and designated OP-2, has been equipped with new main rotor blades, new swashplate and new rotor hub, as well as improved automatic controls for the engine and fuel system.
Soon after completion of the testing program with more powerful Klimov VK-2500 engines, they will also be installed on the Mi-28N. The first stage of state flight-acceptance tests of the Mi-28N will be carried out in 2004, whereas the acceptance tests of the mission systems and armament will begin in 2005. The work on the Mi-28N is financed by Mil and Rostvertol; the Russian ministry of defense pays for only part of the research and development work.
For many years, the Mi-28 has lived in the shadow of the Kamov Ka-50/Ka-52. In the late 1980s, the Ka-50 was chosen by the then-Soviet air forces as a basic combat helicopter. Series production of the Ka-50 has been discontinued, however; only a few are in active service. Work on new army helicopters was limited to the construction of successive prototypes Ka-50Sh, Ka-52 and Mi-28N.
The breakthrough came in 2003, when the commander in chief of the Russian Air Force, Colonel-General Vladimir Mikhailov, announced that the Mi-28N was chosen as the new-generation combat helicopter and that “up to 50 such helicopters will be purchased before 2010”, while only a “small number” of its rival Ka-52 would be purchased for use by special forces.
The main reason of the choice for the Mi-28N by the Russian air forces was its lower production and operation cost (the whole structure of Russian army aviation being adapted for Mil-designed helicopters), as well as the possibility of using elements of the Mi-28 in modernized Mi-24 ‘Hind’ helicopters.
Rostvertol is believed to be investing its own money in the production of the Mi-28N.
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April 16, 2004 at 5:18 am