Ka-XX, Successor …

It was actually LOVE at first Sight!

…. have been in love with this helo (Ka-XX) since the time i got to see the CG of the same with the Project 20380 class coverttee. It was like, wish come true, for something that I’ve always wanted from and loved to see on the Ka-25/27/28/29/31/32 series of helos. I’d asked abt any new series or a successor to the Ka-28 series a couple of times or more, but no one seemed to be interested and so was there nothing at MAKS this time around either … but my patience isn’t giving me company – after all its been 3 yrs waiting for some model to come out – and hence thought of calling some help on the same. I just want to get whatever little info that u guys can provide me on this design, its status etc etc.

I don’t know h an ‘unknown’ design of Ka-28 series naval helo got into the CG of the Project 20380 class corvettee if there wasn’t any sort of project for a successor to the Ka-28s being in existence with the Kamov, or for that matter, such a design havn’t been conceptualised …. But one thing that I am pretty sure is that Ka-28 family will have a successor in the future and that, we might get to see it flying before 2010 ….

Some of the design features that i cud get hold off are —-

– a shilloutte radiating beautifully flowing lines, its soooo good …

– lack of ‘mosquito legs’ (hehe, i mean the landing gears, it’s don look good, but does its job faithfully) with new full sized and full length bays for the landing gears …

– full length side ‘strip’ (whatever its called) …. which accomodate the landing gears, and might as well be accomodating floatation systems and additional fuel tanks (?) …

– front section more in tune with the Ka-226s, large, beautiful and visiblity oriented windshield, but surely a class above it.

– ‘forehead’ gives a good ‘blad’ space (i so much wanted it) so that I can finally stuff in my fantasy of a SatComm dome over there …

– Engines pods ‘sunk’ into the upper fuselage … or say the engines have been ‘dismounted’ from the top …. it cud also mean that spacing have been provided between the engines … which inturn also say something abt the fuselage width …

– aft fuselage … the tail has been mounted higher. I see this sharing a common design approach with the Ka-226

– the biggest value addition from the above change – Yup, aft ramp, very mch like the Mi-17 for rapid troop ‘disposal’ etc etc …

– The fuselage length has been increased, but the overall length seems like not …

– width is a bit difficult to guess as no FV is available (or atleast i’ve not seen), but considering the aft ramp, I wont be insane to think that the width have increased, as the fuselage might have been widened for accomodating small Jeep sized vehicles …

– overall height seems not to have increased (considerably), but the inner usable height might have increased due to showcased role the new design can undertake …

– nose gives me the view that radar accomodation wud be just comfortable, as well as any FLIR etc ….

– there seems like a gun turret underneath the front fuselage or some sort of podded stuff ….

– the front fuselage & the doors gives an added comfort that a mid-air refuelling have been though abt … it cud as well be that, the above said, gun turret/external pod look alike cud be a refuelling probe assembly ….

– Ok, one thing that i can’t see is the space for mounting the aux power units for a version of this design meant for AEW ….

I hope HAL make a dash into this project and make a deal for JV, it wud be good as IN in anyway need compact & powerful choppers like Ka series …

Other design that I love for its beautiful flow of lines is the succesor to CH-53, I get a view of a flying shark on that design. Its body is that beautiful (depends on which model u saw) … wish HAL cud make a deal for the same to be built in India with ToT …. let Indian PM rest his butt in this chopper while moving around in India …. it wud be really cool …..