Some cool fast prototype service images:
Heavy Helicopter Mil V-12 and Fighter MiG-29. Тяжёлый вертолет Миля В-12 и истребитель Миг-29.
Image by Peer.Gynt
Mil V-12
Role Heavy lift helicopter
Manufacturer Mil Design and style Bureau
1st flight 10 July 1968
Status Prototype only
Primary user Soviet Union
Number built two
Created from Mil Mi-6
The Mil V-12 (also referred to as the Mi-12, NATO reporting name "Homer") is the largest helicopter ever constructed. The name "Mi-12" would have been the name for the production helicopter. Considering that the V-12 never went into production and only two prototypes have been constructed, the name "Mi-12" was never adopted.
Design and development
Development came about as a need for a heavy lift helicopter capable of carrying significant missile elements.[2] Production started on the V-12 prototype in 1965 with the aim of lifting no less than 30,000 kg.
The first prototype produced its first lift-off on 27 June 1967. Soon after a few oscillations in close proximity to the ground the V-12 produced a rough touchdown on 1 wheel resulting in a burst tire and a bent wheel disk. Even even though the damage was insignificant, it was reported in the Western press that the prototype had suffered severe harm, and even to this day the rumor persists that the prototype had crashed fatally.
The V-12 characteristics the only two-rotor transverse scheme ever built by Mil, eliminating the require for a tail rotor. The twin engines had been taken with each other with the rotors from the Mil Mi-6 and duplicated on the V-12. Becoming the very first time utilized by Mil, the twin rotor transverse scheme was not new. It was initial noticed in the Focke-Wulf Fw 61 the 1st completely controlable helicopter from 1936. Later, other helicopters used the scheme such as the Focke Achgelis Fa 223 Drache from 1940. The Soviet Kamov OKB built an experimental aircraft with the very same scheme in 1958, Kamov Ka-22 Vintokryl. This aircraft had also the combined wing/rotor arrangement later used on the Mil V-12.
The first prototype, now wearing the registration SSSR-21142, made its first flight on 10 July 1968, flying from the Mil factory pad in Panki to the Mil OKB test flight facility in Lyubertsy. In February 1969, the first prototype lifted a 31,030 kg payload to two,951m (9,682 feet). On 6 August 1969, the V-12 lifted 44,205 kg (88,636 lb) to a height of two,255m (7,398 feet), a world record.
In Might-June 1971 the first prototype V-12 SSSR-21142 made a series of flights more than Europe being topped by the participation in the 29th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget wearing exhibit code H-833.
The second prototype had been assembled at the Mil experimental production facility in Panki but sat in the workshop for a complete year waiting for its engines. It was not until March 1973 that the second prototype could make its first flight, being from Panki to the flight test facilities in Lyubertsy. Curiously the second prototype was also registered SSSR-21142.
The design and style outperformed its design and style specifications, set up numerous world records which nonetheless hold these days, and brought its designers quite a few awards such as the prestigious Sikorsky Prize awarded by the American Helicopter Society for outstanding achievements in helicopter technology. The V-12 design was recognized as an invention for which patents have been issued in the USA, Fantastic Britain and other countries.
Despite all of these achievements the Soviet Air Force refused to accept the helicopter for state acceptance trials for several factors, the principal 1 being the fact that the initial goal for which V-12 had been developed no longer existed, i.e., the speedy deployment of strategic ballistic missiles. In the meantime the military concept of deploying missiles had been altered considering that some of the missiles had proved disappointing and have been phased out. This was the exact same explanation which led to the huge reduction in Antonov An-22 production. Another was that the design and style was costly and that other lifting needs were met with the Mi-six and later by the much more strong Mil Mi-26.
All development on the V-12 was stopped in 1974. The 1st prototype remained at the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Lyuberetsky District close to Moscow and is still there nowadays (55°16′45″N 39°54′08″E / 55.279115°N 39.902344°E / 55.279115 39.902344). The second prototype was donated to Monino Air Force Museum (50 km east of Moscow) and is on public display.
Data from Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft 1975-76
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_V-12
Common traits
Crew: six (pilot, copilot, flight engineer, electrician, navigator, radio operator)
Capacity:
VTOL 25,000 kg (55,000 lb) or
STOL 30,000 kg (66,000 lb) or
40,204.five kg (88,636 lb) record
Length: 37.00 m (121 ft four in)
Rotor diameter: 2x 35.00 m (114 ft 10 in)
Height: 12.50 m (41 ft in)
Loaded weight: 97,000 kg (213,850 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 105,000 kg (231,500 lb)
Powerplant: 4× Soloviev D-25VF turboshaft, 4,048 kW (6,500 shp) each and every
Freight compartment: 28.15×4.40×4.40 m (92 4×14 5×14 5 ft)
Functionality
Maximum speed: 260 km/h (140 kt)
Range: 500 km (310 miles)
Service ceiling: 3,500 m (11,500 ft)