Aviation Naval Warfare Land Systems Small Arms By Flag By Year By Tag

Mil V-12 (Homer)

1968 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

The Mil V-12 was a large heavy helicopter project adopted by the Soviet Union during the Cold War - even today (2015) it is still the largest helicopter ever built. Known in the USSR as the "Izdeliye 65" project and in NATO under the codename "Homer", the V-12 made its maiden flight in June 1967 - an unsuccessful "jump" (its first successful The test flight took place a year later).

Although the behemoth was promising, especially as part of the Soviet military transport service, the V-12 did not stop production after only two prototypes were completed.

Work on the V-12 began as early as 1959 when a large transport helicopter was considered that would carry over 55,000 pounds of cargo - personnel, machinery, supplies, and especially Soviet ICBMs ( Intercontinental Ballistic Missile"). Blame is placed on the well-known Soviet helicopter company Mil Design Bureau, whose engineers opted for a "lateral" rotor system layout - the main rotor is externally mounted on the wing assembly, rather than in-line (as in the Boeing CH-47 Chinook) .. Dual main rotors are also used to counteract the torque effects that naturally occur in single rotor helicopters, which negates the use of tail rotors. Small-scale models and tests were conducted in the mid-1960s to demonstrate that some aspects of the design were feasible.

Two Soloviev D-25VF turboshaft engines (four in total) were selected to power the helicopter, each of which powers the five-bladed main rotor while providing the necessary forward thrust for level flight.

The V-12 impressed throughout its development. However, the Soviet mission began to change and the system fell victim to no longer having a clear role to explain its development, acquisition and operating costs. As a result, the V-12 program was discontinued after two prototypes, and no further work was done on the pair after 1974. For a while, the V-12 was also considered for industrial and civilian transportation services, but that too failed.

The Soviet military eventually adopted the Mil Mi-26 ("Halo") series in 1983 to fulfill its improved heavy aircraft role.

V-12 is the prototype designation, only the two aircraft above are numbered. In serial production, the aircraft will receive the designation Mi-12. The V-16 was a super-heavy lift variant of the V-12 and was intended to be the Mi-16 in production. The model was designed to carry up to 110,000 pounds of cargo using six Soloviev engines with a three-rotor (later changed to two-rotor) configuration.

There was also a proposed revision of the V-16 with slightly different engine sets (Soloviev D-30Vs) from the Mi-12M, but this branding joined the others and never appeared.

Although the V-12 program was considered a failure, the large aircraft managed to enter aviation world records, setting multiple in-flight payload altitude records in 1969.

Fortunately, both completed prototypes survived from the scrap heap - the first at MIL's Moscow (Moscow) Helicopter Plant and the second at the Monino Air Force Outdoor Museum (Moscow) in 2015 Ninoy Airport) found a home.