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Hugo Mambour/AviaScribe was stirred, if not shaken, at MAKS 2001. Part two: For your eyes only... Krafty Kamovs At Zhukovskiy an anonymous Ka-50 could be found, although after a search - it was hidden by the local topography, far away at the end of the static line. This particular machine had flown actual combat operations, photographs published in Russian magazines proving it. Derivatives of the Ka-50 included the side-by-side twin-seater battlefield command-and-control Ka-52 and a mockup of the tandem twin-seater Ka-50-2 'Erdogan', which was originally designed in cooperation with Israel for Turkey (the possible Russian development of that version will be known as the Ka-54).
Kamov had
put on static display the possible future successor of the Mi-8, the Ka-60
(production should start this year at Lukhovitsy), but Kazan Helicopter
Plant (KVZ) and Ulan-Ude Aircraft Plant (UUAZ), in collaboration with
the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant (MVZ, named after Mil), had brought their
own interpretation of the Hip replacement, i.e. new and/or upgraded Mi-8!
The Mi-8MTV-5/Mi-17MD (KVZ) is an improved
day/night combat version of the Mi-8MTV, able to shoot ATGM missiles and
equipped with a rear-loading ramp for light vehicles or artillery pieces,
whereas the Mi-8AMTSh/Mi-171Sh is the
same interpretation - although without rear loading ramp - by MVZ. Besides
the Kazan Helicopters had also brought its Ansat design to Moscow. The Ansat is the first helicopter to have been developed at Kazan since the break up of Soviet Union and is motorised by Pratt & Whitney Canada PW-206 engines, license-built by Klimov. Test & research As always, some local test, research or support aircraft of the Russian Flight Research Institute (Lyotno-issledovatels'kiy institut or LII for short) could be found in the static display. Two of its aircraft, a Tu-154M and a Su-27LL, had received a new customized colour scheme. The latter aircraft, which was equipped with a side stick several years ago, is at the present time used to test in-flight reprogrammable digital fly-by-wire controls as well as in-flight reprogrammable head-down and head-up displays. A Su-24M was shown with a particular ventral pod. This aircraft is used to check the impact of jet engines on the troposphere (see part one for pictures of test aircraft described here). A handful of Il-76SKIP telemetry aircraft are based in Zhukovskiy but some of them have not been flown for several years now as they are still wearing Soviet era codes. Older aircraft can be found in different areas of the vast airbase, like the last Tu-16 engine tested, which is not flying anymore. More conventional aircraft are also based at Zhukovskiy, like the three Tupolev type bombers on strength with the Long-Range Aviation. Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS and Tu-160 used to take part in the flying display until 1995. Unfortunately, it has never been repeated since then and except the Backfire they had even disappeared from the static display area, but they were at least back on the ground for MAKS 2001.
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