Mi-6 Walk-Around
Externally, the appearance of the Mi-6 was decidedly in the Cold War Soviet style of helicopter design. She featured a conical, glazed nose cone ahead of her flight deck. The pilots sat aft of the nose cone assembly with vision ports forward (four panels), above (corner panels) and to the sides (two panels). Entry for the cockpit flight crew was through automobile-style doors to either side of the forward fuselage. The cabin made up a large part of the Mi-6 airframe with each fuselage side dotted with round (sometimes square) porthole windows for outward passenger viewing. Entry to the cabin section was via two rectangular, double-hinged doors, one mounted amidships and the other aft. Large wings were high-mounted to each side of the fuselage (these making up some 20% of the aircraft's required lift when in flight) and, at their wing roots, struts help contain and manage the single-wheeled main landing gear legs. Under each wing and main landing gear strut system was an identifiable cylindrical, capsule-shaped appendage. There was a double-tired nose landing gear system just under the cockpit floor. The undercarriage was non-retractable meaning that the landing gears remained statically exposed during all flights. A split-door cargo access area was fitted to the rear of the fuselage for management of freight loads. The empennage ran from the top of the fuselage and tapered off into a thick vertical tail fin. On the vertical tail fin was mounted a four-bladed tail rotor. There were a pair of smallish horizontal planes at the base of the tailfin. The engines were set above the passenger cabin and aft of the flight deck, exhausting out of side-mounted oval vents. The main rotor was affixed atop the airframe aft of the engine compartments and sat close to the fuselage. The dimensions of the main rotor equaled or surpassed the entire running length of the airframe. Unlike Western helicopter designs, the tail rotor (made mostly of wood) was offset to face away from the starboard side of the aircraft (as opposed to the portside). As can be surmised, the amount of rotor "wash" from this aircraft proved immense (not to mention its engine noise) and would have to be seen/felt to be wholly respected. When at rest, the main rotor blades noticeably drooped down towards the ground, giving the viewer some sense of the sheer weight and flexibility inherent in their design.
Power and Performance
Power for the Mi-6 series was supplied by a pair of Soloviev (now Aviadvigatel) brand D-25V turboshaft engines, each delivering up to 5,500 shaft horsepower. This was a required quality for such a large airframe. The output power drove the large-diameter, five-bladed main rotor as well as a four-bladed tail rotor. Performance specifications included a maximum speed of 300km/h with a cruising speed of 250km/h. Her range was listed at approximately 385 miles with a ferry range equal to 900 miles. Her service ceiling was a reported 14,750 feet.
Mi-6 Operators
Operators of the Mi-6 platform were truly a global bunch, covering use in Asia, Africa, South America and the Western Pacific. Military operators included Algeria, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Peru, Poland, Russia (Soviet Union), Syria, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. The discerning reader will note many relationships (such as Iraq) that are/were within the Soviet sphere of influence at the time of the Mi-6's inception. In terms of the Soviet Empire itself, the Mi-6 served with the Soviet Air Force, Army and Naval Aviation services during her active tenure. Several of these systems were later passed on to successor states. The Bulgarian Air Force has also since retired their fleet of aged Mi-6s. Civilian operators became Aeroflot in the former Soviet Union and Instal of Poland, the latter known to have operated at least three Mi-6A models.
Miscellaneous Notes
Of note unique to the legacy of the Mi-6 is that several of her complete airframes can still be found near the irradiated Chernobyl reactor site, untouched for decades and since having fallen into major disrepair. These Mi-6s join similarly abandoned vehicles in what is known as the "vehicle graveyard". Such was the speed - and importance - of the evacuation at Chernobyl at the time of the explosion.
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