70 years ago, on September 20, 1948, the Mi-1 helicopter took off for the first time. This rotorcraft, which received the designation "hare" in the NATO codification, became the first serial Soviet helicopter. Developed in the late 1940s, the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopter was mass-produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 to 1960. A total of 2,680 of these helicopters were built, which remained in operation in the USSR until 1983.
We can say that the history of the experimental design helicopter-building bureau, which bears the name of the famous aircraft designer Mikhail Mil, began with the Mi-1 helicopter. It was formed on December 12, 1947. Throughout its history, Mil Design Bureau has designed 13 main helicopter models and more than 200 modifications - from light to super-heavy classes, including the Mi-8 multipurpose helicopter, the most popular in world history. But it all started with the Mi-1 helicopter, which was mass-produced in the USSR, and then in Poland in passenger, postal, agricultural, sanitary and, of course, military versions. The machine has found wide application in the Air Force and civil aviation of the Soviet Union. The 27 world records that were set on the helicopter between 1958 and 1968 are the best evidence of the excellent flight performance of the rotorcraft "hare".
Helicopter Mil first (GP-1)
All attempts that were aimed at creating a practical helicopter until the mid-1940s ended in nothing. The helicopter turned out to be a much more high-tech machine than many thought; the creation of rotary-wing vehicles was only within the power of truly experienced design teams. At the same time, the pre-war years were years of experiments in the field of helicopter construction. The most widespread before the Second World War were autogyros. The main rotor of such aircraft rotated in flight itself under the action of the incoming air flow; it did not have a mechanical drive from the engine. In the USSR, the first autogyros under the designation A-4 designed by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov entered service with the Red Army in 1934. At the very beginning of World War II, a squadron of military gyroplanes A-7-3a (the first serial rotary-wing aircraft in the country) designed by Nikolai Kamov was formed in the country. This squadron was used by Soviet troops in the Smolensk defensive battle in the summer of 1941. The engineer of this squadron was the famous helicopter designer Mikhail Mil.
The preconditions for the transition from experimental helicopters to targeted helicopters that could be put into mass production were formed in the Soviet Union in the middle and second half of the 40s of the last century. At the same time, the country chose the path of creating helicopters, as they say now, of the classical scheme - with one main rotor and one tail rotor. This scheme of helicopters to this day undividedly dominates the world in the field of helicopter construction. At the same time, in the war and the first post-war years in the USSR, not a single design bureau was engaged in single-rotor helicopters. In 1945, Mikhail Mil, on his own initiative, began work on an experimental helicopter, which he called the EG-1. This machine was a three-seater helicopter built according to the classic single-rotor design.
In 1946, a helicopter laboratory was formed at TsAGI, headed by Mil. Under his direct supervision, a universal test stand of a full-scale helicopter installation (NGU) was created here. This stand was necessary for testing and researching full-size rotors, as well as fine-tuning the design of the main parts of the helicopters. It was on the basis of NSU that a helicopter was developed, which received the GM-1 index (Helicopter Mil first). And on December 12, 1947, the historic decree "On the creation of a communications helicopter for the USSR Armed Forces" was issued, this became the starting point in the history of the Milev company, today it is the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant JSC, which is part of the Helicopters holding Russia ". In 1947 it was the Allied OKB-4 of the Minaviaprom.
Due to the absence at that time in OKB-4 of its own production base, the first three prototypes were built at an aviation plant in Kiev. Helicopter tests were organized at the Zakharkovo airfield, not far from the famous Tushino airfield. Despite a number of plane crashes, the tests could be called successful. The helicopter hovered confidently in the air, was distinguished by good flight stability and excellent maneuverability. During the tests of the rotorcraft, a flight speed of 175 km / h and a dynamic ceiling of 5200 meters were achieved. Since 1949, the helicopter has been undergoing government tests, which did not reveal any particular complaints about the machine, with the exception of the amount of vibration and the level of piloting. In the 1950s, a sufficient number of different tests were carried out that checked the operation of the helicopter in severe weather conditions, in mountainous terrain and in conditions of emergency landings.
Already on February 21, 1950, a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was received on the start of serial production of the GM-1 helicopter, under the new designation Mi-1. Initially, the new rotorcraft was developed as a coherent one, but later the helicopter was used in a variety of roles. Serial production of the helicopter lasted from 1952 to 1960 at aircraft factories in Moscow, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don and Orenburg. In the period from 1956 to 1965, the helicopter was also produced in Poland in the city of Swidnik. In total, 2,680 helicopters were assembled during serial production, including more than 1,500 (like the SM-1 and its modifications) in Poland.
The design of the Mi-1 helicopter and its modifications
The Mi-1 helicopter had a classic single-rotor design with a three-bladed main and tail rotor. In front of the fuselage there was a cockpit with a pilot's workplace and a sofa, which could freely accommodate two passengers. Behind the cockpit was the engine compartment with the AI-26GRF piston engine developed by the designer Alexander Ivchenko. This engine was produced in Zaporozhye at the Progress plant, it produced a maximum power of 575 hp. The engine power was enough to accelerate the two-ton car to a speed of 185 km / h, the practical ceiling was slightly more than three kilometers.
When designing a helicopter, Soviet designers took into account the experience of foreign helicopter construction, but they managed to create an original design, which has proven its effectiveness over decades of operation. For example, Soviet engineers developed a main rotor hub with spaced horizontal and vertical hinges. This design increased the efficiency of aircraft control and was much simpler than that used on American helicopters with a main rotor hub with aligned horizontal hinges, the axis of these hinges passed through the rotor rotation axis. Initially, the main rotor blades of the Mi-1 helicopter had a mixed design (steel and wood parts, linen and plywood sheathing). The landing gear of the Mi-1 helicopter was not retracted in flight.
During the serial production and operation of the new helicopter, changes were made to its design, the machine was improved. Especially a lot of Soviet designers worked to increase the reliability and improve the design of one of the most labor-intensive and science-intensive units of the rotorcraft - the blades. In 1956, the three-pipe spar was replaced with a one-piece spar made of steel pipe with variable wall thickness. In 1957, an all-metal blade with a pressed duralumin spar was developed for the Mi-1. The introduction of all-metal blades on the helicopter entailed the inclusion of aerodynamic compensators in the machine control system, and only then hydraulic boosters, which facilitated the control process. As part of the modernization carried out in the 1950s, the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopters were equipped with an external suspension system with a carrying capacity of up to 500 kg. The instrument equipment installed on the helicopter was improved, the main rotor hub was replaced.
In total, during the serial production of the Mi-1 helicopter, about 20 modifications were developed, among which the following can be distinguished:
• Mi-1U (GM-2, 1950) - a training two-seater helicopter with dual control.
• Mi-1T (1953) - with a new AI-26V engine and an increased resource of up to 300 hours, in 1954 an Arctic version of the helicopter was developed, designed to be based on icebreakers.
• Mi-1KR (1956), Mi-1TKR - artillery spotters for the USSR Armed Forces.
• Mi-1NKh (1956, from 1959 it was named "Moskvich") - a national economic version of the helicopter. Representative versions of the helicopter were built on the basis of this model. For example, in 1960-1968 such a machine was used by the President of Finland Urho Kekkonen.
• Mi-1A (1957) - a helicopter with a unit resource increased to 600 hours, as well as a unit for attaching an additional fuel tank.
• Mi-3 (1954) - a sanitary modification of the helicopter with a four-bladed rotor, a more comfortable cabin, and also suspended gondolas designed to transport the wounded and sick.
• Mi-1M (1957) - a modernized version of the helicopter with an increased service life, all-weather equipment, and a luggage compartment.
• Mi-1MG (1958) - a modification of the helicopter, which received a float landing gear, it was used on the ships of the Soviet Antarctic whaling flotilla "Slava".
• Mi-1MU, Mi-1MRK (1960) - training and reconnaissance-corrective versions of the Mi-1M for the USSR Armed Forces.
Medical version of the Mi-1 helicopter
It can also be noted that in 1957 another version of the modernized Mi-1T helicopter was tested in the Soviet Union. This model was a military telephone handler. On board the helicopter, special containers were installed, inside which there were bays of telephone wires. The helicopter could lay a telephone line up to 13 kilometers long in one flight. And in 1961, a version of the Mi-1 helicopter with suspended weapons was developed. It was a Mi-1MU helicopter with machine gun mounts and TRS-134 unguided rockets. Later, the Falanga-M and Malyutka missile systems were installed on the same helicopter. However, such helicopters were not accepted into the armament of the Soviet Army due to the lack of a clear understanding of the need for combat helicopters by the high command. Also in the mid-1950s, a deck modification was developed in the USSR on the basis of the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopter, which differed in folding blades and a tail boom, but the engine power was not enough to lift specialized search equipment and weapons by the helicopter. It was also not possible to bring the V-5 (Mi-5) helicopter with gas turbine engines to the series.
Pilots about the Mi-1 helicopter
The famous test pilot Hero of the Soviet Union Gurgen Karapetyan, who during his service mastered 39 types of aircraft and flew on all types of Mil helicopters, in 1960 won the USSR Helicopter Championship in Mi-1. It was the Mi-1 that was the first helicopter he flew at the Central Aero Club. Until that moment, flying only on gliders and airplanes, on a multipurpose Mi-1 helicopter, he was immediately struck by the difference in control of an aircraft that was new to him, recalled Gurgen Karapetyan. “The Mi-1 had a completely different manner of piloting, not everyone could cope with it, not everyone succeeded. If the first flight of a newcomer in the flying club was already after about 5-6, maximum 7 hours of preparation on the plane, then the training program for a pilot of a rotary-wing aircraft took an average of 12-15 hours, "Karapetyan noted in an interview with the industry magazine of the Russian Helicopters holding. ". On a Mi-1 helicopter, Gurgen Karapetyan landed in a square and took third place, and the next year he became the champion of the country.
Inna Kopets, 1st class pilot, master of sports of international class, said: “The Mi-1 was an excellent helicopter: maneuverable, powerful, and quick to climb. However, in piloting the car was sensitive and "sharp". The helicopter demanded a lot of attention from the pilot, especially for the early production aircraft, which lacked hydraulic boosters. It was very good to study on the Mi-1 helicopter: whoever managed to learn to fly this machine could master any other helicopter in the future. At one time we did such things on "ones"! " It is worth noting that Inna Kopets certainly has something to compare with. This is a unique female pilot, the only one in the world whose flight time on different helicopter models exceeds 11.5 thousand hours.
Mi-1AU from DOSAAF in flight, photo: aviaru.rf
Remembering the Mi-1 helicopter, test pilot of the Mil Design Bureau Gurgen Karapetyan told a curious story. “The first flight of the helicopter took place on September 20, 1948, on that day the pilot Matvey Baikalov was taking the rotorcraft into the air. After him, test pilot Mark Gallay made a helicopter flight. After landing, he issued his verdict: "This thing will not fly." Then the honored test pilot of the USSR, Mark Gallay, was mistaken. The helicopter flew and flew successfully. The last Mi-1 helicopter was officially decommissioned in the Soviet Union only 35 years after his words - in 1983.
Operation of the Mi-1 helicopter
The good flight performance of the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopter was confirmed by a large number of various records. In total, from 1957 to 1968, Soviet pilots set 27 world records on the machine. Among them there were three flight speed records (210, 196 and 141 km / h) at distances of 100, 500 and 1000 meters, respectively, records for flight range - 1654 km and flight altitude - 6700 meters, as well as 11 women's records.
The first state order for a helicopter was limited to the production of only 15 aircraft. Initially, the Soviet ruling circles were rather skeptical about the idea of mass production of new aircraft. However, the situation completely changed during the Korean War, after the USSR received enough information about the successful use of helicopters by the Americans. The Mi-1 and its capabilities were personally demonstrated to Stalin, after which the rotorcraft went into large-scale production.
Helicopter Mi-1A Aeroflot, photo: aviaru.rf
The first training squadron in the Air Force, which was engaged in the development of helicopters and the training of pilots, was formed in Serpukhov at the end of 1948. Initially, the squadron used G-3 helicopters, created in the design bureau of I. P. Bratukhin. The first Mi-1 helicopters from the pre-production batch began to enter the squadron at the beginning of 1951, and it was then that the trial operation of the Mi-1 helicopter began. Subsequently, helicopters of this type began to enter the units of the Ground Forces on a massive scale, and later to individual helicopter squadrons and flight schools of the USSR. For a long time in the Soviet Union, the Mi-1 helicopter was the main type of training helicopter.
In 1954, during maneuvers with the use of real nuclear weapons at the Totsk test site, for the first time in history, Mi-1 helicopters were used as reconnaissance radars. At the same time, some of the Mi-1 helicopters were used in the border troops, where they were used to patrol the state border. The baptism of fire of the Soviet military Mi-1 helicopters fell on 1956. Helicopters were used in Hungary, where they were used for communications, observation of the terrain and evacuation of the wounded. 12 years later, Mi-1 helicopters were used for the same purposes in Czechoslovakia.
Since February 1954, the operation of Mil "units" began in the civil aviation of the USSR. Several years later, the Mi-1 was actively used by Aeroflot throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the regular operation of the Mi-1 helicopter and the Mi-4 medium-class helicopter began almost simultaneously. These machines made up a rather successful "tandem", mutually complementing each other's capabilities. "Aeroflot" helicopter "hares" were used to transport people and small cargo, mail delivery. Since 1954, the helicopter began to be used in the national economy of the country. Like the military, the Mi-1 helicopters have long become the basic helicopter for training civilian pilots.
During the operation of this helicopter, several dozen Mi-1s of various types were lost in various aviation incidents. At the same time, two experimental helicopters crashed at the test stage in 1948-1949. In the crash that occurred on March 7, 1949, test pilot of the Mil Design Bureau, Matvey Baikalov, was killed, who first flew in a Mi-1 helicopter on September 20, 1948. Later, Mikhail Mil will speak about this: "a real chief designer is the one who is able to survive the first catastrophe of his aircraft and not break." At the same time, Mil was very worried about the catastrophe and the death of the pilot, he did not appear at the workplace for three days.
Over the years, Mi-1 helicopters were widely used in the armed forces of the Soviet Union, Albania, Algeria, Afghanistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam, East Germany, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Yemen, North Korea, China, Cuba, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Finland, Czechoslovakia. They were also used by the Soviet civil air carrier - the Aeroflot company. The army modification of the Mi-1V helicopter was actively used by the PRC during police operations, in addition to this, the machines were used by the Egyptian and Syrian military during the hostilities against the Israeli army. The last Mi-1 helicopter in the USSR was officially decommissioned in 1983, but Mi-1 helicopters continued to serve in the armies of some countries of the world even in the 1990s. It so happened that it was the Mi-1 multipurpose helicopter - the rotorcraft "hare" - that became the first Soviet serial helicopter, the ancestor of a whole dynasty of Mil helicopters, the machine that paved the way for Russian helicopters into the sky.
Flight technical characteristics of the Mi-1:
Overall dimensions: length - 12, 09 m, height - 3, 30 m, diameter of the main rotor - 14, 35 m, tail rotor - 2, 50 m.
The empty weight of the helicopter is 1700 kg.
Normal takeoff weight - 2140 kg.
Maximum takeoff weight - 2330 kg.
Power plant - PD Progress AI-26GRF with a capacity of 575 hp.
The maximum flight speed is 185 km / h.
Cruising flight speed - 130 km / h.
Practical range - 430 km.
Service ceiling - 3500 m.
Crew - 1 person, payload - 2 passengers or 255 kg of various cargoes in the cabin, on external sling up to 500 kg.
