Hip enough to upgrade

The Russian Helicopters holding company, the umbrella organization for the country’s rotorcraft industry, has unveiled plans to modernize its best-selling Mil Mi-8/Mi-17 Hip medium helicopter family. A mock-up of the upgraded model, dubbed Mi-171M, was revealed at HeliRussia 2010 exhibition in Moscow in May. The improved rotorcraft should make its first flight in 2011 and enter service in 2013. The manufacturer hopes that the new model will find both civil and military customers.
The Mi-171M will be a further development of the 11-ton class Mi-17 rotorcraft. In 2009 Russian Helicopters delivered to Russian and foreign customers 139 Mi-8/Mi-17 family helicopters, accounting for 76% of total sales for that year.
The designers promise to apply more than 80 innovations in the new version. It will receive the more powerful Klimov VK-2500 turboshafts, modernized APU, main gearbox, swash plate, main rotor head and transmission, as well as composite main rotor blades and an X-type tail rotor. Another focus will be on onboard equipment that will enable the aircraft to be piloted by a crew of two. The Mi-171M in basic configuration will be equipped with digital autopilot, with a glass cockpit offered as an option. Russian Helicopters already retrofits current modifications of this family with new avionics. Earlier this year the manufacturer reported the first delivery, to India, of the modernized Mi-17V5 version with new onboard equipment and digital autopilot.
These innovations should improve the helicopter’s performance. Its range with the main tanks will grow from the current 610 km to 850 km, and its externally carried load capacity will increase from 4,000 to 5,000 kg compared to the current Mi-171 version. The new helicopter is expected to have better directional control and hover at higher side wind speeds. The designers also promise to increase the aircraft’s life cycle and time between overhauls.
Andrey Shibitov, head of Russian Helicopters, has told Russia & CIS Observer that the Mi-171M will be assembled in several versions: for transport, passenger and search-and-rescue applications. "We may also have a modification for off-shore operations for such customers as, for example, Gazpromavia," he says.
The new model may find military applications as well. Now more than one half of exported Mi-8/Mi-17 helicopters are purchased by foreign militaries, mainly by former Soviet allies. Russian Helicopters has recently delivered several of these aircraft to the Czech Republic and Croatia, Shibitov says, adding that contracts with some Balkan countries are being discussed at the moment.
Another potential customer for the modernized helicopter is the international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now the coalition forces widely use Mi-8 family rotorcraft, delivered by the Russian manufacturer through the UAE-based Airfreight Aviation company. The aircraft are supplied in civil transport configuration, with their navigation and communications equipment adapted to the coalition standards. The latest such deal was signed in August 2009, and calls for delivery of 20 Mi-171s. In November 2009 Russian Helicopters and Airfreight Aviation opened the International RotorCraft Services joint venture in Sharjah that will provide customization and maintenance services for the Russian-built helicopters in the Middle East.
The Mi-171M model will be certified under Russian AP-29 rules by the end of 2012. The program sets an additional goal of obtaining an EASA certificate in order to promote foreign sales, but this issue is still being discussed, Shibitov says. The first prototype should be assembled at the Ulan-Ude aircraft plant, one of the two facilities that manufacture Mi-8/Mi-17 family aircraft, in 2011. Series production is to be launched in 2013. The designers hope to preserve the main advantage of the Hip family, which is a more attractive price than foreign competition, but also promise that the Mi-171M’s operating expenses will go down compared to the current modifications.