Aerospace |
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An Alligator
Takes Flight
The newest combat helicopter from Kamov, the Ka-52 Alligator, has started flying. On June 25 its development prototype, the Aircraft 061, took to the air for the first time. And a week later, July 1, the aircraft took its second flight. To ensure a success, Father Vineamin sprinkled the helicopter with holy water and, together with Ka-52's general designer and crew members read a prayer. With God's help, the test pilot Aleksandr Smirnov and on-board mechanic Dmitry Titov executed an impressive performance, featuring high-speed backwards movement and fuselage rotation over the rotor's axis at a non-zero progressive speed. Those maneuvers can be executed with ease only on Kamov's helicopters featuring the coaxial rotor layout.
Background The Ka-52 Alligator is an improved version of the Ka-50 Black Shark. The former was created under the V-80 project aimed at meeting the Army Aviation requirement for a new anti-tank helicopter. In 1994, the Ka-50 officially won the tender with another contender, the Mi-28 from Mil Helicopter Plant of Moscow. In the following year, the Black Shark was accepted in the military service, but money problems forced the Defense Ministry to finance only 12 airframes. Usually, those do not meet the initial specification demand for night-flying capability.
While FLIR manufacturers were working hard to satisfy their customers, they took a closer look at radars. On their request, two developers, NPO Almaz and Fazatron, have developed special mast-mounted radars, for the Mi-28N and Ka-50N. Called Almaz and Arbalet respectively, they are at final stages of completion. Apart from surveillance and target-acquisition functions, both Mil and Kamov will use the radars for precise navigation at approach before landing and during flying at extremely low altitudes. As mentioned earlier, the Ka-50 in its original form does not fully meet the Army Aviation requirements. This gives Mil a right to continue development of the Mi-28N in hopes of surpassing Kamov designs by offering better night-flying technologies. Both companies are known to have tried western FLIRs on their development aircraft. The installation of the mast-mounted radars, FLIRs and electro-optical sights on both the Ka-50 and Mi-28 have brought about a considerable increase in the complexity of their on-board flight and weapons management systems. In a competition with the latest US designs - the AH-64D Longbow Apache and RAH-66 Comanche - Russian helicopter-makers increase further the complexity of their aircraft. This leads to a higher work-load on the crew, and in this sense the single-seat Ka-50 loses to the two-seat Mi-28. This made Kamov come out with a two-seater model, featuring an 85 percent parts- commonalty with the basic design. The Ka-52's normal take-off weight is higher that of the Ka-50, at 10,400 kg. Kamov says that the weaponry remains the same, and that the difference between the two helicopters is limited to on-board avionics packages.
Interview with General Designer Upon landing of the Aircraft 061 after its first public flight on 1 July, Kamov General Designer Sergei Mikheev gave an express interview to a group journalists, standing a few feet from the hot helicopter. Mikheev, also acting the chairman of directors' council at VPK MAPO military-industrial group, was impressed by a spectacular aerial performance made by the Ka-52 and did not hide his happiness. He said, "I am very happy with the flight. The aircraft perfectly lifted off and felt confident in the air. Everything planned for this mission was successfully done. Today is a great day for us -- Russian aviators. We live in aviation and such days are the best ones in our lives."
Q. What differs this aircraft from other helicopters? As a combat helicopter, our machine fulfills the same functions that exist all over the world. Armies of different countries have many common tasks to fulfill. This helicopter is our own approach to solving those tasks, and not a bad approach, I believe. We created this new machine with new functional capabilities on the basis of the series-built airframe. Thereby we adapted our helicopter for fulfilling a considerably wider circle of tasks. In addition to the tasks the Ka-50 solves, the Ka-52 solves its own specific ones. In the aggregate, a group of those machines - and the Ka-52 is not the last in the series, there will be more - will be able to solve any combat tasks on the battlefield in the interests of the Army Aviation and the Land Forces. Our task as engineers is to do this using existing hardware, which should be unified to making manufacture, maintenance and repair less expensive.
Q. How does this aircraft differ from the new Mil helicopter? I think you should judge yourself. I feel awkward to speak about it. During the entire 18 years since the tender was initiated I have not said a single bad word toward the competitor. There should be a certain etiquette.
Q. So you are saying the Mi-28N and Ka-52 are competitors? Those two aircraft coincide, they are two bidders. However, the Ka-52 will solve some tasks that the Mi-28N does not solve. We are not solving the problem of night flying on the Ka-52. All that is a husk. At MAKS'97 you will see a night version of the Ka-50. By the way, it will not be any special version- according to the governmental order the new combat helicopter must be capable of night flying. We are late with fulfilling it because of delays with development of our indigenous heat sensors. However, we have built a night version of our helicopter, the Ka-50. You will see at MAKS'97. All helicopters in the Ka-50 series will work by day and night. Meanwhile, there are some tasks the Ka-52 solves, but the Mi-28 does not. Those tasks, however, are solved abroad, for instance, on the American super helicopter Comanche. The time will come when we will be competing with the Comanche and, foreseeing this, we have already made some steps in this direction. The helicopters that were created at a certain time in the past - the Apache, Mi-28 and Ka-50 - are intended for anti-armour and fire support missions. This was their specific narrow task. But, there are some other tasks existing, namely the tasks of reconnaissance on the battlefield, tasks of control on the battlefield, and those of coordination of actions on the battlefield. This means new functions for the on-board complex. Obviously, the new tasks are of a higher level in comparison with those the first-generation helicopters listed above were created to fulfill. We are going to solve the new tasks on the Ka- 52, the Americans are doing that on the Comanche.
Q. What foreign countries are expressing interest in the Ka-50 and Ka-52? This is exactly the question I will not answer. There is a tough competition going on in the international market for combat helicopters. The whole of the helicopter market is getting smaller, leading to a higher competition. Until contracts are signed, I will not speak about my foreign contacts. We used to talk about it in the commuter trains not because we were too talkative, but because this used to be not so important. Nowadays this information is of the highest importance.
Q. Will you be working on new machines in the Ka-50 family? Do you really think I invented the Ka-52 yesterday? No, I invented it 15 years ago! The General Designer shall know the way ahead. He shall think about the next step well in advance and plan how to make it. I know what the third modification will be. One good day you will be shown it... hopefully, not after another 15 years!
Q. Is it true that the factory in Arseniev is having difficulty with streamlining mass production of the Ka-50? Workers at the factory in Arseniev have not been paid for the last 13 months. It is a sort of record for Russia. And this is not because the Ka-50's production has not been streamlined. There have been absolutely no problems with preparations to the mass production. The aircraft was specially designed for the factory in Arseniev. We oriented on technologies already mastered at the factory. Despite the abundance of composites - their share in the airframe is 36% - the airframe is designed so you can make it in large numbers using ordinary aviation technologies. Of course, there are some new technologies, but they all have been mastered at the factory and parts-manufacturers. The real problem is orders.
Q. How are you going to solve this problem? It is clear today that the Russian Armed Forces experience certain difficulties with financing. That is why we concentrate our efforts on attracting foreign customers. For this purpose we participate in tenders, international shows and exhibitions. At the recent show in Paris the helicopter flew very well. So, we are working on the international market. I see the international market as a steady financial source for us in the future. And, beyond any doubt, we will invest the money earned on foreign sales back in aviation because we were born in aviation.
Q. What is the financial situation like now at Kamov? We have not paid salaries for four months. Nobody is happy because our salaries are low. I may announce the average. On Saturday took place a meeting of Kamov joint-stock company shareholders where I announced this figure. As of today, the average monthly salary is Rbs 877,000. This figure is not adequate. But, to say the truth, the customer [the Defense Ministry] paid me nothing for this modification [the Ka-52]. Had I been waiting for money there would have been no money and no aircraft. I often speak to people working at our enterprise - they are very patriotic - that one good day the current difficulties will have gone away and that now our main task is to save our team and the order [he means that from the Russian Army Aviation for the Ka-50]. The most important now is to prove that we can work in any condition,
even without payment. I believe this is the only way because the human being
lives and develops only when he works. When he does not work, he loses qualification
and starts to degrade. My role as a leader is to convince the workers that
the current difficulties will have gone away. People will forgive me for
failures and difficulties after the current period of failures and difficulties
is gone. And I most sincerely believe this will happen. |
The Russian industry
has not yet streamlined production of heat sensors and night goggles necessary
for flying in the dark. Although several local manufacturers have developed
FLIRs [forward-looking heat sensors] for applications on aircraft, the economic
crisis in the country has not allowed to find sufficient funding for curing
their teething problems and putting them into mass manufacture.Russian aircraft
designers demand a high reliability of target acquisition from FLIRs in
European conditions, and in many cases their requirements are not fully
met by the most advanced designs available in the West.
