The Tatarstan business resource BUSINESS Online published Timur Latypov's article "Goodbye, Mi-8, Hello, Mi-80: will the Supervosmerka arrive at the KVZ?", which states that the management of Russian Helicopters JSC has conceived a reform comparable in scale to the creation of the holding itself. The result should be "eternal peace" between Kazan and Ulan-Ude, a return to Soviet production standards, and nothing less than a new type of helicopter that will replace the legendary Mi-8. Attempts at such transformations have already been made. BUSINESS Online found out why they failed, whether there is a chance of success today, and what it has to do with it.
The second flight prototype of the Mi-171A3 helicopter (serial number 01-02) during tests at the M. L. Mil and N. I. Kamov National Helicopter Center of Russian Helicopters JSC at Lyubertsy airfield (Moscow Region). December 2024 (c) Oleg Podladov / russianplanes.net ( link )
Mi-8 in Tatar and Mi-8 in Buryat
We are talking about bringing the same type of products of the Kazan Helicopter and Ulan-Ude Aviation Plants to a single appearance. This is reported by BUSINESS Online sources in the industry. Russian Helicopters (BP) did not respond to the newspaper's request.
The point is that today, under the guise of the Mi-8 (Mi-17/171/172), Tatars and Buryats are building quite different helicopters. For example, electrics, tanks, doors, engine hoods from a Kazan car will not fit Ulan-Ude with the same functionality. This unjustified complication of production and after-sales service has been talked about for decades, but so far there has been neither the strength, nor sufficient desire, nor - and this is important - the political will to solve the problem.
Sources believe that the issue has been raised again today because of its: "According to the catalog, there are 40,000 spare parts in the helicopter, and if half of them are not interchangeable, then everything becomes very complicated. Structures that operate the same type of products from both KVZ and UUAZA (and this is very common) are forced to keep two repair funds each, the technical staff must know the nuances of servicing different machines. The situation is absolutely obvious and predictable."
If we summarize the words of our interlocutors in the industry, the following picture emerges. Until the early 90s, KVZ and UUAZ, under the leadership of the developer, the Moscow Helicopter Plant (MVZ), made almost identical Mi-8s - the main spare parts were suitable for both. "The Soviet government fought for everything to be universal," says the source. KVZ was the head office, and UUAZ copied what Kazan was implementing.
However, even then there were differences. "There was no unity of equipment at the factories: what could be knocked out at the state security service was taken," independent aviation expert Alexei Zakharov explained to BUSINESS Online. - Something was simply "not on sale," and the factory workers made the equipment themselves, according to their own understanding and capabilities. That is, the factories were slowly adjusting the original design to their capabilities." But it didn't lead to any problems. "Even in Kazan, even in Ulan-Ude, the spare parts were suitable for both," pilot 1st class Rafail Yagofarov told the newspaper.
Decontamination began with the collapse of the USSR, the liquidation of the Ministry of Aviation Industry and the departure of factories to independent navigation. In many ways, it was the fault of the developer, MVZ. Kazan asked to create a certain system, and Moscow did it. Ulan-Ude made a similar request in parallel, and they did it to him, but in a slightly different way - to take money from both of them. "We were still self-supporting," the source says. - As a result, MVZ produced models, only to be given money for the development. And by the time the holding was created (2007 - editor's note), it turned out that we had completely different cars."
Politics also had an impact. The BP management, which favored UUAZ (for reasons well known in the industry), transferred all the achievements of the KVZ (and he improved the classic "eight" on his own) to Ulan-Ude. Kazan was banned from implementing them. "We asked: "Why does UUAZ make our car, but we don't?" says one of the Kazan helicopter builders. - We were told: "We will do it in Ulan-Ude now, and then we will give it to you." They didn't, of course. Therefore, UUAZ has moved forward to a certain extent, it has become UUAZ's growth platform and has had a bad effect on the relations between the plants."
Mi-171A3: pros and cons
The abnormality of the situation was fully realized. Andrey Shibitov, the first CEO of BP (in 2007-2010), tried to promote the idea of unification. It is claimed that attempts were also made under Andrei Boginsky (he led BP from 2017 to 2021). There is no result. Among the reasons is "sabotage" by the factories. After all, how does unification look like? Enterprises still produce Mi-8 modifications that differ in purpose, but are as similar as possible in airframe and components, explains one of our interlocutors. Accordingly, either the Kazan or Ulan-Ude machine should be taken as the standard. It turns out that the assembly of the Mi-8 needs to be stopped at one of the factories and production needs to be retrofitted, our interlocutor says. But which director would want to rebuild a well-established mechanism?
Another option is to leave the Mi-8 at only one of the factories. But the G8 feeds both companies. UWAZ doesn't release anything else at all. To take the G8 away from the KVZ is to leave it with three undeveloped types - the Ansat, Mi-38 and Mi-34. In previous times, Kazan residents were engaged in "sabotage", since the former heads of the holding were unevenly attracted to UUAZ, and now the Buryats, because BP was headed by Kazan citizen Nikolai Kolesov in 2020, the source points out.
"It's a very difficult question, it will take at least five years to solve, but most likely 2 times more," Valery Kartashev, former deputy general Director of the KVZ, told BUSINESS Online. - The idea is sound, but unrealizable in the current state of the industry. It used to be necessary to think, but now everything is running."
Theoretically, a way out of the impasse has been found. The ideology is as follows: the capabilities of the G8, for all the ingenuity of the design, are still limited, and a new helicopter should replace it, which will become the progenitor of the new model range and replace all modifications of the Mi-8. It is necessary to deploy production of a new type at both plants in an equal order.
But in practice, things are coming to a standstill again. BP's leadership sees the Mi-171A3 as a promising platform. The prototype took off in July 2022. Last May, the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC) received a tranche of the National Welfare Fund for the construction of 6 vehicles (to be commissioned in 2026). The problem is that the Mi-171A3 is an offshore helicopter, i.e. designed for flights to offshore production platforms. It was designed (work began in 2018) in accordance with the requirements of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP). As a result, the helicopter is equipped with the latest technology, but because of this, it has become, firstly, heavier than its predecessors from the Mi-8 series (and in helicopter transport, every kilogram counts), and secondly, at least 2 times more expensive. Based on the GTLC data, the construction of one Mi-171A3 will cost 1.1 billion rubles, i.e. it will cost even more.
"From the crew's point of view, it's a great car, but we need range, and according to it, the Mi-171A3 is absolutely not suitable for us," a pilot from one of the airlines told BUSINESS Online, to whom the Mi-171A3 had already been recommended voluntarily. "The Mi-8MTV carries 22 passengers for 900 kilometers, and the Mi-171A3 carries the same number for 450 kilometers." In other words, presenting the Mi-171A3 as a universal platform is, to put it mildly, a dubious idea.
"Now we have an experimental batch, and when we bring it to the series, it will be a different machine in many ways, it is possible that the name will change," one of the apologists of the Mi-171A3 assured the BUSINESS Online correspondent. At the same time, according to him, the price will be about the same as that of the Mi-8. This will be achieved, firstly, due to the massive supply of 100 per year from KVZ and UUAZ, and secondly, due to the introduction of high-performance equipment. It should be recalled that a machining center for the entire holding has been created at the KVZ. The new equipment will optimize the production process of the lower fuselage of the Mi-171A3, which is already being produced by KVZ. Plus, it was decided to build a composite materials factory at the enterprise, primarily for the Mi-171A3. According to our interlocutor, the task has been set to launch the first batch of Mi-171A3 in 2027: 10-15 in Kazan and the same number in Ulan-Ude.
The Mi-80 is the successor to the Gaston
"It is a mistake to introduce the Mi-171A3 as a promising platform," says a source from the camp of opponents of the mass construction of the Mi-171A3. "It has few prospects, because so far it does not perform even its elementary functions. This helicopter is redundant: there are a lot of gadgets that flying over land simply does not need. If we see the Mi-171A3 as a universal platform, it needs to be simplified."
According to another of our sources, this is where things are heading. There is a helicopter project with the working name Mi-80. It is based on the same Mi-171A3, but with a number of improvements such as new rotor blades and more powerful engines. The goal of the program is to reduce the cost of the platform, unified production at KVZ and UUAZ, increase the take-off weight to 14 tons, and replace all Mi-8s by 2030.
Interestingly, the idea of the "super eight" is not new, it was driven by Kazan, among other things. According to one of the sources, in the late 90s, MVZ and KVZ conceived a radical modernization of the Mi-8. The program was called "Gaston," and our interlocutor sees a lot in common with those ideas. It was supposed to have a new automatic skewer, composite blades, a reinforced transmission, an X-shaped tail rotor, and modern avionics. And most importantly, a new main gearbox and main rotor hub were designed. This is the most difficult thing, without which all other improvements (including an increase in engine power) become just cosmetic, and talking about increasing the main characteristics - payload and range - is just verbal balancing. Alas, in those conditions of lack of money and collapse, it was not possible to bring the bushing and gearbox. They are still missing today. It is unknown whether this fact is taken into account in the Mi-80 project. According to the source, the project is still at the level of the technical specification, as there is no clarity about the development fee. Our interlocutor believes that the development will take at least five years.
Oleg Panteleev, executive Director of the Aviport industry agency, told BUSINESS Online that the topic of unification was discussed both in the last decade and this one. In the current economic and even geopolitical conditions, a return to it looks logical. It would be useful both from the point of view of cooperation between plants, and for operators, work with helicopters would be extremely simplified. From an economic point of view, the most rational option is when enterprises divide the production of unified units among themselves, but if we keep in mind the sustainability of production in the current difficult conditions, then duplication of full-cycle production seems optimal.
Anyway, all our interlocutors consider the development of another new type of helicopter as a settled issue. Thus, the case is taking on an unprecedented turn. It has always been said in Kazan that for the sustainability of the KVZ, a wide range of models is needed so that one type can replace another, which is no longer in demand. And such a series has been formed: Mi-8, Ansat, Mi-38, Mi-34, and in the future - the Super Eight. No other plant has such a variety, although the last three types have yet to become helicopters, and the fourth has yet to be turned into iron.
If you look at what BP has done over the 19 years of their existence, these tasks seem overwhelming. On the other hand, for KVZ, the last three years have been entirely the realization of what was once planned: the replacement of foreign Ansat engines (the first movements were in 2008), an ultralight helicopter (recall the Aktai), a solid plan for the Mi-38 (greetings from the late USSR), a new machining and the production and training center (two eternal themes). The return to the idea of the "super eight" is from the same series.
