Mil 34?
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: 1 Dunghill Mansions, Putney
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Wikipedia will tell you most of what you want to know. The program's been quiet for the last 3 or 4 years. Only 25 or so aircraft are reported to have been delivered (against the target of several hundred p/a), and the 'big' push by OAO Moscow Mil to produce a version equipped with the Turbomeca Arrius 2G (as with the Kamov Ka-226) in place of the 320-370 hp M-14 radial seems to have come to nought.
Other recent variants referred to include a pipeline surveyor and an ag sprayer, but again there's little actual metal to be seen in the air.
Mil confirmed at MAKS-2005 that the program was still alive, but that may just be a reaction to Robinson's growing success in getting R44s into the FSU.
I/C
Mi 34
Aaah..the Mi-34.Really a two-plus-two designed for aerobatics with the Vedeneyev piston engine and put into production at Arseneyev.Then Mil set up a separate company ,which involved unknowingly the Russian Mafia and it all went 'orribly wrong !
Mark Vineberg,then Mil CEO ,died of a heart attack,production ceased and the only customers were the Moscow police (ironically),the Nigerian Air Force (what's happended to theirs ?) and one or two other customers who have done little with their machines.
Meanwhile the "New" Mil is trying to ressurect the design as a VTUAV or as an enlarged 4-5 seat turbine powered machine for training and the civil market.
Don't hold your breath!
Mark Vineberg,then Mil CEO ,died of a heart attack,production ceased and the only customers were the Moscow police (ironically),the Nigerian Air Force (what's happended to theirs ?) and one or two other customers who have done little with their machines.
Meanwhile the "New" Mil is trying to ressurect the design as a VTUAV or as an enlarged 4-5 seat turbine powered machine for training and the civil market.
Don't hold your breath!
