Mil Mi-40

The Mil Mi-40 was a projected utility version of the Mil Mi-28, first initiated in 1983, announced in 1992 and shown at the Moscow Airshow in 1993. It was primarily intended for the "Aerial Infantry Fighting Vehicle" category as a successor to the Mil Mi-24 and Mi-8 assault helicopters.

It was planned to use two 1,863 kW Klimov TV3-117 turboshaft engines, four-blade main rotor, four-blade Delta H tail rotor (both from the Mi-28), and retractable tricycle-type landing gear. It was expected to weigh 11-12,000 kg and estimated to attain a 3300 m ceiling, a 314 km/h maximum speed and a 260 km/h cruise speed.

Specifications required the functioning in day, night and poor weather as well as carrying eight soldiers (the design achieved seven in practice), eight stretchers or large external loads. An emphasis was placed on survivability with a focus on redundancy, IR suppression and special shock absorbers for the crew to increase the maximum "safe" crash velocity.

The design incorporated a 23 mm cannon (most likely GSh-23L) for defense in the forward hemisphere and a 12.7mm machine gun (most likely Yak-B) for defense in the rear. Fuselage fairings containing fuel would replace stub wings with missiles mounted above on special hardpoints.

Its design borrowed much from the Mil Mi-36 developed over the previous two years, and would itself be replaced after a year by the Mil Mi-42 project. Although the Mi-40 design would be resurrected for a short period in the 1990s, with optimization studies being completed, it did not reach the prototype stage.

See also

Related development

• Mil Mi-28
• Mil Mi-36
• Mil Mi-42

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Kamov Ka-29TB
• Mil Mi-8
• Mil Mi-24

References

• VR Mikheev, "MVZ Mil - 50 years"