The Mil Mi-30 Vintoplan was a Russian

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft that generates lift (force), lift and thrust, propulsion by way of one or more powered Helicopter rotor, rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shaft (mechanical engineering), shafts or nacelles ...

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft that can takeoff/land on short runways. Many STOL-designed aircraft can operate on airstrips with harsh conditions (such as high altitude or ice). STOL aircraft, including tho ...

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...

concept that originated in 1972. The Vintoplan would have been a transport aircraft for up to 19 passengers or two tons of cargo. Its purpose was to replace the

Mi-8 The Mil Mi-8 (, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of t ...

and

Mi-17 The Mil Mi-17 (NATO reporting name: Hip) is a Soviet-designed Russian military helicopter family introduced in 1975 (Mi-8M), continuing in production at two factories in Russia, in Kazan and Ulan-Ude. It is known as the Mi-8M series in Russia ...

helicopters.

Design and things

The first tiltrotor aircraft companies were founded in the 1940s; the Vintoplan project was picked up and continued by these companies a few years after the first development. The Mil Design Bureau closely followed the tiltrotor projects at Bell Helicopters, and the concept that Bell proposed seemed to them convincing. In 1972 Mil designers initiated a similar design, the Mi-30. At the beginning of the 1980s, scientists and helicopter designers assembled a design and several layouts for this complicated aircraft, the original design of the Mil Mi-30 Vintoplan was expected to use a TV3-117

turboshaft A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaft horsepower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the ex ...

engine with a four-bladed propeller rotor on each wing. The original design of the Mil Mi-30 had several problems:

Aeroelasticity Aeroelasticity is the branch of physics and engineering studying the interactions between the inertial, elastic, and aerodynamic forces occurring while an elastic body is exposed to a fluid flow. The study of aeroelasticity may be broadly classi ...

, dynamics of construction, characteristics for the converter apparatuses,

aerodynamics Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

and

flight dynamics Flight dynamics in aviation and spacecraft, is the study of the performance, stability, and control of vehicles flight, flying through the air or in outer space. It is concerned with how forces acting on the vehicle determine its velocity and at ...

. The Vintoplan went through several different designs and layouts, shifting from having 2 engines to 3 or 4 engines and back to 2 engines. In 1981 an issued decree on the development of the Mi-30 Vintoplan made a proposal to the customer and institutions at MAP, shortly after the military approved of the Vintoplan but desired bigger, more powerful engines. In the development the weight capacity was raised to 3–5 tons, and the passenger limit was raised to 32. In 1986–1995 the Mil Mi-30 was included in the program of armaments. However, due to the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

and its economy, the Mil Mi-30 did not succeed in the new age of technology. The Mi-30 Vintoplan was included in the 5-year plan in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

from 1989 to 1995, but the project was never completed. In the last year,

OKB OKB () is a transliteration of the Russian initials for "" (), which translates to "Experimental Design Bureau." It could also mean or "Special Design Bureau" in english. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and ...

experts in the Soviet Union designed three different models of the Mil Mi-30, each with unique designs- Mi-30S, Mi-30D, and the Mi-30L. An unmanned

project was started in Russia in 2015.

References

1970s Soviet civil utility aircraft Mil aircraft Tiltrotor aircraft Abandoned civil aircraft projects High-wing aircraft Twin-turboprop tractor aircraft Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear {{Aero-stub

Design and things

See also

References