We want to talk about a beautiful “predator” – attack helicopter Ka-52. This heavy vehicle moves so gracefully that it seems to be dancing in the air…
Development of the two-seater version of the basic one-seater model Ka-50 began in 1994. In December 2010 Ka-52 “Alligator” was put into service.
First four vehicles were used for training instructors who would teach pilots of combatant forces. Eight units more were sent to the Far East of Russia. In October 2011 the Far Eastern squadron had twelve units of helicopters.
Ka-52 is the only attack helicopter in the world with “side by side” crew accomodation. It was made by summarizing the practice of pilots who had huge experience on Mi-8 (“side by side”) and Mi-24 (tandem accomodation) helicopters.
The curved side glazing of the Ka-52 cockpit withstands 12,7 mm bullets, side armor plates provide additional protection.
The “side by side” crew accomodation gives pilots more chances to survive in the most dangerous situations. Being placed like this they protect each other from fragments of shells and missiles flying aside. Such principle makes survival of at least one of the pilots more probable if an enemy munition explodes aside the helicopter. The risk is much higher if they are place in a traditional way.
The nose of the helicopter is protected from 20 mm calibre shells, the main constructor whose S. Mikheev says that the mass of the armor of Ka-52 is smaller than of a helicopter having the same armor but the tandem system of crew accomodation.
Additional protection covers the most vulnarable parts of the helicopter: for example, it rotor blades withstand hits of 20 mm shells. Other safety measures include well-tested ejection seats K-37-800 (which are also mounted in Ka-50 helicopters) – they provide simultaneous escape of both pilots.
Pilots of Ka-52 have five color LED displays on the dashboard and one screen of a smaller size placed between the legs of the first pilot.
According to S. Mikheev compared to Ka-50, helicopter Ka-52 may apply much more wider range of arms. It has four main points of suspension.
In comparison to the original Ka-50, it has a “softer” nose profile and a radar system with two antennas— mast-mounted for aerial targets and nose-mounted for ground targets. “Samshit” day-and-night TV/thermal sighting system in two spherical turrets (one over the cockpit and the second under the nose) are also present. The Ka-52 retains the side-mounted cannon and six wing-mounted hardpoints of the original Ka-50.In order to keep the weight and performance on par with that of the Ka-50, some trade-offs were introduced to the design; the scale of the armour plating and the capacity of the cannon magazine/feed have been reduced.
In 2011 there were made twelve helicopters of Ka-52, in 2013 they plan to make up to fifteen units.
People often think that Ka-52 somehow compete with Mi-28 but it’s far from truth, these vehicles have different tasks, they can perfectly work together and support each other.
Advertisement
More stories:
Click here to read next random post from English Russia
5 Responses to “Ka 52, The Perfect Predator of the Russian Aviation”
Leave a Reply
- Abandoned (108)
- Automotive (1,325)
- Belarus (69)
- Business (399)
- Chelyabinsk (19)
- Culture (2,042)
- Drunk (18)
- Economics (446)
- Estonia (1)
- Exclusive (1,250)
- Far East (23)
- Fiction (65)
- Funny (3,637)
- History (2,929)
- Interesting Facts (872)
- Karelia (36)
- Kazakhstan (1)
- Khabarovsk (17)
- Kiev (112)
- Law (146)
- Members Only (9)
- Moscow (24)
- Murmansk (18)
- News (79)
- Nizhny Novgorod (1)
- Odessa (2)
- Other (1,180)
- Perm (11)
- Photos (9,337)
- Reports (12)
- Rostov-on-Don (15)
- Russian army (1,271)
- Russian Art (995)
- Russian Food (59)
- Russian Music (18)
- Russian Nature (1,170)
- Russian People (3,268)
- Samara (1)
- Saratov (2)
- Science (609)
- Society (3,381)
- Sports (230)
- St.Petersburg (28)
- Tajikistan (1)
- Technology (3,112)
- Transport (260)
- Travel (45)
- Tula (1)
- Tver (1)
- Ukraine (225)
- USSR (56)
- Video (1,233)
- Vladivostok (2)
- Volgograd (1)
- Vologda (1)
- Voronezh (1)
- Yakutia (4)
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
That is a really nice looking helicopter.
Those Israelis are not bad helo designer, yes?
The isrealies had nothing to do with the Ka-52. They did however had input on Ka-50-2 “Erdogan” and their input was only avionics wise.
Benjamin Chung, gun in the center of mass have better accuracy (3 times better, in fact, for the similar gun mounted on the nose of Mi-24). Furthermore Ka-52 can fly in any direction and rotate absolutely freely, so it doesn’t need to circle targets in tangentional position, like Mi-24, that have wings providing additional 10-30% of the lifting force and requre constant motion, or attack targets like planes – making circles from one side of a it, Ka-52 can just fly around constantly facing enemy. It’s just a compromiss between outstanding accuracy and usability.
Awesome choppers its very interesting to see them stick with the double rotor.