I always thought that the huge Mil Mi-6 helichoppers were really cool looking, and they have a huge amount of space on the inside. If I were extremely rich, and had a private helicopter, as many such people do, I would want it to be one of these, instead of the more typical slick-looking “executive” helicopters.
First of all: could one of these be obtained by a private citizen? It says on Wikipedia: “Small numbers are still in service, most in Siberia plus a small number with the People’s Republic of China. The Russian Air Force currently operates 5 Mi-6s.” This indicates to me that they are not all that common and that finding an operational one for sale would be tough.
Secondly: say it was purchased. I assume it would be pretty old, and in need of much restoration. Could it be restored to the point of flying more or less perfectly and with as close to 100% mechanical safety as possible?
I didn’t see any Soviet helicopters at controller.com or barnstormers.com, but I’ve seen them come up on eBay from time to time. (Not the Mi-6, though, and I wouldn’t trust an Eastern-Bloc helicopter being sold through eBay.)
If you want something big and not particularly ‘slick’, how about a Sikorsky S-97?
None of those other helicopters have quite the same appeal to me as the Mi-6 “Hook”, not even the larger Mi-26 “Halo” that replaced it. I’m afraid it’s this or nothing. Surely there would be other ways for a billionaire to obtain the thing besides eBay. Would the Russian government be willing to maybe sell one to a qualified buyer?
Personally I’d rather have one of those for style. However if you are dead set on a Mil-6, I reckon your best bet would be to try and buy one from one of the ex-soviet republics that still use them… according to wiki, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine still use them.
These things never had 100% mechanical safety, even when new.
But, given large amounts of money, you could almost certainly have one restored to good-as-new condition. The various skills needed to do this are not hard to find - just hard to pay for.
Note that there are P-51 examples flying that have only a tiny number of original parts - all the rest were recently fabricated.
Very likely. And “qualified” here means “has sufficient cash”.
They will send you to the International space station as a qualified buyer so a helicopter shouldn’t be a problem. Note that the Soyuz space craft isn’t a 100% sure thing either.:eek:
I’m not sure why there is any doubt about this. You can buy almost anything for “unlimited” cash. You could certainly buy a non-certified junked one and pay machinists and mechanics to rebuild it, assuming you’re not a stickler for all-original equipment.
I’ve always thought they were the best looking flying machine ever… perhaps best machine ever. Even with (or because of) the “I didn’t know if I was going to need it, so I bolted it on the outside just in case” look.
My friend is a bit of an audiophile, and despite insisting it’s low end, has a system that costs more than my car; it contains a few dozen tubes (which have to be replaced at the ~2000 hour mark). So I actually think that might be a trade that’s growing.
Hence my comment about “non-original”. Does the OP really want a radio covering common Soviet air frequencies? Or some bullshit nav system that doesn’t have GPS? If you’re getting it for the look and cool factor, put a glass cockpit inside and really wow the geeks!
What is your point? Are you saying that it would be impossible to rebuild such a craft into flyable condition, given millions of dollars to put into the project?
The OP does say “if money were no object”, but I think he also means rebuilt to original specifications. Otherwise you’d just build a replica from scratch.
The guys doing high-end vintage warbird restoration have an incredibly deep network of talented specialists to rely on. I believe the general thinking is that if someone made it in the first place, they can rebuild it. It may take months or even years to collect all the parts, but it eventually gets done.
What exactly does this mean? I doubt if the original specification for the aircraft included peripheral equipment like radios and systems.
If you are saying that every piece of equipment that goes into it must have been built by the original Soviet factory during the helicopter’s production run, well, then I would agree with you. But I don’t know of any aircraft restorers who insist on sheet metal made in 1940 to restore a B-17, or canvas made in 1917 to rebuild some WWI plane. If you have the specifications, and enough money, you can buy any parts available, and have any that aren’t fabricated. And if you’re at all practical, you will replace systems that are no longer practical with newer, safer, more efficient systems. The radio systems seem the most obvious targets for that – I would guess that those old Soviet frequencies are not the same as where the OP would want to fly the thing.
I mean, maybe if you’re buying one for a museum, it would make sense to restore all the labeling to (I assume) the original Cyrillic lettering. But if you’re a rich guy guying a pricey toy, you probably want to have the instruments labeled in English.
With a couple of minues searching, I found this company which will make custom vacuum tubes.
There are a bunch of manufacturers advertising services to convert analogue to glass cockpits for aircraft including helicopters. The US Army is upgrading it’s Ch-47 Chinook helicopters, which aren’t all that much younger than MI-6s, to glass cockpits.
I see thatthe Wiki page on the Mi-6 says the Russians revoked the Type Certificate for it in 2002, meaning they’re not allowing any of them to fly anymore. There’s also a mention of a wooden tail rotor that’s reached tghe end of its service life, so again, if your standard is all original factory-built equipment, it may not be possible for this type.
It doesn’t need to be original factory specs; none of the inner workings of the chopter need to be authentic. All that matters is that, on the outside, the thing looks original. Would this still be possible?
I’m pretty sure that I flew in the civilian version of this chopper in Afghanistan. My aid agency leased them from this company http://www.skylinkaviation.com/services/long-term-aircraft-operations and there were dozens of these on the runway in Kabul. If it is the same chopper, I’ve flown in it dozens of times including shooting through snow covered valleys while sitting in the cockpit with the pilots. I have a photo of the chopper, but not sure how to post it here.
