The Mi-34 Helicopter

Great opportunities of further upgrading and development of the Mi-34 helicopter open owing to the power unit improvement, which main trend is the potential hopping up the M-14V26V motor/engine up to 370 hp given the simultaneous improvement of main rotor efficiency and lower fuselage parasite resistance. Furthermore, Mil designers together with Volga Automobile Plant engineers have developed a Mi-34VАZ modification (military designation – Mi-34M), providing for installation of rotary-piston engines.

The third upcoming trend of improving the powerplant of the Mi-34 helicopter is the replacement of piston engines by gas-turbine ones. Provision for such upgrading of the helicopter was made from the beginning of helicopter development, however from the middle eighties a course was set for designing a heavier Mi-44 helicopter. Mil specialists reverted to the idea of reequipping the Mi-34 with the revolutionary/brand new engine ten years later. Therefore the Moscow Airshow in Zhukovsky in 1995 saw a mock-up of a challenging Mi-34A modification with the foreign turbo-shaft 450 hp engine. Turbo-shaft engines open new improvement feasibilities for technical and economical characteristics of the Mi-34 helicopter together with enlarging the range of application and market area.

For a variety of causes, mainly organizational and economical, production of Mi-34 helicopters was stopped in the late 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century. Nowadays Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant, JSC is resuming work within the frames of the established helicopter holding company on retrofitting and improving the Mi-34C and working on the program of further modifications of the helicopter including the following:

• • Mi-34U – with piston engine of increased power;
• • Mi-34UT – training helicopter with dual control;
• • Mi-34BPV – unmanned multifunction helicopter;
• • Mi-34A – with turbo-shaft engine like Arrius (France) or АI-450 (Ukraine – Russia).
  

Besides that, specialists are working at special versions, modification with increased flight range and also the helicopter fitted out with the night-flight equipment.