Russian Helicopters holding is developing a high-speed helicopter in a bid to capture an emerging and promising segment of the global rotorcraft market, the firm's parent holding company said on Thursday.
"It is a military-purpose helicopter...It could have a speed approaching 450-500 kilometers per hour," said Rostekhnologii corporation's head of strategic development Alexander Tatushkin.
Several dozen billion rubles have been allocated to the project so far, Tatushkin said.
The program for an advanced high-speed helicopter includes simultaneous development of two designs - the Mil Mi-X1 and the Kamov Ka-92, according to other Russian sources. Ultimately, only one of the two designs will proceed.
Foreign competitors - Eurocopter and Sikorsky - are already testing their prototype models, with the Sikorsky X2 surpassing 460 km/h and Eurocopter X3 featuring slightly lower speed but better cost-effectiveness, according to Flightglobal.com.
