In June, the Russian advanced high-speed helicopter (AHSH) will take its flight at speeds of up to 450 km/h. This was reported by Andrey Shibitov, Deputy Director General of Manufacturing and Innovations at Russian Helicopters holding company.

"The laboratory helicopter is preparing to take its flight at the specified speed. In early June, we expect this flight to take place, and hope that at the first stage it will reach a speed of 400-450 km/h and subsequently up to 500 km/h," said Andrey Shibitov, according to TASS.

The works on the AHSH are divided into two parts. The first is research activity called "Advanced High-Speed Helicopter".

"In this field, the flying laboratory has been created, and as you know, it has now taken its first flight," Andrey Shibitov said.

The other part of this project consists in the creation of an advanced commercial helicopter. Additionally, Andrey Shibitov pointed out that for good reason the layout of helicopter Mi-24 was used to create the AHSH cockpit. According to him, use of the existing aircraft is the optimum way to save funds.

The AHSH flying laboratory is an experimental aircraft manufactured on the basis of the Mi-24 helicopter. It is fitted with new all-composite rotor blades. Some elements of the flying laboratory fuselage have been altered to significantly reduce drag and improve the helicopter’s aerodynamics at high speed. In January of this year, the helicopter got off the ground at the flight test complex of the Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant for the first time. It is planned that the aircraft will go into production from 2022 and will be able to gain speeds of up to 500 km/h.

Furthermore, Andrey Shibitov announced that Russian Helicopters have been hard at work on a new generation aircraft for the Russian Navy.

"Again and again, we came up with a proposal to renew development of the new generation aircraft for the Navy. It is gratifying that the Ministry of Defense has heard us. We have been hard at work on this aircraft," Andrey Shibitov said.

He pointed out that at the same time " tremendous and serious work" on the repair of existing shipborne helicopters is underway.

Last summer, Sergey Mikheev, General Designer of Kamov Design Bureau (part of Russian Helicopters) told TASS about the development of a new shipborne helicopter. According to him, we are talking about a successor for Ka-27 and Ka-29. Igor Kozhin, Chief of the Naval Aviation, informed TASS that by 2020, Kamov will develop a "fundamentally new helicopter" for the military.

According to the agency, the future helicopter has been created under the codename of “Minoga” [lamprey]. It will be smaller than the Ka-27, but will keep the "configuration traditional for Kamov helicopters."

In addition, a shipborne version of the Ka-52 Alligator helicopter was developed for Mistral helicopter carrier, ordered in France. The deal fell through, but Russian Helicopters and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced that shipborne Alligators will find their use in the Navy.