- "Black Shark" redirects here. For the species of fish, see Kitefin shark. The kitefin shark, seal shark, or black shark, Dalatias licha, is a Dogfish, the only species in the genus Dalatias, found
| Ka-50 "Black Shark" Ka-52 "Alligator" |
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|---|---|
 Kamov Ka-50 "Black Shark" on display |
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| Type | Attack helicopter |
| Manufacturer | Kamov company |
| Maiden flight | 17 June 1982 |
| Introduction | 28 August 1995 |
| Status | Active service |
| Primary user | Russian Air Force |
| Number built | 16 (as of 2006) |
The Kamov Ka-50 Black Shark (NATO reporting name: "Hokum A") is a single-seat Russian attack helicopter with the distinctive coaxial rotor system of the Kamov design bureau. An attack helicopter, also known as a Helicopter Gunship, is a Military helicopter armed for attacking targets on the ground An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing building testing selling and maintaining Aircraft, Aircraft parts Nikolai Il'yich Kamov started building his first rotor-winged aircraft in 1929 together with N The maiden flight of an Aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord Events 1462 - Vlad III the Impaler attempts to assassinate Mehmed II ( The Night Attack) forcing him to retreat Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) Events 475 - The Roman General Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his Capital Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 The Russian Air Force ( Russian: Военно-воздушные cилы России transliteration: Voyenno-vozdushnye sily Rossii) is the air force NATO reporting names are unclassified Code names for military equipment of the Eastern Bloc ( Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw pact Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending An attack helicopter, also known as a Helicopter Gunship, is a Military helicopter armed for attacking targets on the ground Coaxial rotors are a pair of rotors turning in opposite directions but mounted on a mast with the same axis of rotation one above the other Nikolai Il'yich Kamov started building his first rotor-winged aircraft in 1929 together with N It was designed in the 1980s and adopted for service in the Russian army in 1995. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (UTC (Вооружённые Си́лы Росси́йской Федера́ции Transliteration Vooruzhyónniye Síly Rossíyskoy Federátsii It is currently manufactured by the Progress company of Arseniev.
During the late-1990s, Kamov and Israeli Air Industries developed a tandem-seat cockpit version, the Kamov Ka-50-2 Erdogan (Turkish for "Born Warrior"), to compete in Turkey's attack helicopter competition. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Kamov later designed another two-seat variant, the Kamov Ka-52 Alligator (NATO reporting name: "Hokum B"). NATO reporting names are unclassified Code names for military equipment of the Eastern Bloc ( Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw pact
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Design and development
The Ka-50 was designed to be small, fast, and agile to improve survivability and lethality. For minimal weight and size (thus maximal speed and agility) it was -- uniquely among gunships -- to be operated by a single pilot only. Kamov concluded after thorough research of helicopter combat in Afghanistan and other war zones that the typical attack mission phases of low-level approach, pop-up target acquisition, and weapon launch don't simultaneously demand navigation, maneuvering, and weapons operation of the pilot; and thus with well-designed support automation a single pilot can indeed carry out the entire mission alone. However, it is still an unanswered question whether in practice the rank and file of Black Shark pilots would nevertheless suffer from excess fatigue from this combined workload.
Like other Kamov's helicopters, it features Kamov's characteristic contra-rotating co-axial rotor system, which removes the need for the entire tail-rotor assembly and improves the aircraft's aerobatic qualities -- it can perform loops, rolls, and “the funnel” (circle-strafing) where the aircraft maintains a line-of-sight to target while flying circles of varying altitude, elevation, and airspeed around it. History Since 400 AD Chinese children have played with bamboo flying toys. In Video games, particularly in First-person shooters (FPSs circle strafing is the technique of moving around a target in a circle while facing it Using two rotors means that a smaller rotor with slower moving rotor tips can be used compared to a single rotor design. Since the speed of the advancing rotor tip is a primary limitation to the maximum speed of a helicopter, this allows a faster maximum speed than helicopters such as the AH-64. The elimination of the tail rotor is a qualitative advantage because the torque-countering tail rotor can use up to 30% of engine power. Furthermore, the vulnerable boom and rear gearbox are fairly common causes of helicopter losses in combat (as proven in Vietnam); the Black Shark's entire transmission presents a comparatively small target to ground fire. Kamov maintains that the co-axial drive assembly is built to survive hits from 23mm ammunition like the other vital parts of the helicopter. The zero native torque also allows the aircraft to be fairly immune to wind strength and direction, and to have an unsurpassed turn rate in all travel speed envelopes.
As the single seat configuration was considered too revolutionary to be discovered by NATO, false windows were painted on the first two prototypes. [1] The "windows" evidently worked as the first western reports of the aircraft were wildly inaccurate. According to the Air Force Magazine Soviet Aerospace Almanac 1989, the "DoD states that this helicopter has not been observed carrying antitank guided weapons. Instead, it is thought to have a primary air-to-air role (an assessment that is not universally accepted). . . Like other combat helicopters, 'hokum' has a crew of two, in tandem, with an elevated rear seat. "
The Ka-50 was the first helicopter fitted with a NPP Zvezda K-37-800 ejection seat for improved pilot survivability; this was also seen as a psychological factor enhancing the pilot's combat courage. Research & Development Production Enterprise Zvezda ( R&D PE Zvezda for short НПП Звезда translit In Aircraft, an ejection seat is a system designed to rescue the pilot or other crew of an aircraft (usually military in an emergency Before the rocket in the ejection seat kicks in, rotor blades are blown away by explosive charges in the rotor disc and the canopy is similarly jettisoned.
The first Ka-50 prototype was nicknamed "Werewolf", however Kamov's official name for the type is "Black Shark". As the Soviet Union's collapse vastly reduced military spending before Ka-50 could go into full-scale production, a relatively small number of these aircraft have been built. Reportedly Ka-50's development took place in record time, as Kamov had the forethought of placing liaison engineers at major component suppliers and systems subcontractors.
The Ka-50 and its modifications have been chosen as the special forces support helicopter while Mi-28 has become main army's gunship. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout The production of Ka-50 was recommenced in 2006.
Ka-50-2 Erdogan
In 1997, Israeli Air Industries (IAI) in cooperation with the Kamov bureau entered a Turkish design competition for a $4 billion contract for 145 (later changed to 50) combat helicopters. Nikolai Il'yich Kamov started building his first rotor-winged aircraft in 1929 together with N Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches The helicopter designed for the competition became the Ka-50-2 Erdogan, a tandem cockpit twin-seater variant of the Ka-50 that featured a modern, Israeli-made "glass cockpit" avionics and a turret-mounted side-folding (for landing clearance) 30mm cannon as opposed to the fixed cannon of the Ka-50. Tandem is a Latin Adverb meaning "at length" or "finally" A glass cockpit is an Aircraft cockpit that features electronic instrument displays. (A similar Italian turret is also offered as a modification to the Ka-50. ) The Erdogan beat the Eurocopter and Apache helicopters, but lost to an improved version of AH-1 Cobra. For an overview of the whole Huey family of aircraft see Bell Huey WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. At the end the contract went to the Italian A-129 Mangusta. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout [1] Kamov is still looking for a buyer, since the Russian military doesn't have the funding to purchase it themselves.
Ka-50N and Ka-50Sh
Because of limited night-time capability of the original Ka-50 "Shkval" TV sighting and targeting system, modified versions of single-seat Ka-50 were built. They were named Ka-50N ("Nochnoy", rus. "Night") and Ka-50Sh ("Shar", rus. "Sphere" - because of spherical FLIR turret). Many variants were tried, on some original "Shkval" was supplemented by thermal imaging system, while on others - completely replaced by "Samshite" day-and-night system (also used on Ka-52), including French SAGEM or Thomson thermal imagers. None of those entered mass production so far.
Ka-52
The Ka-52 is another modification of the basic Ka-50 design. It features a two-place side-by-side cockpit and is designed to detect targets and redistribute them among supporting Ka-50. In comparison to the original Ka-50, it has a somewhat "softer" nose profile due to the wider cockpit, reduced cockpit armor, and large nose-mounted radome. Equipment includes radar with two antennas - mast-mounted for aerial targets and nose-mounted for ground targets, and "Samshite" day-and-night TV/thermal sighting system in two spherical turrets (one over the cockpit and second under the nose). The Ka-52 retains the side mounted cannon and six wing mounted hardpoints of the original Ka-50. [2]
The fall of the Soviet Union prevented the Ka-52 from going into full scale production. Currently only a handful of them exist. Twelve "Ka-52" are planned for purchase to 2015. [3]
Design
Weapons
The aircraft carries a substantial load of weapons in four external hardpoints under the stub wings plus two on the wingtips, a total of some 2,300 kg depending on the mix. A hardpoint is any part of an Airframe designed to carry an external load
The main armament are the twelve laser-guided Vikhr anti-tank missiles with a maximum range of some 10 km. Laser guidance is a technique of guiding a missile or other projectile or vehicle to a target by means of a laser beam 9A1472 Vikhr (Вихрь Whirlwind) is a Russian laser guided Anti-tank missile system An anti-tank guided missile ( ATGM) or anti-tank guided weapon ( ATGW) is a guided Missile primarily designed to hit and destroy The laser guidance is reported to be virtually jam-proof and the system features automatic guidance to target enabling evasive movement immediately after missile launch. The fire control system automatically shares all target information among the four Black Sharks of a typical flight in real time, allowing one helicopter to engage a target spotted by another, and the system also can input target information from ground-based forward scouts with man-portable target designation gear. The integrated 30mm cannon is semi-rigidly fixed on the helicopter's side, movable only slightly in elevation and azimuth. Azimuth ( is a mathematical concept defined as the angle usually measured in degrees (° between a reference plane and a point. The aircraft's agility allows the weapon control system to turn (the entire helicopter and) the cannon at the target acquired in the pilot's helmet sight about as fast as the cannon turret of the Apache or the Mi-28 turns. The semi-rigid mounting improves the cannon's accuracy, giving the 30mm a longer practical range and better hit ratio at medium ranges than with a free-turning turret mount.
Operational history
In January 2001, the Ka-50 saw its first combat operation, as it fired on enemy positions in Chechnya. The Chechen Republic (ˈʧɛʧɨn rɪˈpʌblɨk Чече́нская Респу́блика Chechenskaya Respublika; Нохчийн Республика Noxçiyn Respublika Later, it would undertake several missions inside that war zone, although not as much as the more numerous Mil Mi-24 which is perhaps better suited to the more anti-guerrilla-type operations undertaken there. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Because of lack of combat-ready Ka-52 (which was intended for target detection and coordination of Ka-50 attacks), a modified Ka-29 aerial command post was used, with reconaissanse and targeting equipment installed. Ka-50s have shown excellent manouevrability in mountain environment.
Operators
- Russian Air Force - 16 in service
Specifications
Data for Ka-50, differences for Ka-52 noted. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The Russian Air Force ( Russian: Военно-воздушные cилы России transliteration: Voyenno-vozdushnye sily Rossii) is the air force
Data from Ka-50 page,[4] Ka-52 page,[2] Aerospaceweb [5]
General characteristics
- Crew: One (For Ka-52: two)
- Length: 13. 50 m (44 ft 3 in)
- Rotor diameter: 2x 14. 50 m (2x 47 ft 7 in)
- Height: 5. 4 m (17 ft 9 in)
- Disc area: 330. 3 m² (3,555 ft²)
- Empty weight: 7,800 kg (17,200 lb)
- Loaded weight: 9,800 kg (21,600 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 10,800 kg (23,810 lb)
- Powerplant: 2× Klimov TV3-117VK turboshafts, 1,660 kW (2,226 shp) each
- For Ka-52:
- Loaded weight: 10,400 kg (22,930 lb)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 390 km/h (204 knots, 242 mph) in dive
- Cruise speed: 270 km/h (146 knots, 168 mph)
- Range: 1,160 km (720 miles)
- Service ceiling 5,500 m (18,000 ft)
- Rate of climb: 10 m/s (1,970 ft/min)
- Disc loading: 30 kg/m² (6 lb/ft²)
- Power/mass: 0. The Maximum Takeoff Weight or Maximum Takeoff Mass of an Aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot of the aircraft is allowed to attempt to take off The Kirill Klimov OKB under the direction of Vladimir Yakovlevich Klimov (Владимир Яковлевич Климов (1892-1962 designed engines for Soviet A turboshaft engine is a form of Gas turbine which is optimized to produce Shaft power, rather than Jet thrust. In Aviation, V-speeds or Velocity-speeds are standard terms used to define Airspeeds important or useful to the operation of Aircraft, such In Aviation, V-speeds or Velocity-speeds are standard terms used to define Airspeeds important or useful to the operation of Aircraft, such The maximal total range is the distance an Aircraft can fly between Takeoff and Landing, as limited by fuel capacity in powered aircraft or cross-country In Aeronautics, a ceiling is the maximum Density altitude an aircraft can reach under a set of conditions In Aerodynamics, the rate of climb RoC is the speed at which an Aircraft increases its Altitude. Power-to-weight ratio (specific power is a calculation commonly applied to Engines and other mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another 33 kW/kg (0. 20 hp/lb)
Armament
- 1x 30 mm Shipunov 2A42 cannon
- A variety of payloads including 23-mm gun pods (240 rounds each), 12xAT-16 VIKhR ATGM, Vympel R-73 (NATO: AA-11 Archer), S-8 rocket pods, S-13 rocket pods, High caliber missiles, 4x 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs, 500 l (130 US gal) external fuel tanks
References
- Notes
- ^ Eden, Paul. 30 mm ammunition refers to one of several Autocannon rounds the 30 x 173 mm 30 x 113 mm or 30 x 164 mm the first two of which are used by the armed forces of NATO The Shipunov 2A42 is a Soviet / Russian 30 mm Automatic cannon. 9A1472 Vikhr (Вихрь Whirlwind) is a Russian laser guided Anti-tank missile system The Vympel R-73 ( NATO reporting name AA-11 Archer) developed by Vympel machine Building Design Bureau, is the most modern Russian short-range The S-8 is a Rocket weapon developed by the Soviet Air Force for use by Military aircraft. The S-13 is a 122 mm calibre unguided Rocket weapon developed by the Soviet Air Force for use by Military aircraft. Encyclopedia of Modern Military Aircraft. p. 223, Amber Books, 2006. ISBN 1904687849.
- ^ a b Kamov Ka-52 product page
- ^ Article in Russian
- ^ Kamov Ka-50 product page
- ^ Ka-50/52 page on Aerospaceweb.org
- Bibliography
- Donald, David and March, Daniel J, Modern Battlefield Warplanes. AIRtime Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-880588-76-5.
See also
Related development
Comparable aircraft
- AH-1 SuperCobra/AH-1Z Viper
- AH-64 Apache
- Agusta A129 Mangusta
- Denel AH-2 Rooivalk
- Eurocopter Tiger
- HAL Light Combat Helicopter
- Mil Mi-28
- CAIC WZ-10
- HAL Light Combat Helicopter
External links
- Kamov page on the Ka-50
- Kamov page on the Ka-52
- Defence-Aerospace.com article describing the Ka-50-2's flight trials
- Ka-50 page on FAS.org GlobalSecurity.org
- Kamov Ka-50 Flight Video at YouTube
- Ka-50 Black Shark attack helicopter. Video
- RIA Novosti: The history of the Ka-50 Black Shark (Part1), (Part2), and (Final Part)
- Ka-50 walkaround on www.airforce.ru
- Ka-52 walkaround on ScaleModels.ru
- Ka-50Sh walkaround on ScaleModels.ru
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