Mi-8 Hip

The Mil Mi-8 (NATO reporting name "Hip") is a Soviet medium twin-turbine transport helicopter designed by the Mil bureau and built by the Kazan and Ulan-Ude helicopter plants. First flown in 1961 and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1967, it is the world's most-produced helicopter, with more than 17,000 built for over 50 countries and Russian production continuing as of 2024. It also serves as an airborne command post, jammer and armed gunship, and was developed into the Mi-24 and the naval Mi-14. The re-engined Mi-8M series, exported as the Mi-17, is covered separately.

Development

In 1959, after the Mi-4 and the turbine-powered Mi-6, the Mil bureau proposed an all-new twin-turbine helicopter. Its single-engine V-8 prototype, designed in 1958 from the Mi-4 with a larger cabin and presented to a reluctant military as a turbine update rather than a new type, used a 2,010 kW (2,700 shp) Ivchenko AI-24 turboshaft; it first flew in mid-1961 and appeared at the Tushino air parade that July. In May 1960 the Mil bureau was authorised to build a twin-engine version with the first purpose-built Soviet helicopter turbines, from the Isotov bureau, and an in-house main gearbox.

The third prototype, the V-8A with two 1,120 kW (1,500 shp) Isotov TV2 turboshafts, flew on 2 August 1962, the first Soviet helicopter flight on purpose-built gas turbines. The fourth prototype introduced the five-blade main rotor in 1963 to cut vibration, and the fifth was the production standard. Joint testing ended in November 1964, and the Kazan plant completed its first aircraft at the end of 1965. Military interest grew only after the Bell UH-1's performance in Vietnam, and a troop-carrying version was rushed into production and introduced in 1967. The second-generation Mi-8M/Mi-17 line moved the tail rotor from the right to the left side as a tractor and added oval exhausts, intake dust shields and more crew armour.

Design

The Mi-8T is powered by two 1,251 kW (1,677 shp) Klimov TV2-117A turboshafts, giving 249 km/h (155 mph) at sea level, and the Mi-8MT by two 1,454 kW (1,950 hp) Klimov TV3-117MTs. The five-blade main rotor spans 21.29 m (69 ft 10 in) and the aircraft is 18.4 m (60 ft 4 in) long. A crew of three carries 24 passengers on tip-up seats along the cabin walls, 12 stretchers with a medical attendant, or 4,000 kg (8,800 lb) of cargo loaded through rear clamshell doors. Empty weight of the Mi-8MT is 7,100 kg (15,653 lb) and maximum take-off weight 13,000 kg (28,660 lb). For the Mi-8MT, maximum speed is 250 km/h (160 mph), range 495 km (308 mi) and service ceiling 5,000 m (16,000 ft). A Ukrainian Mi-8MSB set a class altitude record of 9,150 m (30,020 ft) on 15 August 2013.

Armament

The Mi-8T carries four UV-16-57 pods of 57 mm S-5 rockets on two outrigger pylons and one or two side-mounted 7.62 mm PK machine guns. The Mi-8TVK gunship adds two stations for six hardpoints and a flexible 12.7 mm KV-4 machine gun in the nose, carrying six UV-32-57 pods, 250 kg (551 lb) bombs or four AT-2 Swatter (9M17 Falanga) anti-tank missiles; the export Mi-8TBK has six rails for Malyutka missiles. The Mi-8AV lays 64 or 200 anti-tank mines. The door guns have found air-to-air use: in 1999 a Yugoslav door gunner shot down a US Army Hunter UAV with a 7.62 mm machine gun, and in August 2024 videos showed Ukrainian Mi-8 crews flying alongside Shahed-type attack drones and shooting them down with door-mounted machine guns.

Operational History

The Mi-8 family became the main Soviet, and later Russian, helicopter across a wide range of military and civil roles. Large numbers flew in the Soviet–Afghan War, where it was the aircraft most often lost, and between April and May 1986 Mi-8s were among the helicopters that dropped more than 5,000 tonnes of sand, lead, clay and boron onto the burning No. 4 reactor at Chernobyl; a Mi-8 working at the plant later struck a crane cable and crashed, killing its four crew. Yugoslavia took 24 Mi-8Ts between May 1968 and May 1969 for the 119th Transport Regiment at Niš and 92 in all as the HT-40; one was shot down by a Strela 2 over Slovenia on 27 June 1991. In Abkhazia a Russian Mi-8T fell to an SA-14 on 14 December 1992 and a Georgian Mi-8MTV carrying refugees was shot down with 25 killed.

Ukrainian National Guard Mi-8s were downed by MANPADS near Sloviansk on 29 May 2014 (12 killed) and 24 June 2014 (nine killed). During the 2022 siege of Mariupol, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, 16 Ukrainian Mi-8s flew seven missions into the Azovstal works carrying arms, ammunition, medicine, food and 72 Azov Regiment reinforcements; two were shot down on the fifth and seventh missions and a third was lost on a rescue sortie. During the Wagner Group mutiny of 24 June 2023, according to a Janes review of open-source footage, four Russian Mi-8s were among the aircraft downed by the mutineers, and in August 2023 a Russian pilot defected to Ukraine with a Mi-8AMTSh. On 31 July 2024 Russian Telegram channels said a Ukrainian FPV drone had destroyed a Russian Mi-8 in occupied Donetsk Oblast as it landed or took off, a claim not independently confirmed; on 31 December 2024 Ukrainian military intelligence said a Magura V5 sea drone firing R-73 missiles had downed a Mi-8 off Cape Tarkhankut, Crimea, later raising the claim to two helicopters; the claim was not independently verified, though Russian military bloggers confirmed the engagement. Oryx's photo-verified count, as of 3 October 2026, listed Ukrainian losses at 31 Mi-8s destroyed and one damaged, and Russian losses at 39 Mi-8 transports destroyed, 13 damaged and one flown to Ukraine by its defecting pilot. Elsewhere, Houthi forces used a captured Mi-17 to board the cargo ship Galaxy Leader on 19 November 2023.

Variants

• Mi-8T (Hip-C): First mass-production utility transport with TV2-117A engines, 24 troop seats, four rocket pods and PK door guns.
• Mi-8TVK (Hip-E): Gunship and direct air support version with six hardpoints and a flexible 12.7 mm KV-4 nose gun, carrying S-5 rockets, 250 kg bombs or AT-2 Swatter missiles.
• Mi-8IV / Mi-9 (Hip-G): Airborne command post with the "Ivolga" communications system and a Doppler radar on the tail boom.
• Mi-8PP / Mi-8PPA (Hip-K): Jamming escort with the "Polye" and, from 1980, "Akatsiya" systems against self-propelled anti-aircraft gun radars.
• Mi-8SMV (Hip-J): Jamming platform with the "Smalta-V" system protecting ground-attack aircraft from air defences.
• Mi-8P: Civil passenger version with square windows, 28 to 32 seats and two TV2-117A engines.
• Mi-8MSB-V: Modernised multipurpose military version for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.