HISTORY

The original type designation of Hind E was Mi-24V, where

the letter V means “vysotnyi” which translates as “highaltitude”. This corresponds to engines' higher power available

at higher level. This allowed not only a higher ceiling but, most

importantly, the ability to hover at higher height above sea

level, both with or without the ground effect.

The Hind’s E predecessor, the Hind D,

was continually developed and many

of the features of the Hind E were

already adopted. The only differences

distinguishing the two at first sight at

every stage of development are the ATGM

used and the location of the APU intake.

The Hind E used more advanced and

beam-targeted supersonic 9M114 Shturm

missiles instead of wire-controlled

subsonic 9M17P Falanga ones. The guiding

system appearance also differed in the

shape of the antenna cover on the port

side below the nose and different doors

and other details on the sighting/aiming

system on the starboard side. Also, while

the Hind D has the intake for APU on the

starboard side of the fuselage ridge just

opposed to the APU’s exhaust on the

port side, the Hind E is feeding the air to

APU through the whole tail beam via the

triangle-shaped opening in the low part

of the vertical stabilizer on the starboard.

All the other features, including more

powerful TV3-117V engines, “wet” pylons,

shape of the main as well as tail rotor

blades and other features can be seen not

only on the Hind E, but also on late Hind

D choppers, depending on the state of the

development. But Czechoslovakia did not

use these late Hind Ds.

landing light FFP-7 added. On the trailing

edge of the tail, two small bulges of the

warning system antennae were added.

These were monitoring the rear area.

The early Hinds E also kept the frame in

the wheel bay separating the port and

starboard compartments.

The early Hind D were additionally

equipped with the flare dispensers

ASO-2V. These were fixed to the rear of

the tail by the metal belts encircling the

tail. The early Hinds E had the dispensers

screwed directly into the frame of the tail.

As the Hind E was developed the later

series (Nos 0786 through 0790 and 0812

through 0816 in Czechoslovakia) had the

gun camera removed from the port side

wing and a new type (SS-45) installed in

the rear pilot-in-command cockpit in the

case on the right side of the gunsight. The

above-mentioned frame in the main wheel

bay was removed, which was greeted by

technicians as it made easier the access

to the serviced components in the bay.

The choppers with tail numbers 0832

through 0839 presented another step in

the development of the Hinds E supplied

to Czechoslovakia: The covers of the

L-006 system were moved behind the

rear cockpit and raised out of reach

from the ground. The three-fingers

SRO-2 antennae were changed for the

trapezoidal antennae of new system

62-01 Parol. As a third visible change, the

flare dispensers were moved from the

tail to the rear of the center section of

the fuselage behind and above the wing.

Also, their number was increased from

four to six (three on each side). They

firstly had covers, but as their removal

and fixing during maintenance was rather

complicated, the covers were gone on

later series of Hind E.

The last Hinds E supplied to Czechoslovakia were choppers with the numbers

0927, 0928 and 0929. They sported minor

changes on the instrument panel in the

rear cockpit, but otherwise were the

same as the previous ones. Two of these

were lost in fatal air crashes and seven

airmen were killed.

After several technical inspections and

overhauls, most of the oldest Hinds E

in the inventory of the Czech army were

discarded and Nos. 0702, 0710, 0788,

0790, 0815, 0835 and 0839 were sold to

AAL company from United Arab Emirates.

After some non-specified overhaul, they

were sold – probably to Libya or Sudan.

First modernization

After the political changes in 1989, first

upgrades to the Czechoslovak Hinds E

were made. Due to the rising number

of participations on Western airshows,

Early series of Hind E (numbers from

0701 to 0710 in Czechoslovakia) were

equipped with older type of the FriendFoe identification system SRO-2 Chrom.

It was recognizable by the “three fingers”

antennae on the top of the WSO’s cockpit

canopy windshield frame and on the

bottom of the tail fin. The gun camera

S-13 was mounted on the port side on the

front of the joint section of the wing and

the vertical pylon. This corresponded to

the Hind D, but the early Hinds E lacked

the small, bulged antenna of the warning

system S3M Sirena (it was also absent

on the rear of the outer pods). Instead,

the Czechoslovak Hinds E used the

more advanced passive system L-006

Beryozka (birch) installed in the bulky

oval covers on both sides of the front

fuselage between front and rear cockpit.

These were quite popular among pilots

as they were used as handy shelves for

the map cases or helmets prior to or

after the flight. Behind and under the

port Beryozka antenna, there was a fixed

April 2023

Photo: author

Series variations

The first batch of Hinds E sported the gun camera placed in the intersection of the end of the wing and the

end pylon like on the Hind D but the small bumpy antenna of the warning S3M Sirena system is missing.

INFO Eduard

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