Homebuilt helicopters from Russia and Ukraine

Yuriy Fedorenko Helicopter from Russia Вертолет Василий Артемчук 1

Marcel Kutlubayev,of Bashkortostan, made a helicopter

Марсель Кутлубаев Башкортостана вертолет Saitbaba, Bashkortostan

In an ordinary Odessa garage, local Kulibin Vadim Nikolaychuk is finishing assembling a WWII-era U-2 bomber (pictured above). Moreover, it collects it from parts that once belonged to real bombers. The 32-year-old from Odessa devotes all his free time to an unusual hobby, and Vadim has little of it - the guy works and studies at the same time. But in three months he promises to take off on his own assembled corncob. “I fell ill with the sky in my childhood,” Vadim tells Vzglyad. - I wanted to enter the flight, but it didn’t work out. I worked as a driver for ten years. A few years ago, I even called the Kirovograd Flight School and found out what exams I needed to take, but I couldn’t make my dream come true on a professional level. First of all, airplanes Three years ago, Vadim decided that will definitely rise into the sky, and began to collect the plane in the garage. I chose one of the most complex models - U-2.

During the war, brave women, who were called "night witches", flew on them. These light bombers can be seen in the film “Only Old Men Go to Battle.” “I liked this model because of its carrying capacity,” Nikolaychuk says. - The plane itself weighs 690 kilograms. Its carrying capacity is simply fantastic - it lifts 300 kilograms like a feather. I was told that he could lift 800 kilos. Of course, you have to mess around with the plane - Vadim gets all the components on his own. Some original parts have to be replaced with new, home-made ones. The designer has no assistants. Several times colleagues helped him with turning parts, another friend helped out a lot with electrics. Everything else had to learn on their own. But Vadim is only happy about it. - And what else to do in your free time - drink beer or watch TV? – the guy is surprised. - So this is not mine ... Now Vadim works as a cryogenic engineer, he is also studying at the university. Not everyone understands his idea to assemble an airplane in a garage.

Someone supports, respects the designer, and someone laughs. But Nikolaychuk does not pay attention - he is too busy with his hobby. Assembling an airplane is not a cheap pleasure. Vadim calculated that he had already spent about eight thousand dollars on parts and materials alone. And if you also take into account the work for three years, you will have to throw at least the same amount on top. And flying, according to Vadim's calculations, is not cheap - his plane will consume 35 liters of gasoline per hour. Only fuel for one hour of flight will cost 350 hryvnia. But Vadim is not one of those who gives up. “I will definitely rise to the sky,” he assures. - And then we'll see, maybe I'll spray the fields on my own plane or I'll come up with some other business. The main thing now is to complete the construction of the maize plant. On the wings for potatoes While the U-2 is being completed in Odessa, the production of aircraft has already been put on stream in the Zhytomyr garage. Retired Vasily Artemchuk is known and respected by many inventors and aviation enthusiasts in the region.

He has already managed to make three helicopters, several planes, two hang gliders and a gyroplane - a hybrid of a helicopter and an airplane. “I showed my own helicopter at the regional aviation competition on May 31,” says Artemchuk. - I call it simply “Number Three.” In Soviet times, the grandfather and father of Vasily Artemchuk were also engaged in the design of aircraft. In the 1970s, the father of a pensioner Yakov Artemchuk, a former military pilot, flew on his own device for potatoes to the village, which irritated the KGB very much. Despite the love for the sky and airplanes instilled by his father, Artemchuk was not accepted to the flight school for health reasons. retiree. The process is, of course, laborious.

I can spend from two to five years on everything about everything. But I love to work. In addition to flying machines, I made a mill with my own hands, a motor plow, a threshing machine, and even a small wind farm. In recent years, Vasily Artemchuk has been actively building helicopters. He makes drawings, projects, assembles himself - all with the help of improvised means. The cost of materials is covered by a small pension. - The screw of the last apparatus was first assembled from ordinary boards, - the designer laughs. - I attached the engine from the motorcycle to the frame. Here the main thing is to correctly calculate the aerodynamics - then everything will work out. Vasily Artemchuk used his own helicopter to fly to the dacha, using the garden as a landing site. Now he is blind in one eye, so he does not often sit at the helm. But in the flying club and at competitions, he shares his experience very willingly.

His Crimean colleagues from Feodosia, the retired Plahotniuc brothers, built their original version of the helicopter from improvised materials the year before last. Vladimir and Alexander used ordinary scrap metal: wheels from cars, part of a watering machine, an old jet engine. The basic principle of operation of such an apparatus is that a jet turbine compresses air and supplies it to the engine. The design comes out much easier, since many bulky parts are not required. However, no one was interested in Plahotniuc’s innovation either. Pensioner Artemchuk’s helicopters are shown at air competitionsCrimean pensioners assemble their “swallows” from scrap metal. Vasily Artemchuk is not the only pensioner plowing the Ukrainian skies. September will test it. He called the brainchild simply and poetically - "Swallow". Victor assures that she will be able to reach speeds of up to 120 km / h and soar to a height of up to seven kilometers. Prior to this, the pensioner took to the air on his own designed "Drake". - I wanted to fly terribly since childhood, - Viktor Yuzva admits. “But I didn’t go to school for health reasons. But he got into the flying club. He began to study construction techniques, dynamics, and assemble parts. So he came to his planes.

The main thing in this business is desire. His Crimean colleagues from Feodosia, the retired Plahotniuc brothers, built their original version of the helicopter from scrap materials the year before last. Vladimir and Alexander used ordinary scrap metal: wheels from cars, part of a watering machine, an old jet engine. The basic principle of operation of such an apparatus is that a jet turbine compresses air and supplies it to the engine. The design comes out much easier, since many bulky parts are not required. However, no one was interested in the Plahotniucs' innovation either. Viktor Yuzva is already preparing the seventh aircraft Vladimir and Alexander used ordinary scrap metal: wheels from cars, part of a watering machine, an old jet engine. The basic principle of operation of such an apparatus is that a jet turbine compresses air and supplies it to the engine. The design comes out much easier, since many bulky parts are not required. However, no one was interested in the Plahotniucs' innovation either. Viktor Yuzva is already preparing the seventh aircraft Vladimir and Alexander used ordinary scrap metal: wheels from cars, part of a watering machine, an old jet engine. The basic principle of operation of such an apparatus is that a jet turbine compresses air and supplies it to the engine. The design comes out much easier, since many bulky parts are not required. However, no one was interested in the Plahotniucs' innovation either. Viktor Yuzva is already preparing the seventh aircraft.

More than a thousand parts are in the helicopter, which was assembled by Anatoly Stafiychuk, an engineer from the village of Bronnitsa, Mogilev-Podolsk region, in the Vinnytsia region. The machine can rise into the sky to a height of two kilometers, hangs in the air at a minimum distance of six meters from the ground. And this is not all the technical characteristics of the only air "bird" in the village.

- My helicopter is a full-fledged machine, only smaller, - says Anatoly Stafiychuk. - It can perform the same figures as on the factory car - turns, reverse, hover in the air even at a height of six meters. I rise to the sky from any place. Before taking off even from the yard. True, at that time there were no neighboring houses. Now I don't risk it. I transport the helicopter by car to the field and start the engine there.

Helicopter baby Stafiychuk single. The engineer has been working on it for over four years. There are more than a thousand parts in a car. The interlocutor says that he touched each of them with his hands four times. That's how many times he improved his helicopter. “Why do I have these troubles? the interlocutor asks. Every person finds what he is looking for. This is the law of the universe. All my life I dream that I am flying. If the sky is calling, you must respond.

Flights in a dream and in reality

“Since childhood, I have been dreaming that I am flying,” says Anatoly Stafiychuk. And now I have such dreams. When I rise to the sky, such dreams disappear. I fly not only in my helicopter. Most often I do it on a hang glider. I am a member of the Mogilev-Podolsk Hang Gliding Club. My children, Julia, 16 years old, and 12-year-old Vladislav, are also members of this club. They love flying as much as I do. Together with his son, he took to the skies in his own helicopter. It was a bit inconvenient because the car is single.

But the impressions from the flight with his father will remain with Vladislav for the rest of his life.

About how to make an aircraft, Anatoly Stafiychuk thought, even when he was at school. Then the young man had a hobby - radio modeling. I never thought that childhood dreams could come true. A colleague at work, an engineer of the Mogilev-Podolsk regional communications center where Stafiychuk works, Alexander Omelchenko, somehow encouraged him. They say, why don't you take up designing, you have golden hands, you know how to do everything with them?

“Besides desire, I had nothing - neither materials, nor funds to purchase them, nor acquaintances who are experts in aviation,” says Anatoly. “Now I can say that the main thing is not the spare parts, the important thing is the desire of a person to achieve the goal. If you want this, there will be the right people who will help, and means, and materials ... The law of the Universe works: each person finds what he is looking for. I am talking about this because this is exactly what happened to me with the creation of a helicopter, and I was personally convinced of the validity of these words.

It is forbidden to fly across the Dniester

“I had a bit of trouble with my grasshopper,” Anatoly says. - From the SBU they came to me, and from the border detachment. But we found a common language. They explained to me how to do it right so as not to become a violator of the law. I got all the necessary permissions from the border guards. However, before each flight is obliged to inform them. It's not a problem. Moreover, I am not going to fly to neighboring Moldova. Because single-engine helicopters are only allowed to operate over water or over fields.

Friends from the hang gliding club help Anatoly transport his helicopter to the launch site. It is stored in a garage in the yard. Install a car on a trailer and go on the road. Last year Stafiychuk's helicopter was seen at a prestigious agricultural exhibition.

“I don’t know how they found out about my winged friend in the Cherkasy region,” Anatoly says. “But it was the local farmers who invited me to the exhibition. Representatives of a well-known agricultural company arrived. They said that with such a machine it is convenient to bring the trichogram into the fields. But before that, you need to show the technique at the exhibition. They took over the cost of transporting the helicopter there and back. I was getting ready to take to the sky. The organizers of the exhibition initially agreed, but then changed their minds. However, other equipment for processing fields presented at the exhibition also did not fly.

Vinnytsia region.

Engineer Anatoly Stafiychuk before a helicopter flight made by himself.

Photo provided by Anatoly STAFIYCHUK.

Engine from ... motorcycle

Stafiychuk's consultant and leader during his work on the helicopter was engineer Vasily Artemchuk from Zhytomyr. “Vasily Yakovlevich has an aviation education,” says the interlocutor. He worked in aircraft factories. He has a helicopter of his own production. I am very grateful to him for his help, advice, and most importantly, for his support. He came to me more than once, I went to study with him. We have developed a very good relationship. I don’t know if I would have been able to make an aircraft without his advice.”

However, advice is advice, and I had to do everything myself. Many items ordered online. Some of them were manufactured at two local factories - machine-building and instrument-making. The engine was taken from a motorcycle with an MT-10 sidecar. At first, I did not believe that an engine with a capacity of 38 horsepower could lift a car into the sky. Eight hours flew on it. Now I installed a more powerful one - for 54 horsepower, from a Suzuki car.

Most of all, the designer remembered the first test flight. Not that he failed. The car then nevertheless took off from the ground, but immediately sank onto it. “She jumped several times, like a bird with a broken wing, which is trying to rise into the sky, and that was it,” Anatoly says. “But you should have seen how it all happened!”

He tested the helicopter at the rural stadium. People got together! Everyone wanted to see how a fellow villager would rise into the sky. The main thing - will it rise? “The onlookers surrounded the car so closely that I was afraid to start the engine, I could catch someone with a propeller,” says Anatoly. - I asked friends to help move the crowd away from the car to a safe distance. It went on for a long time. Until everyone who wanted to take a picture of the car, did not move away. And then such a failure! In a word, he disgraced himself before his countrymen. As they say, it wasn't my day."

The start was repeated after the completion of some nodes. Everything worked out on the second try. Having risen into the air at the stadium, he flew over the village a little more than a hundred meters and landed in the courtyard of his own house. From there he started again and repeated the route. This was the first air road of his car. From happiness felt in the seventh heaven. And the next day, the man's wings were clipped a little by unexpected guests.

REFERENCE

Anatoly Stafiychuk (40 years old) is a graduate of the Odessa Popov Academy of Telecommunications. The designer called the home-made helicopter SA-1 (the number one indicates a change in modification, at first there was an engine of one brand, now another). It is not difficult to decipher the letters - the surname begins with the first, and the name of the constructor on the other. Helicopter weight 165 kg. Load capacity - 250 kilograms. The highest flight altitude is 2 km. The maximum speed is 120 km/h.