The Kamov Ka-10 (
NATO reporting name
NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
Hat
[Gunston 1995, p. XXX.]) was a Soviet single-seat observation helicopter that first flew in 1949.
Design and development
The Ka 10 was a development of
Nikolay Kamov
Nikolai Ilyich Kamov (russian: Никола́й Ильи́ч Ка́мов; 24 November 1973) was a Soviet aerospace engineer, a pioneer in the design of helicopters, and founder of the Kamov helicopter design bureau.
Biography
Kamov was bor ...
's earlier
Ka-8, which had been successful enough to allow Kamov to set up his own
OKB
OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military applications. ...
(design bureau) in 1948.
The Ka-10 was of similar layout to the Ka-8, with an open steel-tube structure carrying an engine, a pilot's seat and two three-bladed
coaxial rotor
Coaxial rotors or coax rotors are a pair of helicopter rotors mounted one above the other on concentric shafts, with the same axis of rotation, but turning in opposite directions (contra-rotating). This rotor configuration is a feature of helicop ...
s. It was larger, however, with a revised transmission and rotor hub design, and a new engine specially designed for the helicopter, the
Ivchenko AI-4 flat-four
A flat-four engine, also known as a horizontally opposed-four engine, is a four-cylinder piston engine with two banks of cylinders lying on opposite sides of a common crankshaft. The most common type of flat-four engine is the boxer-four engine, ...
.
[Alexander 1975, pp. 146–147.][Gunston 1995, p. XIX.]
Operational history
The Ka-10 made its maiden flight in September 1949.
Three more prototypes followed, which were evaluated by
Soviet Naval Aviation
Soviet Naval Aviation (AV-MF, for ''Авиация военно-морского флота'' in Russian, or ''Aviatsiya voyenno-morskogo flota'', literally "aviation of the military maritime fleet") was the naval aviation arm of the Soviet Nav ...
. A Ka-10 was displayed at the 1950 Tushino
Air Display
Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...
, and one made the first landing by a Soviet helicopter on the deck of a ship on 7 December 1950.
In 1954, 12 of an improved version, the Ka-10M were built for the
Maritime Border Troops. They had a twin tail rather than the single vertical fin of the Ka-10 and modified rotors and control systems.
Variants
* Ka-10 : Single-seat observation helicopter.
* Ka-10M : Improved version fitted with twin tailfins and rudders.
Operators
;
*
Soviet Navy
Specifications
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Alexander, Jean. ''Russian Aircraft since 1940''. London: Purnell Book Services, 1975. .
* Apostolo, Giorgio. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Helicopters''. New York: Bonanza Books, 1984. .
*
Gunston, Bill. ''The Osprey Encyclopedia of Russian Aircraft 1875–1995''. London: Osprey, 1995. .
{{Kamov aircraft
Kamov aircraft
1940s Soviet military reconnaissance aircraft
Kamov Ka-010
Coaxial rotor helicopters
Aircraft first flown in 1949
Single-engined piston helicopters