HELI-EXPO: Chinese WZ-10 attack helicopter based on Kamov design

Flight International ^ | 03/07/2013 | Dave Majumdar

[sukhoi-30mki]

HELI-EXPO: Chinese WZ-10 attack helicopter based on Kamov design

The Changhe Aircraft WZ-10 attack helicopter is based on a Russian design commissioned by the Chinese, Kamov's chief design engineer says.

In 1995, Kamov developed a preliminary design in the 6t weight class under a contract with the Chinese government, says Sergey Mikheev, Kamov's chief design engineer, speaking at the Heli-Expo trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Due to understandable reasons, this information was kept secret," he says.

Dave Majumdar/Flightglobal

The Project 941 design was not based on any Soviet-era attack helicopter project and was strictly designed for China's unique requirements, Mikheev says. "They gave us the desired weight, we discussed preliminary performance parameters, then we signed a contract and we fulfilled the contract," he says.

After Kamov completed the design, the Russian design bureau verified the design via testing. Kamov then delivered the design to China and the Project 941 concept was accepted by that country's government for further development, he says. Kamov did not participate in any further developmental work on the WZ-10, he insists.

Thereafter, to the country's credit, Mikheev says, the Chinese handled the rest of the developmental work. That includes the developmental prototypes and the operational aircraft that is currently in production for the Chinese military.

"So I wish success to the helicopter," Mikheev says.

Mikheev would not comment on the WZ-10's performance. "That is a question for the Chinese," he says. "I know what I have done."

[Pontiac]

Typical Russian or Chinese military knock off of an American design.

Reminds me a lot of the Apache AH-64A.

[USAF80]

If it works why not copy it?

[SJSAMPLE]

Closer to the EuroCopter or Tiger than the Apache.

[TalonDJ]

Reminds me a lot of the Apache AH-64A.

Give me a break! That does not look a darn thing like an Apache. They both have rotors?? They both have two cockpits? A gun on the bottom? That is like saying if a car has 4 wheels and a windshield it is a knockoff of a Ferrari. That helicopter looks like an Apache only in the SAME WAY EVERY ATTACK helicopter does. Every darn thread about foreign military hardware someone makes some outrageous stretch to claim it was a copy of something American.

[spetznaz]

Exactly. Far closer to the Tiger (and that type of design philosophy that includes the Tiger, Mangusta, and to some level even the South African Rooivalk at a larger scale). Looks nothing at all like the Apache.