Ansat flights start in Mexico

Flights of the Ansat light multipurpose helicopter owned by the Mexican company Craft Avia Centre have started in Guadalajara. The video shows the helicopter landing on a helipad of a high-rise building in the city centre.

The Ansat helicopter has been supplied by the Russian Helicopter Systems’ company for Craft Avia Centre, a Mexican dealer of Russian Helicopters holding company. Ansat helicopters are expected to be used in Mexico for VIP transportation, firefighting and other needs. Their cockpit design allows converting a rotorcraft into a cargo, passenger of medical version, capable of transporting up to seven people, within an hour. Craft Avia Centre had previously reported that at the first stage it was planned to supply 13 helicopters of that type to the company and its customers and 27 rotorcraft for the national air medical services project. Certification of the Ansat model in Mexico should be completed in 2020.

Kazan Helicopters in Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia has been one of the main Russian manufacturers of helicopters of the Mikhail Mil bureau design. In the 1990s management realised that there would be a need for light helicopters in Russia, as the fleet of standard Mi-2s was getting older, and the design itself became obsolete. The Mi-2 was the lightest helicopter in large-scale use in the former USSR, despite being larger than most light Western helicopters. In 1993 Kazan Helicopters organised its own design bureau in order to create a new helicopter. The designer was Valery Dvoeglazov and the bureau was officially certified by the Russian authorities in January 1997. The helicopter was named Ansat meaning ‘light’ in the Tatar language).

In 1998, the first prototype for ground static tests was completed. The second prototype (No. 02, then 902) first flew on 17 August 1999, but the first official flight was made on 6 October 1999. It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW206 engines. Another prototype, with a longer and slimmer fuselage and powered by two PW207K engines, flew on 27 December 2001 (no. 03, then 904). From 2002 it was undergoing the certification process. The third prototype introduced clam shell doors for the cabin opening upwards and downwards, instead of the sliding ones. It was offered as the Ansat-U military trainer variant with dual controls. In September 2001, the Ansat-U won a contest for a trainer helicopter for the Russian Air Force. By 2010 four were in service with the Russian Air Force’s Syzran Military Pilot Flying Training School.

A further 20 are planned, to be powered by Ukrainian Motor Sich MS-500V engines replacing the Pratt & Whitney engines of the first four Ansats. A new light multi-purpose civilian helicopter ‘ANSAT’ with hydromechanical control system of JSC ‘Kazan Helicopter Plant’ has received type certification of Aviation Register of the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) on 28 August 2013. Type Certificate of IAC AR, allowing helicopters to begin commercial operations carrying freight, was obtained in August 2013. In December 2014, IAC AR issued the approval of the main changes allowing for the transportation of passengers in the commercial market. The emergence of medical options was the final step in creating a unified helicopter, certified for transport and medical works and the transportation of people. Earlier, versions of these helicopters were used by the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Emergency Situations, Ministry of Internal Affairs, FSB and other state structures of Russia.

A VIP version of the Ansat helicopter was certified on 31 December 2015 and in early February 2020 a version with a cabin in the style of the Aurus luxury cars was certified. The helicopter is equipped with a hydromechanical control system and its passenger cabin can accommodate up to seven energy-absorbing passenger seats. There are also ventilation and air conditioning systems. According to General Director at Kazan Helicopter Plant Vadim Ligai, work is underway to modernise the helicopter’s fuel system and install additional 200 kg fuel tanks in order to increase the helicopter’s flight range. On 28 October 2016, Russian Helicopters presented a civilian version of Ansat helicopter.

In 2017–2018, the helicopter was certified for operation under extremely cold and high temperatures from minus 45°С to plus 50°С, during a series of ground and flight testing. In January 2019, on the basis of trials conducted at the Mount Elbrus in 2018, the Federal Air Transport Agency certified the increase in take-off / landing altitude of the Ansat from previous 1,000 m to 3,500 m and approved the helicopter for high-altitude operations. The Ansat helicopter’s optional Emergency Flotation System was certified in March 2020.