MOSCOW, July 24 (AVN) - The tender on production of the new generation training helicopter earlier planned for July according to Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov is postponed to at least end of this year, a spokesman for the Russian Aviation and Space Agency told the Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The delay with the tender is caused by the fact that the Defence Ministry did not agree on the helicopter concept. Several specialists consider that there is a need to produce two variants of the helicopter, one for preliminary training of pilots which is light-weight, reliable and cheap, and the second one for advanced training. Other specialists think that it is better to produce a single variant capable to carry out both missions.
Concerning the aircraft producers, for example, the Kamov plant specialists suppose that the helicopter training system should involve a trainer, KA-226 helicopters for preliminary training and KA-60U helicopters for advanced training. The decision is backed by the fact the currently the pilots training centres start preparation of specialists from the very beginning while earlier most of the future pilots gained basic piloting skills in the DOSAAF aircraft organisation.