Mil V-16

The Mil V-16 was a Soviet superheavy helicopter project of the 1960s, conceived as the next step after the V-12 and meant to lift 40 to 50 tons, twice the payload of the V-12. In 1961 the Commission for Aviation Equipment of the USSR approved the task of developing helicopters of both sizes. The V-16 was first planned with three rotors and six D-25VF engines, then as a transverse twin-rotor machine like the V-12, driven by two powerful gas generators supplying free turbines through vertical shafts. Mil also worked up an Mi-12M version of the V-12 itself with two larger D-30 engines and six-bladed rotors for loads of up to 40 tons over 200 kilometres, but the curtailment of the V-12 program interrupted the work at the full-scale mock-up stage and the V-16 stayed on paper.