40
$\begingroup$

This answer has a photo of a Mil Mi-26 that I felt in love with, so I looked in Wikipedia and learned it's the largest production helicopter, second only to Mil V-12 that flew as a prototype.

In turn, Wikipedia's V-12 article gave a link to the exact position where one of the two V-12 produced is placed, so I opened Google Maps and I had a satellite photo of the V-12!

So far so good, but when I zoomed out a little I saw many other helicopters parked around, all clearly helicopters except a cigar shaped beast, with winglets apparently too small for an airplane, in the upper right corner of the screen dump below, marked with an arrow... Remarkably I cannot see the shadows of the blades on the ground.

Could you please identify that object?

enter image description here

Improve this question
$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
61
$\begingroup$

Looks like a Mil Mi-6 with the rotor removed (like the adjacent two to the right). Here is the 3-view drawing overlaid:

enter image description here
(Google Earth @ 55°40'04.61" N 37°56'07.62" E)

The tail boom appears to be thicker than it is due to the angle, it'll make sense by taking the satellite's perspective. Note the fatter bottom:

enter image description here
Google Maps measurement; actual aircraft length is 33.18 m (108 ft 10 in).

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • $\begingroup$ Do I see a turbine engine under each wing. Could be a modern gyrocopter? $\endgroup$
    – Muze
    Apr 24, 2019 at 20:01
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @Muze: What you're seeing are external fuel tanks. Visible if you check the Mi-6 link. $\endgroup$
    – user14897
    Apr 24, 2019 at 20:32

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .