The Mil Mi-22 (Cyrillic Миль Ми-22) was a 1960s Soviet project to develop a military transport helicopter.^[1] It was a development of the Mil Mi-2, but did not enter production when the Soviet military selected the Mil Mi-24 for this role instead.^[1] The Mi-22 designation which had become unused was later re-applied to a completely unrelated design, an airborne command post variant of the Mil Mi-6.^[2] This first Mi-22 concept was a Soviet attempt to create a helicopter in the Bell UH-1 class.^[2][3]

In 1964,^[1][2] motivated by a perception that the Soviet military was losing interest in helicopters,^[3] Mil began work on improvements to the Mi-2 design, and built mockups exploring two different paths.^[1][2][3] One of these led to the development of the Mil Mi-3.^[1][2][3] The other, designated V-20 (Cyrillic В-20), was to have a fuselage stretched by inserting a plug, and equipped with a wide, sliding door.^[1][2][3] The Mi-2's three-bladed main rotor and wheeled undercarriage were to be replaced by a four-bladed rotor and skid undercarriage.^[1][2][3] Calculations showed that the Mi-2's Klimov GTD-350 engines would be insufficient for the new design, and Mil started to study a range of other gas turbines for the V-20's powerplant, including the GTD-550, GTD-10, and Glushenkov GTD-3, plus also the American Continental T65 and French Turbomeca Astazou.^[1][2][3] Rather than being an improvement of the Mi-2, the V-20 had become a practically new design.^[4]

Mil founder Mikhail Leontyevich Mil and designer Marat Nikolayevich Tishchenko unsuccessfully attempted to secure support from the Soviet Ministry of Aviation Industry to develop the design,^[2] but in 1965,^[4] the Soviet military became interested in the GTD-10 powered version of the V-20 as a helicopter capable of deploying a motorised rifle squad.^[1][2][3] The designation Mi-22 was applied at this point.^[1]

Development proceeded as far as testing the new four-bladed rotor fitted to a Mi-2 in 1971,^[2] but a complete prototype had not yet been built before the Mi-24 was selected to fulfil the same requirement in the early 1970s.^[1][2] In actual service, the Mi-24 was hardly ever deployed as a troop carrier, negating the purpose for which the Mi-22 had been developed.^[3]

General characteristics

• Capacity: 10 troops
• Gross weight: 4,300 kg (9,480 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × GTD-10A turboshaft, 700 kW (940 shp)

• Gordon, Yefim; Komissarov, Dmitriy (2000). "Лёгкий многоцелевой вертолёт Ми-2" [Light, multipurpose helicopter Mi-2]. Авиация. No. 7. Moscow: Pilot. pp. 10–31.
• Komissarov, Dmitriy; Kotlobovsky, Alexander; Rusetsky, Milos; Khaustov, Andrey (2004). "Вертолёт с двойным гражданством" [Helicopter with dual citizenship]. Авиация и Время. No. 6. Kyiv: Aerohobi. pp. 4–24, 38–41.
• Mikheev, Vadim Rostislavovich (1998). МВЗ им. М. Л. Миля 50 лет [The Moscow Helicopter Plant named for M. L. Mil turns 50]. Moscow: Lyubimaya.
• Mikheev, Vadim Rostislavovich (2001). "Сорок лет в небе: О вертолёте Ми-2" [Forty years in the sky: About the Mi-2 helicopter]. Крылья Родины. No. 4. Moscow: KR-media. pp. 5–7.