The Mi-26 Halo is a twin-turbine heavy-lift helicopter. it's the world's largest production helicopter. The Halo's development started in the early 1970s. The designer's goal was to provide a helicopter with a load capability twice that of any contemporary helicopter. the firs Mi-26 Halo prototype flew in December 1977 and was first displayed at the Paris Air Show in 1981. In 1982, Russian squadrons received their first Halos, that weren't totally operational till 1983. In 1986, India was the first country to buy a Halo. Since then Halos have been sold to almost twenty countries. the value of a Halo is between $10 million and $12 million.The Mi-26 is the helicopter with an eight-blade main rotor, that is mounted on top of the fuselage midsection on a hump. two turboshaft engines are mounted on top of the cabin with spherical air intakes above and behind the cockpit and exhaust ports at the sides of the engines. The long, bus-like body with fixed tricycle landing gear tapers to the nose and rear, with an upswept rear section and rounded nose and stepped-up cockpit. The tail is swept-back with a rather tapered fin with massive rotor on right side. The flats are forward-tapered and low-mounted on leading edge of the fin.
