This is the wild process that's required to start the world's biggest helicopter

A YouTuber has shared a video on the crazy process required to start the world’s biggest helicopter, the Mil Mi-26 Halo.

The Mi-26 was built during the era of the Soviet Union, with production still ongoing at the time of writing, and over 300 of the helicopters had been built by 2015.

While not the largest helicopter ever built, the Mil-26 is the largest to go into production and has served in various capacities, including as an emergency relief aircraft and a troop transport.

As YouTuber The Daily Aviation showed in his video a year ago, getting this giant into the skies is not as simple as flicking a single switch.

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How the Mil Mi-26 Halo gets off the ground

To fly the 62,000lbs helicopter, there are two pilots, a flight engineer, a loadmaster, and a navigator.

In order to get the engines to start, the pilot must first turn on the Auxiliary Power Unit.

As the video shows, this powers up the helicopter’s electric and hydraulic systems.

The engines are the ZNKB Progress D-136, and the Mi-26 has two of them, which are the largest turboshafts in the world.

Each one of the engines produces 11,400hp.

With each engine now on, the pilot has to gradually boost the throttle to speed up the main rotors.

During this process, they will also test instrumentation and communication systems.

Once they are done, the helicopter is finally ready for takeoff.

Is this the world’s biggest helicopter?

The Mi-26 is currently the biggest operational helicopter in the world, and the biggest to go into serial production.

However, it is not the world’s biggest helicopter.

That honor goes to its radical predecessor, the Mil V12 Homer.

This was a radical prototype with four turboshaft engines, designed as an airliner, troop carrier, and cargo aircraft.

The Soviet Union also wanted to carry ballistic and nuclear missile components underneath the V12.

The concept showed a lot of promise, and Mil built two prototypes with it, also appearing at the Paris Airshow in France.

The V12 outperformed its design expectations and set numerous world records

But the main purpose of the V12 transporting strategic missiles soon no longer existed.

In the end, Mil produced the simpler Mi-26, a simpler aircraft.

While it is not as big as the V12, the Mil Mi-26 has still done an excellent job.

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