Wings and Wheels Publications | Mil-24 Hind in detail
Reviewed by David Robbins
One of the few weapons of war that is instantly recognized as one of the most famous and still the most versatile helicopters is the Mil-24 Hind, it is one of the top ten Military Helicopters in the world today. The Mil-24 (NATO code name Hind) is a large heavily armed combat helicopter gunship with low-capacity troop transportation capabilities. Soviet/Russian pilots called the aircraft letayushchiy tank, "flying tank" but the more common unofficial nicknames were Krokodil, "Crocodile", due to the helicopter's camouflage scheme and looks.
The first use of the Mi-24 in combat was with the Ethiopian forces (although the pilots were Soviet) during the Ogaden War against the Somalis. The helicopters formed part of a massive airlift of military equipment from the Soviet Union, after the Soviets switched sides towards the end of 1977. The helicopters were instrumental in the combined air and ground assault that expelled Somali forces from Ethiopia by the beginning of 1978.
It was used to a great extent in the Afghanistan invasion by the former Soviet Union in the late 70s early 80s against the Mujahideen fighters who the US supplied heat-seeking Stinger missiles to and the Mi-24 helicopters proved to be favorite targets of the rebels. Recently a copy of the Wings and Wheels publication on the Mil 24 Hind came into my possession via a purchase of another item from a LSP member. My first impressions of the book just skimming though it was this is a very excellent book we got here!!
The title of the book should have been "Everything you wanted to know about the Hind but was afraid to ask" as it does completely
covers all of the aircraft from wheels to rotors in all 168 pages and every inch done with colour photographs.
There is not much writing in the book, the first part of the book gives you a brief history of the development of the machine. It also devotes some pages to the early 'A' model but most of the book is about the Hind D to V models and some about the Mil 35 and one Israeli machine. But the rest is all Photographs with captions explaining things in English.
Even the engine and transmission compartments gets the same treatment as the cockpit showing main components, mounts, access doors and interior shots of the engine exhaust etc. Later it moves on to the transmission and continues down the line to the tail rotors (there are even interior shots of the tail boom). In fact every piece of the aircraft is done in this way so by the time you are done you can super detail any Hind kit with just the information provide in this book and be confident that it is correct.
There are some coloured profiles provide in this book but there are also a lot of pictures of various aircraft with different camouflage schemes.
And there is a large variety of colour schemes to choose from.
The last chapters deal with the various weapons carried by the Hind and as I had said earlier some pages devoted to the Mil 35 Hind and to one Israeli machine.
In the final analysis from one whom from time to time wants to build a subject so he can display the aircraft with things exposed I greatly appreciate a book of this type. Anyone who wanted to know about the guts of the Hind and wanted to super detail the Trumpeter kit would be very pleased with this book as it is truly a great resource tool and guide I would highly recommend it just for the wealth of photographic information it provides.
© David Robbins
This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016