T This production list is presented to you by the editorial team of "Soviet Transports" - current to the beginning of January 2021. Additions and corrections are welcome at
[email protected] Aerokopter AK1-3 The Aerokopter Design Bureau at Poltava was founded on 14 December 1999. The AK1 two-seat light-weight helicopter flew first on 12 October 2001, and the Ukrainian AP-27 type certificate was awarded on 30 June 2006. The AK1-3 is powered by a 110 kW Subaru EJ 2.5 automobile engine which is non-type certified (the helicopter was certified together with the engine in Ukraine). That is why the AK1-3 is registered in the West as a 'factory-built kit helicopter'. The small chopper weighs only 390 kg, that allows to transport it on a small trailer which simultaneously serves as a mobile landing strip for the helicopter. The price tag is some $ 150,000, a bit cheaper than a Robinson R22. 102 AK1-3s had been built by mid-2019. Unfortunately, many of them have suffered accidents. A modernised version under the designation AK2 "Vityaz" was planned to be introduced in 2012. The Italian company Egicopter SRL of Lissone offers the AK1-3 as the EK-1 and a version powered by a Belgian ULPower 350 engine as the MG-1. No sales are known. Apart from that, the SAFAT Aviation Complex of Sudan is locally assembling the type and markets it as the SAFAT 02 (24 had been assembled by November 2015). A version called "Orlan" was developed at Perm (Russia).