Russian Helicopters presented a mockup of the VRT500 at Milan Design Week.

The design bureau VR-Technologies, subsidiary of Rostec's Russian Helicopters holding company, presented a mockup of the light multi-purpose helicopter VRT500 at the Fuorisalone exhibition (part of the Milan Design Week, held April 8–14). The helicopter model is presented at the exhibition of ItalDesign, which was one of the developer companies of VRT500.

Mockup of the light multi-purpose helicopter VRT500 (Picture source: Italdesign)

Currently specialists of Russian Helicopters are developing the construction documentation of the helicopter. This stage is scheduled to be finished at the end of 2021 with the production of the first series of VRT500 in the Ulan-Ude aviation plant.

"VRT500 will become a competitive product in the market of light single-engine helicopters and allows Holding Company to join this new segment for the first time. 'Russian Helicopters' consider Europe as a potential market, so we plan to apply the helicopter for certification to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) this year. We'll start testing the first prototype in 2020", pointed out Alexander Okhonko, CEO of VR-Technologies.

VRT500 is a light single-engine helicopter with coaxial rotors and maximum take-off weight of 1600 kg. It will be equipped with the latest interactive avionics and have the most spacious passenger cabin in its class with the total capability of 5 persons. The helicopter can reach a max speed of 250 km/h, has a flight range of 860 km and can carry a payload of up to 730 kg.