The history of the Black Shark (Part 2)

The key to rescuing the drowning is in the hands of the drowning themselves.

The Kamov design bureau followed this catchphrase from a famous Russian comedy by Ilf and Petrov both literally and figuratively. They started marketing the Black Shark helicopter abroad.

Will foreigners buy it or not? Will they get a foreign trade permit? Answers to these questions did not matter. What mattered was that foreigners would know about the Black Shark; it would attract the attention of the press, which, in turn would promote its adoption by the army, and training of pilots; the all-weather assault (or fire support) helicopter would help troops to win in battle. This was the idea of the Kamov bureau.

For the first time, the public saw the declassified Ka-50 Black Shark helicopter (which carries NATO codename Hokum A) in February 1991 during tactical exercises in Machulishchi, Belarus; in August of the same year, it took part in the air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow. In September 1992, the Black Shark was displayed at the Farnborough Air Show near London, where it created a real stir. Strange as it may seem, the credit for this does not go to the Kamov designers only.

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