The Flying Building

The Cold War threatened the world with nuclear annihilation. Amid escalating tensions, the Soviet Union faced an espionage nightmare that could cost them the atomic race.
American spy planes, soaring at extreme altitudes, were unveiling their nuclear secrets, capturing images of their hidden silos-even those tucked away in Siberia’s remote, frozen expanses. American pilots had learned a pattern: lone railroads and desolate roads apparently headed nowhere often led into Soviet Nuclear facilities.
The Soviets were pressed against the clock. They needed a clandestine method to transport 25-ton nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles across their sprawling landscapes without leaving the faintest trail for their American adversaries to find.
Their solution was nothing short of spectacular. Enter the Mil Mi-12, a colossal contraption with the size of an airliner fused with the versatility of an airlift helicopter.
When unveiled at the Paris Air Convention in 1971, it shocked the world; there had never been anything like it. The alarm bells rang in the US as strategists tried to unveil the purpose of such a staggering machine…
---
Join Dark Skies as we explore the world of aviation with cinematic short documentaries featuring the biggest and fastest airplanes ever built, top-secret military projects, and classified missions with hidden untold true stories. Including US, German, and Soviet warplanes, along with aircraft developments that took place during World War I, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Gulf War, and special operations mission in between.
As images and footage of actual events are not always available, Dark Skies sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect and soundtracks for emotional impact. We do our best to keep it as visually accurate as possible.
All content on Dark Skies is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. We are history enthusiasts and are not always experts in some areas, so please don't hesitate to reach out to us with corrections, additional information, or new ideas.

[@jacknasty6940]

Could use that to pick my mother-in-law up for church on Sunday

[@tomasneel1980]

And drop her off? Lmao

[@carycoller3140]

​?​@@tomasneel1980😂

[@DaBlazesUSay]

It is unfortunate that the airframe was not used to develop the Hotelicopter!

[@subwayfacemelt4325]

You Sir/Madam fully deserve a ROFLcopter. I don't know how to make them so you'll have to go and get your own. If I had one lying around, I would give it to you, promise.

[@Tuberuser187]

Insane when you think the engine output was pretty close to the output normally seen in Gas Turbine powered Destroyers.

[@DMSparky]

Well I mean a lot of the western destroyers have LM2500's which are a derivative of the 1970's GE CF6 aircraft engine... If the west wanted to produce a 25000hp helicopter engine they would have but they had no need.

[@BasedTruthSeeker]

@@DMSparkylearn when to give up and just appreciate a machine. Not everything is a d*ck measuring contest

[@Pete-7]

You can still see the upper side of one of the two from a suburban train when passing near Panki station from behind the fence of the helicopter factory where it was built.

[@TeddyBear-ii4yc]

Looking at that makes the aircraft made for "Thunderbirds" not seem so outlandish!

[@Dr-Weird]

Wow. Core memory. I forgot they had this stuff

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

Thunderbird technology was the best! Who else had the coolest looking craft that could fly from space to underwater?

[@TeddyBear-ii4yc]

@@livinginvancouverbc2247 I watched one the other night about blackmailed scientists breaking into a nuclear something. When IR gets the call they send Thunderbirds 1 & 2. So when the ramp goes down on 2, I'm saying "oh they'll use the 'mole' to dig them out" 🙂 They didn't... they had a mini-JCB with a lazer fitting to cut thru the steel doors. I won't spoil the ending about if they made it in time... 🙂

[@Vatharian]

Although no more than a mockup model, same design team came with even larger, and even more insane transport helicopter. Mi-32 was to be built on a basis of a triangle, with 3 giant rotors (potentially even larger than these featured on V-12), each powered by either two or TWO PAIRS of turbines, and with maximum load of 150 tons.

[@StefanBlagojevic]

@Vatharian Just checked it online, absolutely incredible. I knew about Mil Mi-30 Vintoplan, but not this behemoth. Good read, thanks.

[@rumpelstiltskin6965]

This was informational!!! Cheers!! 👍

[@GerinoMorn]

Were they planning a helicarrier? :D

[@marcomcdowell8861]

Soviets: We need something to hide our nukes from the Americans. Also Soviets: Lets unveil it at an airshow.

[@mbpaintballa]

Soviets: we can't feed our people and invade our neighbors Also Soviets: why are our people fleeing, and why do our neighbors hate us?

[@byteresistor]

The truth was that the soviets didn't have some super secret advanced technology that could compete with the americans so they tried showing off by unveiling their "secret" projects to the public.

[@slackerman9758]

They needed the helicopters so we couldn’t be sure which silos had missiles. Letting us know that they had a helicopter let everyone else know that it would be a shell game.

[@thundercactus]

Because the Soviets were on the back foot technologically and in terms of production, their mantra for military technology was very much "What's the point of developing a new weapon if nobody knows you have it?" Their military ideology has always been the APPEARANCE of strength over actual strength. They'd even show off prototype aircraft at airshows.

[@slackerman9758]

@@thundercactus They flew a prototype aircraft to the US with Khrushchev aboard (Tu-114). Had to station ships along its path since it had a high probability of splashing down.

[@Steven-nd1pz]

Power is also perception, which is why they unveiled it.

[@crazytrain7114]

Meanwhile, the Osprey can't safely carry 20 soldiers reliably.

[@happilyham6769]

Osprey is a far more complicated machine.

[@crazytrain7114]

@@happilyham6769 To everyones detriment.

[@howardhughes6212]

@@happilyham6769 complex weapons are garbage. Two most reliable firearms in history are the Glock and the AK. Both are reliable because of simplicity

[@riv9739]

​@@happilyham6769 It's not about that, but safety and efficiency 😂😂😂

[@mikrich76]

Flying death trap

[@rudolfkrebs2311]

Eine total beeindruckende Doku!💪💪💪 👍😎🇦🇹

[@DON666]

Bitte was? Allein schon diese schreckliche KI-Übersetzung mit der grausamen KI-Stimme, die ständig das Tempo wechselt, macht mich fertig...

[@bbb8182]

The engineers must have been a) immensely proud of their design and b) glad to have not been executed for failing.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

Same is true for NATO's plandemic.

[@kendallevans4079]

All that design work with nothing more than an abacus 🧠

[@mbpaintballa]

@@kendallevans4079 too bad that abacus couldn't be used to improve the economy

[@antonkvit7722]

Comments like this just show your complete ignorance of history. The USSR under Stalin and after Stalin were two very different countries. Nobody was being executed for failing projects in the 70's.

[@kendallevans4079]

@@mbpaintballaYour not good at understanding conversations, are you?

[@sinjisdf1]

So sad to see it die so young... Great engineering...

[@envitech02]

Russian helicopters are in a class of their own. They are super humongous.!!! Even as a cessna pilot I just wonder how they can even fly at all.

[@user-hf7jp2lt5x]

Early helicopter aerodynamicists realised that if the air vehicle was ugly enough, the earth rejected it.

[@XXX-qk2cq]

Unfortunately as the Russians found out in Afghanistan any helicopter is easy prey to a shoulder fired ground to air missile….

[@mipmipmipmipmip]

10:24 cameraman got distracted 😂

[@The-Cat]

I nah probably the wind caught him off guard... is what official documentation states what had happened. Don't mess with soviet wives even from the grave they can rough their husband up

[@stephentroup7943]

Every once in awhile you need to be reminded what you're fighting for!

[@TRUMP20Z4]

This chopper still holds a few world records this many years later… WOWOWOWOWOw😮😮😮😮😮

[@PhlyBoy_135]

And it just sits there, outside at a museum without a purpose 😔

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

If it's at a museum then it has a purpose.

[@tomlevier3615]

USSR - We need a massive, powerful aircraft that will haul top secret cargo so the Americans won't suspect anything Also USSR - Let's show off this massive, powerful aircraft at public air shows all over Europe!

[@kentonian]

As it turns out they were and are(now Russia) a paper tiger. Most of their equipment Well underperforming western expectations let along their own propaganda.

[@zaqwsxxswqaz3877]

Но, США ведь демонстрировали на авиашоу свой самолёт-невидимку?

[@YTisAbunchOFfascists]

Russians always show their hand. If they show it off. Its the only one they have. It was used as propaganda threat. Not a functional military threat.

[@YTisAbunchOFfascists]

@@zaqwsxxswqaz3877When you see a US spy plane at an air show, its about seven versions older than the one really being used.

[@Nitramrec]

My wish: Please add data in SI-units to these in imperial-units, because the most part of the world uses them.

[@stevenkelby2169]

*the entire world, apart from 3 backwards countries...

[@eat_a_dick_trudeau]

Do you want him to cut the crusts off of your sandwiches as well?

[@AngelFonte]

The vast majority of the world uses the metric system. You Americans believe you are the navel of the universe.

[@tonydowell9352]

My absolute favorite rotorcraft,bought the 1/72 Amodel kit of the v-12 shame it did t make production series.would make a great flying crane with a front gondola,but I digress…

[@pleasureincontempt3645]

Companies can build an Osprey. It’s another thing to believe that the young folks in the military can understand it’s repair when the repair manuals are classified. Civilians can watch watch on with a sense of disbelief or horror. It doesn’t change anything since humans are disposable assets.

[@ronaldbyrne3320]

Fascinating. Thank you. 👍🏻

Excellent as usual. Thanks a lot

[@michaelchristensen5421]

This helicopter has a greater lift capability than the C-130 Hercules.

[@FarmerDrew]

This couldn't even fly over a mountain range

[@robgrey6183]

Updated C-130's are STILL in common use. Russian monstrosities sit rotting in overgrown fields they call "museums".

[@michaelchristensen5421]

@@robgrey6183 I ise to work and fly on C-130's in the Navy. That is why I said it had a greater lifting capacity than the Herc did.

[@darrellcook8253]

How does it perform under combat? Or at mountain clearing altitude? Bigger is not always better. And it makes for a tempting target. Too many political failures, so much damage done. Oh yeah, what's its range loaded?

[@kentonian]

If the Ukrainian war has taught us anything, it is that most claims of soviet/Russia technical performance are well over stated

[@marrauder1976]

Humanity can create whatever they imagine,all they need are engineers and unlimited money.

[@HrSamstag]

No, it's exactly the opposite: limited money. That's what keeps the value, if at all. "Unlimited money" is the epitome of fiat money (vice versa), the main design error deliberately created by central bankers (= _anti-money_ engineers), which led to the fateful state that only those engineers who work for the war and mass destruction weapons industry - the military industrial complex - are the ones who have unlimited possibilities. Bitcoin fixes this.

[@daystatesniper01]

A very good episode many thanks.

[@FarmerDrew]

All this work for a country with huge mountain ranges and you get a service ceiling of 11,000 ft

[@BigCroca]

russia is mostly low tundra and bogs

[@FarmerDrew]

@@BigCroca they wanted Georgians to have to come to Russia to see this, because it sure was not going to be cruising the Caucasus Mountains

[@user-tr7ee3qk2b]

The Osprey sure looks similar to that.

[@atomicskull6405]

The opposing rotor rotation results in neutral torque but yaw was actually performed by opposing cyclic same as the CH-47 i.e. one rotor applies forward cyclic and the other applies rearward cyclic at the same time turning the aircraft one way or the other. (on the CH-47 yaw is performed by left/right cyclic due to the longitudinal configuration of the rotors). This is transparent to the pilot, the controls work exactly the same as a single rotor helicopter.

[@bellytripper-nh8ox]

Replying to @atomicskull6405: **DARZHNARZHFLERZHERZHERVLE? DARZHNARZHERLARBLEFLARVERZHARFLERVERZHAZHER??**

[@colanitower]

Main reason why this helicopter failed: there were two, not three. One to carry a missile, one to carry its warhead, and the most important third for carrying vodka was missing

[@kendallevans4079]

That is on-site/every-site!🍻🍸🍾

[@ceejay960]

Russia wrote the book on helicopters.

[@pucarasetenta4361]

Primera vez que escucho un video de Uds en español, bastante bueno!. Felicitaciones!. First time I hear one of your videos in Spanish. Thank you very much!

[@TCK71]

The Russians have an ability to make equipment that looks like it's been drawn by a 5 year old child.

[@codyblade7872]

Reckon you can do better ? 😂

[@riv9739]

And can even defeat clowns with washing machine chips 😂😂😂😂

[@richardsimms251]

Great video

[@acblaze3116]

This is the coolest video made in a while by Dark Skies. Definitely my favorite so far!

[@melchiormapa3597]

By looking at this video the background pictures are recognisable as mountains of Guadalcanal in Solomon islands, where Henderson airfield is located. Great place to visit the WW2 relics . Great history.

[@lukehorning3404]

Why haven’t they perfected it and kept that thing going is what I wonder it’s massive and seems like they could use it in many applications

[@rodrigonogueiramota4433]

I saw it in person at monino before the pandemic and yes this thing is MASSIVE

[@thatfeeble-mindedboy]

Sounds an awful lot like Convair’s B 58 Hustler… obsolete by the time it was ready to go. One more amazing and unprecedented machine that answered a question that no one was asking anymore.

[@tacticplanner7188]

It is absolutely excellent as usual. Bravo best Docu-Channels on the Tube.

[@kevindelaney1951]

Informative as always. Great video. As per usual.

[@frankalbergo8120]

Excellent, thanks.

[@juanmontoya6622]

Ivan: "Dmitri, it's your turn. The commode is backed up." Dmitri: "Dah! but Ivan we are flying over Moscow. Wait until Omsk so we can dump the radioactive 'pudding' over the city. No one will complaint about Omsk, but Moscow...."

[@HunterX78]

Enhorabuena primera vez te escuchó en español!!! Saludos

[@edutaimentcartoys]

nice documentary video

[@davidg2122]

Fascinating episode, I don't know very much about the old Soviet military system. Please make more of this 0:15

[@TK-11538]

Plural of “craft” is “craft” not “crafts”.

[@ernieszelepcsenyi5710]

Hearing crafts instead of craft makes my ears bleed. LOL

[@ph11p3540]

I wonder how many hundred pounds of fuel it burned for every minute in flight?

[@user-kh1yy1dq3g]

Impressive AI speech for Spanish version! Nice documentary indeed!

[@atunaco]

Impresionante como mantiene el timbre y la entonación originales en un español muy cercano al europeo. Con todo la IA todavía no ha llegado al tema de la pronunciación del alfabeto y los acrónimos en Español, espero que no se le enreden mucho las diferencias entre el español de América y el de Europa.

[@lukehorning3404]

There is a video I watched where they take like 200 people up in them to this day but why not keep making it better

[@REPOMAN24722]

Pretty sure they made an even larger 4 prop as a prototype.

[@alexs-zq6ni]

In limited production there is some rich folks that would buy the air yacht. I would love to see the climate convention attendees be brazen enough to fly one into Geneva.

[@bongwelll]

The Osprey concept isn't new and it's very dangerous. I'm glad the Marines just grounded the whole fleet. They should give up on the Osprey concept completely. There never gonna work. They've been trying a long time.

[@user-vi7xg4nd2d]

Gran video

[@sciencebus3119]

10:24 "Youre just recording the helicopter, arent you darling?" Silently pans camera upwards to rotors...

[@fanatamon]

Cool.

[@lucasokeefe7935]

I just love the idea that in the thumbnail picture some designers babushka insisted on having curtains installed lmao

[@robertjones8598]

A lot of vodka went into this design.

[@dooogides9176]

“Helicopters for USSR not just vehicles,it’s a lifestyle” True😂❤

[@robertoinsaurralde2494]

very good

[@markrix]

Why did they goto all the trouble to make the rotors sync and miss each other instead of just moving them slightly further apart?

[@primitiveroad3422]

Stability and structural integrity. The farther apart they are, the more strain put on the center and less stability when airborne

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

The rotors had to be in synch to fly without a tail rotor.

[@darrellcook8253]

That way its easier to discern rotor rpm differences when they inexplicably collide with extreme vigor. Let the crashing begin!

[@cedricliggins7528]

This craft is what inspired the the US' Osprey

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

With the nuumber and severity of wild fires do to global warming I think that this helicopter could find a great use in modern times and once it is used for firefighting to make it cheaper you could also build some for military and a far larger commercial market. A modern heavily modified Mil Mi-12 would be a game changer for building in hostile places.

[@TimmyLongfellow]

The soviets always had to go huge.

[@ckcoolic]

Cool rifle but I think I’d prefer the Unitah Precision so I can choose my own furniture kit

[@adamarmstrong6646]

Imagine how long they knew the planes were spying on them before they finally decided to start shooting them down

[@user-sk7fl3wp3d]

Как разработали ракету, способную достать U-2, так и стали их сбивать, это было большим сюрпризом для пилотов этих самолетов и они перестали летать.

[@Master-AGN]

Looks like a Rotodyne.

[@Satros82]

I was inside V-12. It’s mind-blowing

[@thenakedtrucker]

My only question… what did that beast sound like?🤤

[@mothmagic1]

If this was a flying building the Airbus A380 is a flying village.

[@CallMeByMyMatingName]

9:08 "...required extensive training to master adequately"... As opposed to mastering it inadequately?...

[@simondr70]

Great narration, very good choice of words, well spoken.

[@mrc4910]

Impressive as always! Great research!

[@mattmcgovern230]

What about the "desolate roads to nowhere" that had to be built ANYWAY in order to build the launch sites themselves? Regardless of how you eventually get the missile to its silo, there's still ALREADY tell-tale signs of location(s).

[@PN_48]

The whole point was to be able to deploy entire launch systems in the middle of nowhere, thus negating the need for roads and rails.

[@AndrewCZ47]

Not every silo had to be active (and some could be outright built as decoys). Thing is, if you had a way to get a missile there between satellite passes, other side would have to treat EVERY silo as active.

[@LucianPaine]

Die Geschichte ist sehr interessant. Schade, das zum Ende hin die Bezeichnungen verenglischt wurden. Gutes Video 🙂

[@gabrieldiazreyes875]

como helicoptero de combate de incendios habría sido espectacular

[@RV_Chef_Life]

Would love to see an episode on Russias Hydrofoil. One of the remaining ones is used in the pacific nw

[@martinsaunders2942]

There are a lot of the Volga class hydrofoils in use in Italy, particularly around Naples.

[@crazytrain7114]

Ekranoplane

[@jeffarchibald3837]

I was next to it. The tires are about 6 feet tall.

[@timpeterson2738]

Just think of all the massive tunnels under the states that go for hundreds of miles everywhere that no one knows much about.

[@virginijusjauckojis1265]

I like the metamorphosis.

[@EagleFighterJet]

very good video

[@carycoller3140]

Maintenance on this must have been insane, aggravating and annoying.

[@shiladityahaldar5241]

Again Dark Skies highlighting something in the picture showing something....

[@NoInfoFound]

Exactly. Showing... Something...

[@mikelbrenn111]

The solution is to use a giant helicopter that can be seen for miles. Genius. 😂

[@familyhelpdeskhelpdesk270]

Please don't slide down the path others have taken, with an excess of superlatives and flowery language, as has crept into this video. Your short and generally punchy narration is one of the reasons I enjoy your videos. I didn't enjoy this one anywhere near as much as normal.

[@jasperhunter8386]

I saw this IRL in Monino Air Base in 2019

[@emaheiwa8174]

The spanish audio is spot on 👏🏼

[@brutalmaster]

Im Jahr Eintausendeinundsiebzig. :) Kleiner Fehler, aber trotz KI-Stimme sehr interessante Doku.

[@kendalldavis99]

You're telling me they were scrambling to find out the purpose of a nuclear missile sized helicopter 👀 come on now CIA

[@Kroggnagch]

They shoulda called it "The Critter".

[@sardaukerlegion]

First step vs the Osprey

[@ScoutSniper3124]

6:45 that really looks like an X-15 going up the back ramp of a Russian helicopter. What gives?

[@j.griffin]

That’s not an X-15. An X-15 has a 22’ wingspan. That may sound narrow but for comparison, a C-5 Galaxy cargo bay is “only” 19’ wide. An X-15 has a huge rectangular vertical stabilizer in comparison with the horizontal stabilizers. The “horizontal” stabilizers actually aren’t even horizontal- they slope downward diagonally like those on an F-4 Phantom. Also, if you go look at some line drawings of the X-15 there is a horizontal “stabilizer” (for lack of a better word-I’m sure that the engineers called it something else) that is part of the body on both sides that starts up front and actually runs all the way down the sides of the plane from which the main wings and the horizontal stabilizers extend. I believe that this came from lifting body research. There is a “three view drawing” under Specifications on the X-15 page on Wikipedia- look at that and you’ll see how different these two planes are. This is a much smaller,simpler plane- the empennage is conventionally shaped, as is the nose and wings, albeit much smaller than average. Remember- the XLR-99 engine was the most powerful horizontally operated throttle-able rocket ever built. The Soviets had nothing that was ever even close.

[@mipmipmipmipmip]

First thought was a cut-up f104 but it's too small

[@maxshep2829]

Possibly a large anti-ship missile?

[@EminencePhront]

This thing could have carried a 105 mm cannon like the AC-130.

[@afireinaleo1771]

what's funny is that they're still stuck in that era of technology.

[@DJTJ16]

This channel rocks

[@sseim5654]

I do not believe this airframe was specifically designed to carry/transport missiles. I'm pretty/very sure that is not true. That it could was an ancillary attribute.

[@daniellittle3117]

They always want to boast the biggest, largest, etc. But why aren't they still in service?

[@davefellhoelter1343]

I "remember this? Becoming Common Knowledge. It WAS a Big Deal"! Nixon was doing the China thing, about the same Time as the 1st Concord and 747? All of these Gma Honey and Pa Pa Roy had some skin in the Game. I recall the Industry getting an Industry Air Service with a Large Helo around LA, LAX and LB, Maybe OC? The round Tower on legs Restaurant had Just Opened at LAX, we had lunch. I was just a kid.

[@terrycastor8299]

A bit foolish to unveil such an asset to the world when the whole point was to leave no trace.

[@somestormchaseridjitwithwi2024]

Soviet bravado. 🙄

[@scottduncan9495]

And proves that they could deposit an asset with no trace. Makes one wonder where to look. Of course, it could merely serve as a bluff. If the enemy feels compelled to look elsewhere/ everywhere, it was worth it.

[@TigerBoyRS]

It's called: Hidden in plain sight!

[@stephenhean5831]

Nothing shall get in the way of public sabre rattling!

[@janksolid]

Posturing and one-upmanship

[@gunterscholl9952]

Einfach Spitze

[@Mr26mikeylikesithot]

These days Russian tank turrets get more air time than Russian helos lol