Nikolay Ilyich Kamov Is… to say it as I see numerous helicopters created under the guidance of this famous aircraft. This baby Ka-10, able to fly right out of the body “three-ton”, and the quadruple coaxial Ka-15, and the original scheme rotorcraft Ka-22, and a multi-purpose helicopter Ka-26… But the interests of N. I. Kamov is not confined only to creation helicopters. In 1957, at the request of the Ministry of communications of the USSR team CB started to develop a completely different machine — snowmobile. The first design, called “North”, resembled a passenger car, because it was created on the basis of the body of the famous “Victory.” It was chetyrehlistnyj snowmobile with an engine power of 260 HP in 1960, the first hundred of these machines started work on the carriage of mail.
Almost simultaneously with the launch of the sleigh “North” in a series of team N. I. Kamov got a new snowmobile with the index 30, with more versatile capacious body and high load capacity.
In the years 1962-1964 experimental batch of the Ka-30 was tested on the most characteristic for the future operation of the sled heavy tracks the basins of the rivers Lena and Amur.
Followed by sea trials on the Amur river from Komsomolsk to Nikolaevsk. The car “went” even in the Amur estuary, reaching the island of Baidukov and the Northern tip of Sakhalin. The total mileage of the Ka-30 during this time was approximately 20.5 thousand km. Snowmobile had to overcome deep snow and hummocky ice, working in freezing temperatures and bitter cold (down to -45°!), to climb the hillsides and down the snow-covered slopes. Average technical speed in these conditions was 45.5 km/h — extremely high figure! I should also add that payload to selected flights reached 1800 kg, exceeding the estimated three times.