There are numerous variants of the Mi-8 / 17, including the Mi-8T, which, in addition to carrying 24 troops, is armed with rockets and anti-tank guided missiles.
The Mil Mi-17 export version is employed by around 20 countries; its equivalent in Russian service in the Mi-8M series. The only visible differences between the Mi-8 and Mi-17 are:
A) the position of the tail rotor (Mi-8 right side, Mi-17 left side),
B) the shape of the exhausts (Mi-8 circular, Mi-17 oval), and
C) Dust shields in front of engine air intakes for the Mi-17.
Also Mi-17 has some improved armour plating for its crew. The naval Mil Mi-14 version is also derived from the Mi-8.
The Mi-8 is constantly improving and the newest version still remains in production in 2016.
The included aircraft was built to represent it's real world counterpart used in many countries as closely as possible.
There is one aircraft model of the Mil Mi-8 in 11 liveries and cockpits with lettering in English or Russian:
Cargo and Equipment is customisable via Facility Boards.
Textures in 8k
Checklist plus full documentation for handling the Rotorcraft in the Pack.
Notes
This product features our simInstaller technology and is available after purchase via our APP only.
Requirements
Intel i7 or Ryzen equiv. or better
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Radeon RX 590 or better (8 GB minimum)
16GB of system memory (32 GB recommended)
Disk Space: 4.37 GB (extracted)
Download Size: 1.75 GB
I'd give it 4 if it was free or 10€. However these days 36€ for such a product is a horrible overcharge.
3D model isn't the best, particularly pilot models. Animations and rotor disks in particular also leave a lot to be desired. Flight model is..weird but it's hard to judge bc there's no autopilot programmed in MSFS and it isn't the creator's fault
Systems are mostly wrong. ADF doesn't work unless you use the modern one, heading bug doesn't work, APU gauges don't either.
Pros are the EFBs with a variety of equipment and cargoes to add, and the fact that well this is an Mi-17, the worlds best helicopter that suffers from a curse of not receiving any good models for civilian flight sims in the past
Extremely unrealistic handling. Sometimes if you have been sitting on the ground for a few minutes it turns into a spaceship, and it acts like your using slew mode. But when the handling "works" it still flies very weirdly, it enters an almost uncontrollable left spin, and the pitch and roll inputs are very sensitive.
Things I like:
It has some nice load options, and you can make it into a combat helicopter or a unarmed transport helicopter.
The sounds are good. The outside sounds are a bit loud, but I guess that it's not unrealistic.
So overall it has a lot of options to meet your desires, but it's way too overpriced. It also flies like $#!+ and sometimes completely breaks.