The remainder of the aircraft is essentially identical with the long-legged version. Seventeen of the new flying crane were produced as the Mi-10K, including two conversions from Mi-10s from 23 March 1974 to 1977. The operational service of the Mi-10 was of moderate success, being distributed mainly to units of the VVS ("Voyenno-Vozdushnyye Sily" - Soviet Air Force) which already operated the Mi-6. Operations with no load were found to be unstable, and the best procedure for take-off was found to be a rolling take-off, which usually also resulted in nose-wheel shimmy when lightly loaded. The main mission of the early Mi-10 virtually evaporated with the improvements in contemporary ballistic missiles; thus the majority of the long-legged variants were converted to Mi-10PP, (or mi-10P), airborne Electronic Counter-Measures helicopters, carrying a large ST-900 Step' ("Step"' - Steppe) ECM pod under the fuselage mounted on a pallet. Other Mi-10 long legged aircraft were converted to carry out a wide variety of missions but usually only as single prototypes. Of special note was the Mi-10R (R - "recordnyy"- record) record breaking helicopter, converted from a production machine, with the undercarriage of a Mi-6 fitted with fairings and spats, as well as a tail bumper to reduce the risk of damage to the rear fuselage on landing. "Data from:"Mil's heavylift helicopters : Mi-6, Mi-10, V-12 and Mi-26 The Mi-10R has held seven world records, none of which are still current, in the FAI E1 General class for rotorcraft powered by turbine engines. Abane Ramdane  Abane Ramdane (June 10, 1920, Larbaâ Nath Irathen – December 27, 1957) was an Algerian political activist and revolutionary born in Kabylie. He played a key role in the organization of the independence struggle during the Algerian war. His influence was so great that he was known as "the architect of the revolution". He was also the architect of the Soummam conference Bejaia in 1956 and was very close to Frantz Fanon. The National Liberation Front (FLN) had him killed, supposedly for creating a cult of the individual rather than the collective leadership. He was "super-political" and his murder was disturbing to many FLN members including President Boumédiène who, according to the book, "A Savage War of Peace", kept the assassins out of his future Algerian government.