I've been up close with the Mi-26 and it is impressive... although not as impressive as the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane.
I knew a retired Army helo pilot who related a story about a Skycrane that had been purchased by a private company after the Army decided their useful life was ended. The new owner also got in the deal a Skycrane cargo trailer mounted underneath that was literally loaded with brand new spare parts for the aircraft.
It took off on its cross-country journey and somewhere in the middle of the trip, went down, killing all on board and scattering debris over a large area. Since they had no voice or data recorders on Army helos, the FAA/NTSB/Army/Sikorsky showed up to dig through the wreckage to find probable cause for the accident. Each time an investigator found a part in the field he'd think he found something significant, only to find out it was one of the thousands of spare parts scattered all over the scene. I don't know if they every figured out what happened with that one, but it was a nightmare.