AGUSTAWESTLAND HIGHLIGHTS FROM HELI-EXPO

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, displayed four of its advanced high performance helicopters at its booth at Heli Expo 2013. AgustaWestland also highlighted its Family of new generation helicopters and its customer support and training services.

This year AgustaWestland will achieve civil certification for its new generation 8-ton class AW189 on schedule and next year it will achieve the same for the all new 4-tonne class AW169, demonstrating its commitment to bring to market new advanced technology products. These two new products along with the AW139 form the AgustaWestland Family of new generation helicopters, an industry first, that will deliver cost savings to fleet operators of more than one type. Both the AW189 and AW169 have achieved strong sales in the market place with the AW189 already the outright market leader in the 7/8-tonne class since its launch in June 2011.

Highlighting its strong and growing industrial presence in the United States, three of the four helicopters on display at Heli-Expo have been built in the United States at AgustaWestland’s facility in Philadelphia, where nearly 600 skilled staff are employed. The fourth helicopter on display at Heli-Expo, a GrandNew, was customised and completed by AgustaWestland Philadelphia having been assembled in Italy.

Making its Heli-Expo debut was the AW119Kx, an evolution of the successful A119Ke. The AW119Kx features the Garmin G1000HTM Integrated Flight Deck system with an advanced avionic suite comprising a Synthetic Vision System with Highway In The Sky (HITS) depiction, moving map and a Helicopter Terrain Avoidance Warning System (HTAWS) with worldwide terrain and obstacle database. The large unobstructed cabin permits rapid reconfiguration for a variety of missions such as passenger transport, emergency medical service, and law enforcement applications. The aircraft on display showed an EMS configured aircraft for Life Flight Network, the launch customer for the AW119Kx. Life Flight Network signed a contract at last year’s Heli-Expo for 15 EMS configured aircraft.

Highlighting AgustaWestland’s leadership in the corporate and VIP transport market was a GrandNew which is the most advanced light twin engine helicopter available today. The aircraft on display at Heli Expo will be the first corporate GrandNew aircraft to be delivered in North America and the first GrandNew to be delivered to a Canadian customer. The GrandNew is already in service in the USA in the EMS market, delivering exceptional performance and thanks to its advanced avionics system, unrivalled mission capabilities in the light twin engine class.

AgustaWestland also displayed its multi-mission AW139 National Security Helicopter demonstrator which can meet the requirements of agencies tasked with executing a diverse array of national security and law enforcement missions. The aircraft is fully mission capable for operations in the extreme cold of Alaska and the Northern Border states, as well as the unforgiving heat of the sub-tropical maritime environment. A flexible and user friendly aircraft, the AW139 is designed to be reconfigured for multiple missions while minimizing maintenance support and maximising aircraft availability.

A second AW139 was also on display in offshore transportation configuration.