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 eight-ton class AW189 on schedule and next year it will achieve the same for the all new four-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, 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 seven/eight-tonne class since its launch in June 2011.
Three of the four helicopters on display at Heli-Expo were built in Philadelphia. 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 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.
A second AW139 was also on display in offshore transportation configuration. The AW139 is the only helicopter in its class that meets all the latest civil certification requirements.