Aviation Week Heli-Expo Show News Briefing - February 24-26, 2008 - (Page 24) AgustaWestland Adding Line for AW139 company’s commitment to expansion and investment in the U.S., says Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of AgustaWestland. The AW139 is being used in a variety of roles in the Americas and around the world, including offshore and VIP transport, emergency medical services, search and rescue, law enforcement and homeland security. The AW139 can carry 15 New Philadelphia assembly line for the AW139 twin. passengers or up to six litter AgustaWestland (Booth 3039) last week patients with four attendants. It is powered opened a second AW139 medium twin tur- by Pratt & Whitney PT6C-67Cs with full bine helicopter assembly line in authority digital engine controls. The heliPhiladelphia and production will soon be at copters’ range is 400 nmi with an endurance full tilt as the line cranks out 30 aircraft of 3.9 hours. In addition to providing final asper year. In addition to an existing AW139 sembly locations for two models of assembly line, the company has there its AgustaWestland aircraft, Philadelphia suponly location in the world for producing ports the expanding fleet of the company’s the AW119 Ke, the latest upgrade to the products in North and South America. In A119 Koala—an eight-seat single turbine all, 360 AgustaWestland helicopters are in helicopter. AgustaWestland also assembles operation in the Americas. Two years ago in Philadephia as the AW139s in Italy. Adding a second assembly line for company broke ground for the 110,000 sq ft the AW139 on the East Coast shows the production facility to house the first AW139 final assembly line, Finmeccanica officials noted their commitment to the U.S. market is not new. “Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland are integral parts of the U.S. industrial base and strong contributors to the American economy,” noted Finmeccanica chairman and CEO Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, who earned his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania many years ago. The AW139 is equipped with a Honeywell Primus Epic cockpit with four 8-by-10-in. liquid crystal displays on the front panel, a flight management system and a cursor control device. These largescreen displays and integrated data presentations make this one of the most advanced cockpits in the commercial helicopter world. Primus Epic avionics systems are also flying in the fixed-wing world on top-of-the-line Gulfstream and Dassault Falcon large-cabin business jets. The Philadelphia plant also provides completion and customization of AgustaWestland’s AW109 Power and Grand light twin helicopters for customers in the Americas. —David Hughes New Bell 429 Is Undergoing Cold-Weather Trials Making its world public debut here at Heli-Expo is the Bell 429, which flew to Houston from Canada for the event. The light-twin helicopter had previously been seen only in mockup form. The aircraft on show is the third prototype, which has recently been undergoing cold weather trials. The external configuration of the 429 light twin was locked last October, and the internal specs will be cemented within the next few months. Certification is due late this year. “The 429 has shown outstanding performance during the flight test program. We currently have three 429 aircraft flying, which have accumulated over 560 flight test hours and each has accomplished all of our goals during the initial phase of testing,” said Bell 429 program manager Neil Marshall. The Bell 429 features an ultra-large 200 cu ft flat, open cabin of a size usually found on intermediate twins, and can seat up to seven passengers plus the pilot. It is the first to incorporate Bell’s Modular Affordable Product Line (MAPL) technologies which have been developed with a view to achieving significant improvements in safety, operating and lifetime costs. Market response has been very strong with over 260 orders from 30 different countries, with the helicopter proving most popular in law enforcement, emergency medical and offshore markets. The third Bell 429 took a break from flight test to fly from Canada to Houston for Heli-Expo. 24 www.aviationweek.com/shownews February 24, 2008 http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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