AW189 makes Helitech debut

AW189 makes Helitech debut

29-Sep-2011 Source: AgustaWestland

AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce that a full scale mock-up of the all new AW189, first unveiled at Paris Air Show in June, is making its debut appearance at Helitech which is being held at Duxford, UK, from 27th to 29th September. The new generation twin-engine AW189, 16 to 18-seat long range 8-tonne class helicopter, has been designed with the involvement of key helicopter operators worldwide to ensure it meets market requirements.

The development of the AW189 multi-purpose helicopter is progressing as planned with two prototypes scheduled to enter the flight test programme in 2012. The AW189 will be certified in 2013 and be ready to enter service in 2014 providing operators with helicopter that has very attractive seat mile costs, performance, payload and range.

Designed in response to the growing worldwide demand for a new generation helicopter with higher payload, longer range and higher productivity to be quickly available to the market, the AW189 complements the modern range of AgustaWestland commercial helicopters. The AW189 is being developed to perform a wide range of roles including offshore transport, search and rescue, passenger transport and a variety of parapublic missions.

Powered by two General Electric CT7-2E1 engines equipped with FADEC and built-in particle separators, the AW189 will have class leading performance. The aerodynamically efficient airframe, rotor system and the innovative rotor blade design will ensure the AW189 delivers low fuel consumption with a high cruise speed and an outstanding range capability. These factors will enable the AW189 to achieve low seat mile costs.

The spacious unobstructed cabin is configured with 16 seats as standard. Seating options include a high density 18 seat layout or an ultra long range 12-seat configuration with a number of forward and backward facing layouts. A mix of seats, mission consoles, dedicated equipment and litters can be installed according to the operational requirement. A modular fuel system, that is quick to fit and remove, ensures the optimum mission specific trade off between passenger load and range can be achieved.

Exceptional external visibility and the incorporation of the latest avionics technology make the AW189 the pilot’s choice. The open architecture avionics suite includes a fully digital glass cockpit with four 8” x 10” large area displays (AMLCD), a 4-axis dual-duplex digital automatic flight control system (DAFCS) and dual Flight Management System (FMS). All contribute to minimising pilot workload during VFR/IFR flight. Single pilot IFR certification is a design objective. The avionics suite is suitable for the NextGen satellite-based IFR navigation (with vertical navigation and precision approaches) and advanced communication and surveillance requirements. The AW189 sets new standards in situational awareness in low visibility flying conditions and has an all weather capability thanks to its Synthetic Vision System, which emulates the surrounding topography, and to the Enhanced Vision System which sees through darkness, smoke, dusk and light fog, further improving operational safety.

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