AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, has commenced construction work on a new simulator hall at its “A. Marchetti” Training Academy located in Sesto Calende, Italy. The new simulator hall will be able to house up to nine full-flight simulators (FFSs) and six flight training devices (FTDs). The new facility will accommodate FFSs for various aircraft including the new generation AW169, AW189 and AW609 rotorcraft that will all enter service between 2014 and 2016. The building will also feature a roof top heliport capable of accepting rotorcraft up to 11 tonnes all up mass. The heliport and main building is scheduled to be completed with the first FFS installed in late 2012.

John Ponsonby, Senior VP Training, AgustaWestland said “This major investment in our training capabilities and capacity will allow us to meet the growing demand for synthetic flight training services from our existing customers and also for customers of our new generation rotorcraft that will be entering service in the next few years.”

In the last five years AgustaWestland has seen the number of synthetic flight hours delivered by its Training Academies increase by 450%, the number of students increase by over 200% and the number of helicopter flight hours delivered increase by nearly 200%. With the continuing success of the AW139 in the market place and the introduction of the AW169, AW189 and AW609 rotorcraft into service between 2014 and 2016 AgustaWestland is forecasting continuing double digit growth for training hours on its FFSs and FTDs.

AgustaWestland has three Training Academies located in Italy, the UK and USA and has recently established a Regional Training Centre in Malaysia. Rotorsim operates AW109, AW139 and NH90 full flight simulators at Sesto Calende on behalf of AgustaWestland and an AW139 FFS located at CAE’s North East Training Centre in Morris Town, near New York City, USA.