Polish press has been running a story over the last 2-3 days saying that Eurocopter is expecting to sign a deal on 4th April which will see them producing helicopters at the WZL-1 factory at Lodz in Poland. The newspapers are quoting the source as Barbara Texier, an employee of Eurocopter who had more recently been responsible for the rollout of 23 EC135s to the Polish air ambulance service LPR.

It is understood that the reasoning behind this move is to allow Eurocopter to bid on a tender for 70 helicopters for the Polish Army, paperwork for which is due in September.

AgustaWestland already have a production facility at Swidnik, while Sikorsky produce S70i Black Hawks at Mielec.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com