Will Be Displayed At African Aerospace 2006

The first AgustaWestland AW139 to be delivered to South Africa is making its appearance at African Aerospace and Defense 2006 following an eight day ferry flight from Milan, Italy to Cape Town, South Africa earlier this month. The VIP-configured AW139, painted in a customized color scheme (below), is owned and operated by a South African businessman.

The eight day, 6,388 nm (11,830 km) ferry flight started at AgustaWestland's Vergiate factory near Milan in Northern Italy where the aircraft was built and included stops in Crete, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe before arriving in Cape Town, South Africa.

The unique color scheme was designed for the customer by a South African artist, and was then applied to the aircraft by an airbrush artist, also from South Africa, at AgustaWestland's Vergiate facility.

Ten AW139s have already been ordered by African customers, and it is already in service with customers in Namibia and Zambia in the VIP transport role -- where the aircraft's performance in hot and high conditions is being successfully utilized.

The AW139 can be configured with a range of cabin layouts including five to eight seat luxurious configurations for Head of State and VIP transport and 12 or 15 seat standard passenger transport configurations.

The AW139 is the aircraft of choice for every medium lift application around the globe and has been particularly successful in the commercial and corporate transport, law enforcement, EMS and SAR markets. Firm orders for the AW139 are now close to 200, making it the best selling medium twin helicopter today.

By September 2006, over 40 aircraft had been delivered to customers in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

FMI: www.agustawestland.com