Single-Engine Multirole Helicopter Shines at Heli-Expo 2023

Leonardo Helicopters has secured contracts for the purchase and delivery of more than fifty of its AW09 five-to-eight-seat, single-engine helicopters.

The sales—negotiated with global customers Aero Service Representação of Brazil; Synerjet Latina SA of Colombia, Peru, and Chile; Asia and Southeast Asia’s Helitech; South Africa’s Safomar; Diskopsa of Panama and Guatemala; Oceana’s Heliflite; and Japan’s Aero Facility—speak to the continuing maturation of Leonardo’s AW09 program and the helicopter’s waxing popularity.

In addition to the aforementioned sales, an important agreement was struck between Leonardo and Metro Aviation, a company among the U.S.’s largest privately-owned Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) operators and service providers.

By availing itself of Metro Aviation’s expertise and experience in the businesses of developing aircraft interiors and STCs and providing highly-regarded HEMS service and training, Leonardo adroitly facilitates the introduction and positioning of its AW09 in the U.S.

Leonardo Helicopters managing director Gian Piero Cutillo stated: “What we have announced at Heli-Expo is the culmination of three years’ work through which the AW09 benefited from considerable enhancements and has now reached a final configuration, allowing to offer the level of competitiveness that the market expects. Indeed, the AW09 is generating a very positive response from all geographies around the world. Rotorcraft companies highly welcome the AW09 for its outstanding features and multirole capabilities that represent a significant evolution compared to existing products in this category. The preliminary sales contracts signed provide clear evidence of it. Also, combining our industrial capabilities with Metro Aviation’s extensive and recognized experience in operations and support enhances the AW09 value proposition, providing superior mission capabilities to the operators of this platform in a prime single engine market like USA.”

The AW09 is a key highlight of Leonardo’s offerings at Heli-Expo 2023. A full-scale mock-up of the next-generation helicopter displayed at Leonardo’s show booth has occasioned a great deal of interest within the rotorcraft community.

Since Leonardo’s 2020 acquisition of the AW09 design from Koptor (formerly Marenco Swisshelicopter), the aircraft has smartly complemented the former’s product line. Deriving of a clean-sheet design, the AW09 affords Leonardo a long-term competitive entry in the Long, Light, Single-Engine Helicopter segment.

Leonardo’s AW09 is a single-engine multirole helicopter powered by Safran’s 1,000-shaft-horsepower Arriel 2K engine. The machine makes use of a bearingless hub five-blade main-rotor system and a shrouded fenestron tail-rotor. The shrouded tail-rotor—in comparison to industry conventions—is of a wider diameter and a thinner chord. Subject architecture increases lateral airflow, thereby facilitating superior anti-torque authority. The AW09’s narrow tail-boom, back-swept main-rotor-blade tips, and shrouded tail greatly diminish the helicopter’s operating noise levels.

The AW09’s monocoque fuselage is fashioned from composite materials and equipped with two bilateral sliding doors and a single aft-facing clamshell door. Pilot visibility is enhanced by a series of forward, floor-mounted cockpit windows.

The AW09’s standard cabin configuration comprises two pilot seats and four aft passenger seats, all of which are adjustable fore/aft and up/down. In its high-density layout, five of the helicopter’s passenger seats are installed in the rear cabin, while a pair of forward-cabin passenger seats are mounted in-line with the aircraft’s two cockpit seats. The latter configuration forfeits the floor-window option.

The AW09’s generous cabin volume is attributable in-part to the placement of the model’s Kevlar-threaded, crashworthy fuel-tanks within its fuselage walls and cargo-hold floor. The cargo-hold itself is sized to accommodate ten articles of baggage. The aforementioned fuel-tanks have a capacity of 198-gallons and support a zero-wind aircraft range of 430-nautical-miles.

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