ATLANTA—Leonardo executives believe their AW09 single-engine helicopter could achieve similar levels of success as the company’s twin-engine AW139.
The OEM is looking ahead to European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification and market entry potentially as early as late 2024 following a protracted development program that has spanned more than a decade.
“We hope and we are sure that the AW09 can repeat the success of the AW139,” Emilio Dalmasso, senior vice president for new products at Leonardo Helicopters, told journalists March 7 at the Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo here.
The AW139 has been Leonardo’s most successful aircraft, with sales reaching 1,300 in just 18 years and transforming the helicopter business’ finances.
Dalmasso said the market had reacted positively to the changes to the AW09. They were developed by the joint Kopter Group and Leonardo Helicopters engineering team since Leonardo took over the program in 2020.
The most recent of these changes was the decision to swap out the Honeywell HTS900 engine in favor of Safran’s Arriel 2K, a powerplant that Leonardo concluded had better global support options for the AW09’s operators.
The engine change has required minor modifications to the AW09’s upper fuselage and engine cowlings, as the Arriel 2K is slightly longer than the HTS900.
In addition, Leonardo has introduced new composite main rotor blades with improved aerofoil and increased chord. It has also made a series of aerodynamic changes to the vertical stabilizer and around the upper fuselage as part of the development process.
Dalmasso said the company has now begun converting letters of interest and memorandums of understanding for the 2.85-metric-ton aircraft into preliminary sales contracts, with 50 orders booked at the time of Heli-Expo. These are expected to rise to 60 before the summer, 100 by the end of this year, and as many as 200 before certification.
“The AW09 is generating a very positive response from all geographies around the world,” says Leonardo Helicopters Managing Director Gian Piero Cutillo. “The preliminary sales contracts signed provide clear evidence of it.”
Flight testing of the AW09 with the new engine is set to begin soon, with a first flight of PS4, a preseries prototype. That aircraft had originally been designed to take the HTS900, but engineers adapted the aircraft for the Arriel engine in just nine months, said Michele Riccobono, Kopter’s chief technology officer. A second aircraft, PS5, is set to fly later in 2023, with both aircraft set to support the certification flying campaign.
Abel Mercier, head of sales and marketing for Singapore-based Helitech Asia, a distributor for the AW09 for Southeast Asia, said one of the aircraft’s key selling points was the size of the cabin, which is similar to that of a twin-engine helicopter. He said the cabin’s size would have appeal for VIP and utility operators alike.
Originally developed as the SH09 by Switzerland-based Marenco Swisshelicopter in 2009, aircraft development continued under the renamed Kopter Group in 2018 before the program was purchased by Leonardo for $185 million.
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