The future looks bright for Leonardo as it continues to grow its product offerings with the versatile AW09. The addition of the AW09 strengthens Leonardo’s position in the single-engine market, offering a new, extremely competitive and attractive platform, complementing the AW119 and satisfying an even more diversified market demand. The AW09 perfectly melds into Leonardo’s product portfolio.
The AW09 continues to be developed by Kopter in Switzerland, with the contribution of joint Leonardo-Kopter teams. The fourth AW09 prototype — PS4 — began flight testing in Mollis, Switzerland, and will be complemented later this year with a fifth prototype, PS5. These two aircraft are the primary workhorses for Leonardo’s ongoing certification campaign.
The AW09 has benefited from considerable improvements since it joined the Leonardo family. Key milestones reached include the integration of a new Arriel 2K engine — the newest version of the renowned brand, flying the new and final main rotor blades, and agreeing to the type certification basis with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Important progress has also been achieved regarding the “connected helicopter” concept in order to collect and analyze all data generated by the helicopter. On the services side, advanced support and maintenance solutions are being put in place, leveraging new technologies and low-cost operations.
The AW09 possesses a double-channel full authority digital engine control (FADEC), bird strike resistance, a full crashworthy fuel system, and a modern instrument flight rules (IFR) ready avionics suite, featuring technology that will significantly reduce pilot workload and increase situational awareness, while supporting aircraft connectivity. The aircraft’s key feature is its outstanding cabin, which offers the size and mission capability of a light twin turbine helicopter — at the cost of a single-engine aircraft. The cabin layout provides the aircraft an unequaled mission versatility, allowing it to perform various missions, ranging from passenger transport, utility, emergency medical services (EMS) and law enforcement. The interchangeable floor further enhances cabin layout flexibility.
With the AW09, Leonardo introduces all-new design and capabilities to sustain a clear and long-term competitive position in the long light single segment, but also taps into those operators in the light twin market who do not want the cost of twin-engine helicopters based on their unique and specific operational needs.
Customers from various market segments have been expressing strong interest in the AW09, as well as their trust in Leonardo/Kopter to deliver a stellar product. The AW09 is positioned to greatly benefit from the Leonardo commercial and support network, expected to grow even further with the AW09, as its potential customer base will be geographically widespread. Leonardo is currently putting in place distributorship and partnership agreements in key geographies, including North and Central America.
Kopter is set to become a Center of Competence for new light helicopters and an incubator of new technologies for vertical flight, allowing it to contribute to the development of new hybrid and electrical propulsion systems. The AW09 is a strong contender for evolution in the framework of Leonardo’s Be Tomorrow 2030 strategic plan, which aims to be in the leading position on the civil rotorcraft market and modern air mobility.
