Leonardo has resumed flight trails of its AW609 tiltrotor prototypes following a fatal crash in October 2015 that led to Italian authorities seizing one of the remaining aircraft in May of this year as part of their investigation.
One of the prototypes flew from Arlington, Texas, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, arriving on 10 August for the resumption of trials that are geared at achieving type-certification in 2018.
According to Leonardo, the involvement of the Philadelphia site in the AW609 programme represents the anticipated progression towards assembly and certification with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the certification authority. Facilities in Italy, UK, and Poland will continue to play “critical” production roles, it said.
Leonardo plans to return this flying prototype to Italy shortly, to be replaced in Philadelphia with another AW609 that was recently assembled and ground tested in Italy. A further AW609 is being assembled in Philadelphia with plans to enter the test fleet in 2017. Deliveries are due to begin following certification in 2018.
Though marketed primarily in the commercial sector, the AW609 secured its first military customer in November 2015 when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a memorandum of understanding for three aircraft to be used by the country’s Joint Aviation Command (JAC) for search-and-rescue (SAR) duties. The UAE platforms scheduled to be delivered in about 2019.
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