AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, is pleased to announce the delivery of a second AW139 intermediate twin helicopter featuring a highly customized exterior painting scheme to a South African private customer. This aircraft is also the 600th AW139 delivered by AgustaWestland to the global market and it will be used to perform corporate and passenger transport in South Africa and Emergency Medical Services utilizing a quick convertible EMS pod. In addition it will be utilized to perform the unconventional mission of performing aerial game counting to monitor the populations of wild animals typically found in African game reserves.
The AW139 has the provisioning to fit floatation gear, a cargo hook and is fitted with an infrared camera system to assist pilots in poor visibility conditions (clouds and/or dust for landings on unprepared surfaces). Equipped with a particle separator system, the performance of the AW139 allows for operations anywhere in Africa and in hot and high conditions. This AW139’s cabin is provided with a mix of six backward/forward-facing seats with the possibility of quick reconfiguration on a mission by mission basis. The unique aircraft’s paint scheme provides a glimpse of Southern African art and cultural tradition with its primary focus on nature.
Andries Wannenburg, Head of Region Eastern and Southern Africa, said “We are delighted to deliver this highly tailored AW139 helicopter to our customer. Its ‘one of a kind’ combination of style and multirole mission ability provides further evidence of AgustaWestland’s outstanding capability to supply customized solutions as well as the unequalled versatility offered by the AW139 design.”
The delivery of this aircraft sets another important milestone in the unequalled global success of the AW139 model and further expands the already significant success of the AgustaWestland range of commercial helicopters in South Africa, where 24 AgustaWestland commercial aircraft are already flying.
The world’s best-in-class and best-selling AW139 helicopter in its category has quickly become the new benchmark for executive helicopters. Designed to meet the rigorous standards of those who demand the best, the AW139 surpasses all other same category helicopters in capability, speed, ride quality and passenger cabin space. The AW139 is tailored upon its customers who can choose a range of mission equipment and interior layout. A quick conversion from transport to mobile office or flying meeting room and reverse is possible. The AW139’s passenger cabin is separated from the pilots by a “limousine window”-like system, and the overall internal environment is provided with an air conditioning system and a selection from a wide range of electronic equipment both for entertainment and for communication. The AW139 is supported by a comprehensive range of maintenance and training services and features an easy/low cost maintenance design to the benefit of operational effectiveness and safety as well as maximized exploitation of its outstanding capabilities. Orders for nearly 740 AW139s have been placed by approximately 200 customers in almost 60 nations to date.
The AW139 is part of the AgustaWestland family of new generation helicopters that includes the AW169 and AW189 models, which possess the same high performance flight characteristics and safety features as well as sharing a common cockpit layout, design philosophy and maintenance/training concept. This commonality allows more effective operations for customers operating helicopter fleets across the 4 to 8.5 tonne categories.
Source / Author: AgustaWestland