Bell/Agusta's Antonio Giovannini had a clear message of intent when he spoke here about progress on the AB139 medium-twin helicopter: "See us back here in 2003 and we'll have a production machine flying."
Marketing director Giovannini confirmed that Bell/Agusta was aiming for certification by the end of 2002, with first deliveries beginning soon afterwards.
He also revealed that the company had set a unit price of $6,985,000 in 2001 dollars. "We believe that price makes us very competitive," said Giovannini, "and the fact that we have come from launch to first flight in 19 months is very special."
He attributed the speedy development to the company's "digital approach," using 3-D design techniques. "We had people 6,000 miles apart who were able to see in real time what their colleagues were involved with."
Both the civil and the military variants of the aircraft will have a maximum speed of 157kt (290km/hr) over a distance of 400nm (740km) with a full load of 12 passengers or troops.
Bell/Agusta made a point of placing the ground test vehicle (GTV) on the main production line to give its engineers as much input on development as possible.
The company is offering the helicopter for a number of requirements, including search and rescue, combat search and rescue and medevac.
Turning to the Bell/Agusta BA609 civil tiltrotor, executive marketing director Don Barbour said that first flight was expected before year-end and that the programme had 40 customers in 22 countries.
He added that the 609 team would learn any lessons they could from their counterparts in the troubled V-22 Osprey programme.
Source: Flight Daily News
