Leonardo Helicopters has resumed test flights of its single-engined AW09 following a five-month pause to address a manufacturing non-conformity issue in the main gearbox.
But thanks to a rescheduling of other activities, the airframer remains confident that it can still achieve certification for the AW09 later this year even with the lengthy lay-up.
Matteo Ragazzi, senior vice-president of engineering and innovation at the airframer, says the problem related to the heat treatment of metal components in the main gearbox discovered during destructive testing of the parts.
These had been sourced from a new supplier to Leonardo Helicopters and “were not meeting our specifics”, he told FlightGlobal during a pre-Verticon briefing on 10 March in Dallas.
New, conforming parts – from the same supplier – have been installed in the programme’s fifth aircraft, P5, permitting the resumption of flight-test activities “this morning”, he says.
During the test flight pause, the airframer worked with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to reschedule other activities related to the certification to maintain the overall schedule, says Ragazzi.
“We did everything we could to try and recover. Now is the time to show if we were doing it right,” he says. “We are still sticking to the end of this year to get the job done in terms of EASA certification.”
He says additional engineering and flight crews have been deployed to the Switzerland-based operation to ensure testing progresses at the required pace.
New conforming parts will now be installed on aircraft P4, allowing that helicopter to also return to flight. Meanwhile, aircraft P6 is in final assembly at the airframer’s Vergiate production line in northern Italy.
Leonardo Helicopters claims 120 pre-orders for the AW09, a 2.8t rotorcraft powered by a single 1,000shp (745kW) Safran Helicopter Engines Arriel 2K turboshaft.
On 9 March, Robinson Helicopter revealed its new R88 – an eight-passenger helicopter pitched for broadly the same market space as the AW09 and powered by another 1,000shp-rated Arriel variant, the 2W.
Roberto Garavaglia, senior vice-president of strategy at Leonardo Helicopters, says it is too early to be certain on the competitive threat posed by the R88 but believes the launch shows there is “life in this part of the market”.
