Leonardo Helicopters continues to progress the certification of its AW609 tiltrotor, with pilots from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) having now flown the first production-conforming aircraft.
Taking place in early February at the airframer’s Philadelphia production site in the USA, where it builds the AW609, the familiarisation flight using aircraft 5 (N609LH) was a precursor to the start of Type Inspection Authorization (TIA) activities.
Flights under TIA will see the AW609 operated by the FAA’s crew as part of the certification process. Production-representative aircraft 5 is “designated as the primary aircraft” for those flights.
Previously, FAA pilots had flown prototype aircraft 4 in Italy to gain initial experience on the tiltrotor.
Next week, the AW609 programme team will attend a Pre-Flight Type Certification Board Meeting with the FAA in New York “to showcase the aircraft’s conformity and system readiness”, the airframer said in a LinkedIn post.
The first production-representative example, aircraft 5 has so far accumulated 62 flight hours across several test campaigns.
These include handling qualities, avionics system performance, and cold weather operations down to -10°C (14°F) outside air temperature.
Leonardo Helicopters has previously indicated it hopes to secure TIA in the first quarter, leading to certification later this year.
Meanwhile, the first customer AW609, aircraft 6, was powered on in late 2024 and is currently undergoing post-production modifications ahead of a first flight later this year.
