First civil tiltrotor aircraft progressing to the certification

Leonardo company is making steady progress in the certification process of their AW609 aircraft. It´s certainly not an easy task, but the manufacturer is giving everything to accomplish their goals as soon as possible.

Originally, Leonardo company started to work on this project with Bell. However, in 2011 decision was made to bring the 609 program entirely to Leonardo. Since then, 4 of the tiltrotors are being flown and tested while the 5th one just rolled out of the production facility.

Assembly and testing of the AW609 are planned to move to the new hangar, which was recently acquired by Leonardo and will be dedicated solely to this program. 6th manufactured aircraft – the first delivery aircraft is currently on the production line. Leonardo Senior Manager Wiliam Sunick stated, that although the company doesn´t share order books, they have tremendous interest in the aircraft across all missions, including VIP, corporate, SAR, EMS, or off-shore around the world.