Third AgustaWestland AW169 flies

                      
AgustaWestland has announced that the third prototype of the AW169 helicopter recently successfully completed its maiden flight at Cascina Costa in Italy.

During its 35 minutes flight, the aircraft performed as expected with an assessment of the helicopter’s general handling and basic systems. A fourth prototype in scheduled to fly in early 2013 and the AW169 programme is on schedule to achieve civil certification in 2014. The first two AW169 prototypes, which performed their maiden flights in May 2012 and July 2012, have completed more than 100 flight hours to date.

The AW169 is part of AgustaWestland’s family of new generation helicopters that includes the AW139 and AW189 models. Launched in July 2010, the AW169 has orders for more than 70 units from customers in North & South America, Asia, Middle East, Europe and Australasia.