AgustaWestland AW119 Koala

The AgustaWestland AW119 Koala is an eight-seat utility helicopter powered by a single turboshaft engine and built for the civil market, aimed at operators who prefer the lower running costs of one engine to the redundancy of a twin. It was introduced as the Agusta A119 Koala before the Agusta and Westland merger and has been produced by Leonardo since 2016. The A119 designation was first given in the 1970s to a proposed 11-seat stretch of the AW109 that was never built; the helicopter that actually entered production was conceived in 1994, while Agusta was recovering from a period of financial trouble. The second of two prototypes made its first flight in February 1995 and the first prototype was used for static tests. In early 2015 AgustaWestland and Bristow Helicopters jointly offered an upgraded variant as a replacement for the US Navy's fleet of 117 Bell TH-57 trainer helicopters under a fee-for-service arrangement.