AgustaWestland AW169

The AgustaWestland AW169 is a twin-engine ten-seat helicopter in the 4.8 tonne class, developed by AgustaWestland and now built by the helicopter division of Leonardo. The company announced the programme on 19 July 2010 at the Farnborough International Air Show as a light-intermediate utility twin, and chose early on to share many components and the cockpit layout with the larger AW139 in order to lower operating costs. In 2011 the British government lent the company 33 million dollars toward its development. The first of four prototypes made its first flight on 10 May 2012, with the second and third joining the flight test programme later that year. Assembly of the first production aircraft began in January 2015 at the Vergiate factory in Italy, where the initial production models were built. The AW169 shares design similarities with the AW139 and the larger AW189.