Mark Huber is an aviation industry veteran who has worked in the flight training, aircraft sales, aircraft component, and airport development businesses. He has flight time in more than 50 different and diverse aircraft, including helicopters, aerobatic aircraft, vintage warbirds, jet fighters, business jets and turboprops, and transport-category aircraft. He has jumped out of several of these—on purpose—with a parachute. His defense and aviation journalism has been published in a variety of national and international periodicals.

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Mark Huber

AgustaWestland CEO Daniele Romiti gave a comprehensive overview of the state of the company at its annual Heli-Expo press conference on Monday night. According to Romiti, revenues increased by 1.3 percent in the first nine months of 2014, to $3.4 billion, giving the company a 12.5-percent rate of return.

 


For the year, AgustaWestland delivered “more than 200” new helicopters and booked orders for more than 230 valued at $3.45 billion. Overall, the company said new orders surged by 37 percent, driven in part by strong demand from the offshore energy market where Romiti said AgustaWestland enjoys a 43-percent market share. It plans to release full-year results next month.

 


AgustaWestland continues to enjoy strong backlogs for its line of medium twins, including orders for 170 AW139s and 150 each for the new AW169 and AW189. Romiti revealed that the AW189 received FAA certification on Friday and that EASA approval of the AW169 is imminent and that customer deliveries of that aircraft would begin in the second quarter. “Now, it’s just a matter of the paperwork,” he said.

 


The AW189 continues to undergo testing of its full ice protection systems (FIPS), which AgustaWestland hopes to have approved by October. Romiti also said that the company is making good progress on the AW609 tiltrotor since acquiring the program from Bell in 2011, giving the aircraft a long list of upgrades.

 


Romiti said AgustaWestland continues to refine the maintenance requirements downward for legacy aircraft such as the AW139, where significant reductions in time required to conduct inspections and overall downtime should combine for an overall 35-percent reduction in the scheduled maintenance burden for the helicopter.

 


AgustaWestland also trained 6,600 pilots and maintenance technicians in 2014, a 10-percent increase over 2013. The company said “delivery schedule adherence” on urgent parts orders improved to 75 percent for its civil helicopters last year and that the company planned to increase that to 90 percent by year-end.

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

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