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

Leonardo (Booth B1005) plans to highlight its EMS capabilities at this year’s Heli-Expo, partly via the display of an air-ambulance-configured AW169 medium twin helicopter at the company’s booth. Leonardo sees its continuing penetration of the rotorcraft EMS market as a growing opportunity and estimates that it already has 27 percent of that world market with 700 of its AW109, AW119, AW139, and AW169 models. It is aggressively promoting the use of its under-development AW09 turbine single and AW609 civil tiltrotor aircraft in this role as well.
With the AW169 in particular, Leonardo sees an opportunity for more market capture, said Sam Schaab, EMS specialist for the company. “The AW169 is our fastest-growing platform, specifically around the EMS segment,” Schaab told AIN. “It’s the only helicopter in its category that has such a large cabin, so it’s especially useful for providers who are trying to do specialty team transport and need to carry additional personnel on board. The modular cabin can be quickly reconfigured for different mission profiles.” Schaab said the company has a “large number” of the aircraft on order and that the continued addition of options, including skidded landing gear and avionics upgrades, should promote additional sales. He is also witnessing interest from Sikorsky S-76 operators who he says “are not seeing the same level of [factory] support that they’ve had historically.”
More than 150 AW169s have been delivered and 300 are on order. Announced in 2010 and FAA certified in 2016, the AW169 is a downsized version of Leonardo’s popular intermediate AW139 and is certified for single-pilot IFR, advanced search and rescue, and flight into known icing operations. The aircraft features avionics with three 10-by-8-inch Collins displays mated to touchscreen controls with capabilities including night-vision-goggle compatibility, four-axis digital automatic flight-control system, dual flight management system, digital maps, weather radar, satcom, traffic and -terrain avoidance, dual radar altimeters, ADS-B, enhanced vision, and a health and usage monitoring system. The model also features LPV approach capability and a helicopter terrain-awareness warning system. The avionics recently received its Phase 8 core software release. Power comes from a pair of Pratt &amp; Whitney Canada PW210A engines.
<h2>Speedy Helo</h2>
Maximum speed is 155 knots, range with full fuel and 30-minute reserve is 366 nm, and maximum useful load (passengers, bags, and fuel) is 4,350 pounds. The 222-cu-ft passenger cabin can accommodate eight to 11 people in a utility configuration, eight in an executive design, or six to seven in a VIP layout.
The focus on an EMS-configured AW169 follows Leonardo’s promotion of the AW609 at last year’s Air Medical Transport Convention. Leonardo believes the AW609 is well suited for longer-haul air medical work. The aircraft features a 35-inch-wide main cabin door that easily accommodates patient transfer from ground ambulance litter to the aircraft’s medical pedestal. The cabin is large enough for one patient and four medical attendants or two patients with fewer attendants.
AW609 marketing manager William Sunick believes a large untapped market exists for the aircraft in rural areas and for use to co-transport transplant organs and associated medical teams. “The aircraft has drawn a lot of attention, especially in the EMS configuration,” he said. “The ability to have a point-to-point, high-speed, vertical-lift aircraft with a pressurized interior to transport that organ is huge.” In rural applications, the 609 has the ability to do scene work and quickly transport patients to the medical facility with the most appropriate level of care, including for special needs such as treatment of burns and eye injuries, according to Sunick. “You don’t have to go to the first medical facility that you come across,” he said. Sunick also pointed out that the cabin can be pressurized to sea level, enabling a higher level of care to be administered to patients.
While Leonardo is officially noncommittal on estimating a certification date for the AW609, Schaab said that he expects it to occur “relatively quickly” and noted that Leonardo’s training center in Philadelphia already is equipped with a roll-on/roll-off AW169/AW609 simulator.
In the single-engine helicopter EMS market, Schaab noted, the AW119 series already has established itself as a solid performer and the addition of the AW09 configured for EMS will be complementary, not competitive. He said both models have pros and cons. With the AW09, patients can be loaded through clamshell doors in the rear of the helicopter, but the AW119 likely will be “a little bit faster.
“They are both going to be IFR-capable, which is really important from a safety standpoint,” he continued. Leonardo’s IFR-certified AW119Kx gained FAA approval in July 2019 and is the platform selected for the U.S. Navy’s new primary helicopter training aircraft, the TH-73A. It already has made its first deliveries of single-pilot IFR AW119Kx models to U.S. air ambulance providers Life Link III and Mercy Flight Central.
<h2>AW09 Certification</h2>
Final certification flight testing is proceeding on the AW09 following Leonardo’s announcement earlier this year that it had switched powerplants on the helicopter to the 1,000-shp-class Safran Helicopter Engines Arriel 2K. Until now, AW09 (née Kopter SH09) prototypes have flown with the Honeywell HTS900 engine. Leonardo acquired Kopter Group, including what is now the AW09 program, for $185 million in 2020. In 2021, it revamped the prototype’s design with an elongated mast, updated flight controls, Garmin G3000H avionics, revised upper cowlings for improved aerodynamics, and a new main rotor hub and blades. The Arriel 2K engine is installed in AW09 prototype PS4 and ready for flight tests at Kopter’s Mollis, Switzerland, facility.
Mollis will continue with the development and test of the AW09 while also serving as a technology incubator for aircraft hybridization and electrification under Leonardo’s “Be Tomorrow 2030” strategic plan. A Leonardo spokesman told AIN that the company didn’t have anything specific to announce yet regarding its efforts in the advanced air mobility market. However, he left little doubt that the program is moving ahead, revealing that Leonardo has already submitted requests for related patents to European authorities.
“We are not showing designs or announcing programs,” he said. “We are not there. Not because we do not believe it’s important, but simply because we are making our own evaluations.”

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