Hyvbrid - AW609 for quick rescue/EMS - AVweb

Finmeccanica Teams with Era on EMS AW609

Finmeccanica Helicopters and Era Group signed a memorandum of understanding at Heli-Expo 2016 on Wednesday to develop an EMS variant of the AW609 civil tiltrotor. Under the MoU, Finmeccanica and Era will engage in joint activities in support of development of the AW609 for the EMS market including regulations, operations, maintenance, configuration optimization and identifying possible areas of enhancement or modifications. The partners would provide contributions to flying activities toward aircraft maturity and address commercial aspects for potential future AW609 acquisitions. Era already is the largest civil global operator of AgustaWestland (now Finmeccanica) helicopters. The AW609 has a 275-knot maximum forward speed and a maximum range of 750 nm. Finmeccanica holds orders from 60 customers.