As is well known, the Austrian Armed Forces will have to find a successor for the ageing Alouette III fleet in the coming years. One possible successor candidate is the AW169 from Leonardo.
According to a recent press release from the Italian manufacturer, the multi-purpose helicopter has also been used on numerous missions around the world in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. In Italy and the UK, the “Green Allrounder” was used to monitor mobility and traffic restriction rules and to transport intensive care patients, among other things.
It is no coincidence that the AW169 is particularly popular with emergency medical services. The spacious cabins offer enough room for a medical team of several doctors and patients, and the interior can also be quickly converted for different transport systems. The military multi-purpose helicopter is also ideally suited for missions in dangerous situations, as it can also be operated if one of the two engines fails. According to the manufacturer, however, the “absolute flagship” of the AW169 is the main rotor. Thanks to a variable speed, the revolutions per minute can be reduced during flight, which not only generates less noise, but above all massively reduces fuel consumption.
Two powerful PW210A engines deliver a combined 2,000 hp, enabling a maximum cruising speed of more than 268 km/h to be achieved. Further advantages are the range of 816 kilometers and the spacious cockpit. As some other helicopter types cannot be flown by pilots wearing protective equipment, the Air Ambulance of the county of Cornwall in south-west England used its new AW169 to support surrounding emergency services in transporting intensive care patients.
Almost half of the current AW169 fleet is used by emergency services around the world. In the United Kingdom alone, in addition to the Air Ambulance in Cornwall, five other ambulance service operators rely on the Leonardo helicopter and in Italy, the financial police took delivery of 22 of the type in their fleet in 2018.
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