A109 with skids ?
 

Apologies for the spotterish question. A few day ago whilst in the Italian lakes area an Augusta (or is it Leonardo?) 109 flew over at around 300m and rather unusually it appeared to have skids underneath like a Bell 206 Jet Ranger. Maybe it had some kind of sensor array underneath and my eyes were playing tricks with me, but they did look awfully like skids to me. Has anyone seen similar, or is there a test frame knocking about ? I wasn't so far away from the factory in Vergiate

Possibly an AW119 Koala or the AW109Trekker which I think is still under development.

I have it from a friend at Leonardo that there is indeed a skid-mounted 109 currently under development.

I have a friend too. I can even release the name: "Leonardo's public website" :E

AW109 Trekker - DETAIL - Leonardo - Aerospace, Defence and Security

If the hight has been approx 300 meters could've easily been a Koala too.

There are two A109 Trekker development airframes which look like this

http://www.helihub.com/wordpress/wp-...-trekker11.jpg
http://www.helihub.com/wordpress/wp-...9-trekker3.jpg

Thanks for the replies, I hadn't realised that the Koala was so popular in the US, I thought that the Bell 429 had that market segment sewn up. The Trekker that I saw was the yellow and blue one in the previous post, it flew above and just to the side of me, which made the skids visually ambiguous and made me doubt my eyes.

Should be certified in 2018. Basically a 109S airframe with skids and better glass cockpit/simplified electrical system.

It was supposed to be Garmin 1000, but that changed to Genesis I believe, which delayed the certification.

There is also a 109E on skids in Cascina Costa with a fenestron. But it hasn't moved for more than 10 years.

With that sort of tone I find that claim somewhat surprising.

Ah, that clears things right up. You and "Leonardo's public website" have a fine evening chatting over beers (which with my friend is how I got my information), you silly person.

Ha, the Bell 429, the only corner that helicopter has succeded in is that of third world countries.

NYPD recently replaced their A119s with Bell 429s, and seem content. Would have been more logical to change the 119s to 109s, but perhaps they wanted an all Bell fleet, as they operate a few 412s?

Nope, they wanted skids. If the 109 Trekker was ready, they probably would have gone with it over the 429.

Their RFP specifically said that the helicopter must be skid equipped.