Kopter/Leonardo AW09
 

I had not been paying attention to this new type that's been in development, nice to see progress from a few months ago.

It has an interesting sound signature, sounds like a flying power station transformer.

The rear doors will be good for EMS.

Hope it does well, they seem to be well ahead of the HX50.

Looks a tad small for HEMS?

Cabin dimension
 

actually, cabin is at least as large as a twin H135

Do the blades rotate the wrong way?
Maybe to attract sales from Eurocopter owners….

Intriging sound indeed, this is a sound characteristic that I think you would hear from a 500 flight by at medium speed but never that lound.
so i assume it has something to do the 5-blades rotor head, on second thought, because of the high pitch it sound like the tail rotor blades have a nasty resonance...

good looking ship, the Arriel 2K and the new cowling nicely packaged

I think it is the fenestron when in lateral flight

Tickle,

There is a thread on the development of this helicopter from when it was originally being developed by Marenco:

https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/44...elicopter.html

My 'non aeronautical' feeling is the fuselage is quite short and bluff at its back end. I wonder how that influences flow past the fenestron when in forward flight? But I guess the same could be said of the Hughes 300, Robinson R22 and they work just fine!

I can’t see why that would attract sales when you lift the pedals do the work you just keep it straight

I’m a little surprised they have gone 5 bladed I would have thought that would increase cost. Should make for good performance though.
For an AW she’s a bit ugly.
Nice to see more in this class been developed.

Sorry - I was being facetious, re the “customers” comment.
But the choice of direction is not immediately obvious to me.

Does anyone know if the AW09 will be displayed at Verticon 2025 (formerly Heli-Expo)? I have the impression that this program is slowing down, Leonardo has not communicated on this subject for quite some time...

If they do then more than be a mock up they brought 2 years ago to Atlanta (my pic below) at Leonardo booth,

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cd3bad4021.jpg

Cant imagine they bringing along HB-ZXD or HB-ZXF but happy to be proved wrong in 2 months when attending.

cheers

HB-Zxx

More seriously what would be the USP of this proposition ?

They've apparently been busy creating an autonomous technology demonstrator for the Royal Navy Proteus project...

Proteus design confirms strong influence from AW09 helicopter | News | Flight Global

Indeed, I have been surprised by the silence around the AW09 at European Rotors. And since then no news, even from distributors.
The aircraft was supposed to be certified end of 2024, isn’t it?
This aircraft is really nice helicopter on paper and I’m looking forward to being able to fly in it.

Q1-Q2 2025 is now the date.

Great! 6months delay that not that much for such challenging certification.

Q1 seems impossible, I have to check again but last time I looked at AW09 prototype activities all the aircraft seem to be grounded since the beginning of October 2024.
I don’t know if there is a problem but three months without flying doesn’t look normal for an aircraft in certification phase.

Grounded 3 months, that’s strange!!! :confused:
In my experience, the prototypes fly about 8 to 10 hours per month when they carry out certification campaigns!!

I heared that they have serious problems with the gearbox gear mesh. Because of a design flaw of the original designer (Marenco) the MR Mast is allowed to move insinde the gearbox thus changing the gear mesh.