Development AgustaWestland AW101

1 development

1.1 origins
1.2 production
1.3 further developments

development
origins

in 1977, uk ministry of defence issued requirement anti-submarine warfare (asw) helicopter replace royal navy s westland sea kings, becoming inadequate in face of advances in soviet submarine technology. westland helicopters put proposal, designated wg.34, three-engined helicopter of similar dimensions sea king; wg.34 feature more autonomy , greater range predecessor. @ same time, italian navy (marina militare) considering replacement of fleet of sea kings, had been built italian company agusta; westland , agusta began talks regarding joint development of successor helicopter.

agusta , westland finalised agreement work on project together, , formed jointly owned new company, eh industries limited (ehi), pursue development , marketing of new helicopter potential operators. on 12 june 1981, uk government confirmed participation in project, allocated initial budget of £20 million develop 9 pre-series examples. major agreement, secured funding majority of eh101 s development program, signed both british , italian governments in 1984. @ 1985 paris air show, agusta showed mock-up of utility version of new helicopter, leading more generalised design customised meet needs of various civilian or military customers. first prototype flew on 9 october 1987.

in 1987, canada selected eh101 replace sea kings in anti-submarine warfare , search , rescue roles; eh101 s third engine , increased autonomy compared favorably against rivals such sikorsky seahawk, range , de-icing capability seen vital north atlantic operations. fledgling eh101, of 50 on order replace canadian armed forces s (caf) sea kings, found subject wider political battle between conservative , liberal parties, latter viewing aircraft costly. critics attacked eh101 purchase excessive , unnecessary after cold war s end in 1990s. wide-ranging cost estimates presented both proponents , opponents of eh101 procurement, opponents backing life extensions of sikorsky ch-124 sea king , boeing vertol ch-113 labrador helicopter fleets. eh101 controversy seen factor in 1993 canadian federal election. order cancelled new liberal government in 1993 resulting in $470 million cancellation fee.

into production

several pre-production aircraft assembled during late 1980s , 1990s. flight tests suspended 6 months following crash of second pre-production aircraft on 21 january 1993. on 6 june 1993, first eh101 flew rolls-royce/turbomeca rtm322 turboshaft engine. 9 prototypes built explore military , civil applications, including heliliner configuration. in february 1995, britain formally placed first order total of 22 eh101s; followed italy s order 16 eh101s in october 1995. eh101 order not without controversy, raf had declared preference all-chinook fleet; also, boeing allegedly offered cheaper terms chinook. raf deliveries began in 1997; rn deliveries started following year.

in 2005, team of agustawestland , lockheed martin selected winners of vxx competition replace president s marine 1 helicopters of united states marine corps. variant of aw101, designated vh-71 kestrel, manufactured domestically , had proceeded flight testing stages. programme encountered significant cost overruns , political opposition, led procurement being scrapped in june 2009. separately, marine corps had conducted studies adoption of eh101 fallback option bell-boeing v-22 osprey tiltrotor during 1990s.

following merger of westland , agusta form agustawestland in 2000, there no need separate ehi entity; eh101 formally re-branded aw101 in 2007. in 2008, volume of aw101 orders reported having filled production capacity in excess of following 5 years. april 2009, more 180 aw101s had been sold worldwide; combined operational fleet had accumulated total of 170,000 flying hours.

further developments

in november 2007, algeria signed contract 6 aw101 helicopters. in august 2012, reported algeria had signed agreement agustawestland provision of 80 helicopters, 42 of aw101s. under terms of arrangement, aircraft manufactured agustawestland, while algeria commence assembly of aw101s later on.

on 7 june 2010, announced boeing had acquired manufacturing license , rights agustawestland production of localised aw101 variant, designated boeing 101. in october 2012, aw101 submitted in u.s. air force competition replace hh-60 pave hawk; however, bid dropped 3 months later.

in september 2013, agustawestland reportedly in process of acquiring new civil certification aw101, target customers include long-range offshore oil platform transport operators , vip clients. of february 2014, agustawestland considering adapting aw101 heavyweight unmanned aerial vehicle, proposed in configuration aw101 optionally manned.