AW Breaks Ground On Russian Plant

AgustaWestland broke ground on a new production plant at Tomilino, near Moscow, late last month. The 120,000-sq-ft building will house another final assembly line for the AW139 medium twin under an equal joint venture called HeliVert with state-owned Russian Helicopters. The AW139 is currently manufactured in Italy, as well as in the U.S. at Agusta’s Philadelphia plant. The new Russian plant will employ 100 and is scheduled to begin producing helicopters next year. It will ramp up to an annual production rate of more than 20 helicopters by 2015. Helicopters produced at the plant will be delivered to civil sector customers primarily in Russia and CIS countries.