AgustaWestland’s AW609 Tiltrotor Does Demo Flights at Heli-Expo

AgustaWestland (AW) is performing customer demo flights aboard its prototype tiltrotor AW609 this week at Heli-Expo in Anaheim, Calif., but with the aircraft still early in the certification process few potential customers qualified to get on board. The FAA requires such passengers to be appropriately rated rotorcraft pilots, undergo simulator training in the company’s AW609 simulator, conduct a familiarization flight in the aircraft and receive a second-in-command rating. Two Heli-Expo attendees went through the process beforehand and took demo flights during the show, staged from Long Beach Airport.