Leonardo Helicopters managing director Gian Piero Cutillo said the company has “successfully achieved its industrial plan” due to profitable contracts and “continuous optimization” of the company’s “industrial process.” He also made clear this week at Heli-Expo that the company's Philadelphia plant is taking on an increasingly important role.
Major milestones achieved at the rotorcraft maker during the preceding year include deliveries of the 1,000th AW139 intermediate twin, including the 300th AW139 produced at its Philadelphia plant; delivery of the 100th AW169 medium twin; winning the U.S. Navy’s helicopter training program contract; initial production of the first two customer AW609 civil tiltrotors for Era Helicopters; and the continued development of its larger, next-generation tiltrotor, scheduled for first flight in 2023. According to Cutillo, Leonardo has expanded its share of the turbine multi-engine VIP helicopter market to 40 percent worldwide by dollar value.
Meanwhile, Leonardo’s Philadelphia plant will take on increased importance with the award of the Navy contract this year and the Air Force’s contract for 84 MH-139s, awarded in 2018, said Cutillo. He reported that annual revenues at Philadelphia have grown to $551 million, adding that the location now employs 700 and operates three assembly lines.
William Hunt, president of the Philadelphia operation, said the company plans to open a fourth production line to accommodate the new Navy program. Philadelphia currently is Leonardo’s sole facility for producing the AW119, the base airframe for the Navy’s new TH-73A trainer.
Cutillo said Leonardo Philadelphia would continue to grow with the opening of a new training academy there this June and noted that the U.S.-installed fleet has doubled over the last decade and now stands at 500 helicopters. Worldwide, he said Leonardo has provided training for more than 1,200 operators with 5,000 helicopters in 40 countries and that annually the company trains more than 10,000 students who accumulate more than 41,000 hours in 16 full-flight simulators, nine maintenance training devices, and three flight training devices (FTDs). Annual training also includes more than 6,500 in-aircraft hours.
Leonardo and CAE have developed a new level-D simulator based on the CAE 3000 Series that will feature roll-on/roll-off capabilities to allow for quick interchange between the AW609 and AW169 cockpits. The simulator will be operated by the Leonardo/CAE joint venture, Rotorsim, and will be delivered to the Philadelphia training academy this summer. It features a six-degrees-of-freedom electric-motion system, a high-performance vibration platform, 220 by 75 degrees field of view, and the CAE Medallion high-resolution image generator.
Leonardo also said it would offer AW609 customers high-fidelity training on a virtual enhanced training device (VETD) that uses actual aircraft components to replicate the cockpit. AW609 training also will include a distance and e-learning package complemented with interactive computer-based training, a virtual cockpit trainer, and a full AW609 maintenance training bay. The AW609 test fleet has amassed more than 1,600 hours and test AC4 made its first flight in late December.
In addition, customer service from Philadelphia was augmented following the opening of a satellite Gulf of Mexico maintenance facility in Broussard, Lousiana, last February to primarily service the offshore energy market. During 2019, the Broussard facility repaired 100 rotor blades and has the ability to grow that capacity fourfold in 2020.
Cutillo said Leonardo plans to transform its customer support into a helicopter as a service (HAS) digital solution, where all Leonardo helicopters would be connected to real-time, 24/7 maintenance monitoring via a sophisticated system that employs artificial intelligence and enhanced mission planning. As the company transitions to HAS, it is integrating a range of digital toolsets into a secure portal it calls Leonardo Helicopter Advanced Services.
Going forward, Cutillo said Leonardo will continue to invest in innovative new products and “disruptive technologies,” including advanced materials and processes, real-time sensors and advanced analytics, algorithms for cyber-protection, and advanced power management.
He said the company is also working on urban air mobility and eVTOL aircraft, but that “it requires a partnering effort with synergies across different competencies. We will provide more evidence of what we are thinking at the right time,” he said.