Agusta A109
By Mark Huber - September 1, 2009
If legendary sports car builder Enzo Ferrari had designed a helicopter, this would have been it: the Italian-made Agusta A109 light twin.
First conceived in 1967, the 109 was Agusta’s first clean-sheet-of-paper product (although the company had been successfully building helicopters under contract and designed by others, most notably Bell, for years). Like the 1968 Ferrari Daytona, the 109 had all the hallmarks of classic Italian design: sleek and slippery styling that made it look fast even when it was sitting on the ramp, nimble handling, amazing speed and ingenious integration of new technologies and materials. And there were also a few traditional drawbacks: idiosyncratic maintenance requirements and interior ergonomics best suited to adolescents. So what? It was fast.
Agusta merged with Britain’s GKN Westland Helicopters in 2000 and the entire company became a subsidiary of Agusta’s parent firm, the Italian Finmeccanica Group, in 2004. Over the years Agusta has made many refinements and improvements to the 109, culminating with the introduction of the stretched-cabin 109S “Grand” in 2004. Last summer, American pilots Scott Kasprowicz and Steve Sheik set an around-the-world helicopter speed record in a stock Grand (no auxiliary fuel tanks or other special equipment): 11 days, seven hours and two minutes for an average speed of 84.9 mph, which includes ground time. Like I said, fast.
Getting the first 109s to market was another matter. After protracted gestation–Agusta first started looking at building its own light helicopter in the 1950s–deliveries of the “A” model began in 1976. The “A” featured a pair of 420-shp Allison (now Rolls-Royce) 250-C20B turbine engines and a high-speed, four-blade main rotor system.
The A109 quickly became one of the most popular rides for the rotor-borne executive set. A U.S. distributor took out an option for 100 units and, for a time, Britain’s RAF even used it to transport the royal family and other VIPs. Law enforcement, search and rescue, military and air ambulance variants also were developed over the years. Today more than 540 A109s are operating worldwide.
Upgrades have included up-rated engines and transmissions; better avionics; improved hydraulic, drive-shaft and rotor systems; redesigned maintenance access panels and tail boom; beefier landing gear; single-pilot IFR capability; sliding cabin doors for utility and military operators; and external hard points for anti-tank missiles. (No, that last add-on was not a factory option available to the general public. But what a handy way to clear a landing zone.)
In 1997, Agusta launched the A109E “Power.” An AgustaWestland spokesman insisted that the Power is not a variant of the original 109 family; instead, it’s an entirely new helicopter that “differs in all aspects from all of the A109 models previously produced since 1971,” the year Agusta first manufactured a 109 prototype.
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