Flight International - January 13, 2015

THIS WEEK

10 | Flight International | 13-19 January 2015 flightglobal.com

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A

gustaWestland has broad-
ened the scope of its Mos-
cow-based HeliVert joint venture
to include assembly of its new
AW189 super-medium twin.
The move clears the way for a
big sales boost for the 8.3t type,
with Russian oil giant Rosneft
lined up to potentially acquire up
to 160 locally-built examples.

HeliVert, in which Russian
Helicopters also holds a 50%
stake, was set up in 2012 to as-
semble the AW139 intermediate
twin, manufacturing up to 20 per
year for the local market. The
new “strategic partnership”,

signed on 31 December 2014 by

parent companies Finmeccanica

and Rostec, will see the first two

AW189s delivered from the

Tomilino facility near Moscow to

Rosneft in mid-2015, Rostec says.

Successful operation of the

helicopters could see the oil com-

pany order an additional eight in

the autumn of 2015, it adds, with

the potential size of its commit-

ment to rise to 160 by 2025.

HeliVert also will have an ex-

clusive licence to sell and manu-

facture the AW139 and AW

for Russia and the Common-

wealth of Independent States,

and to provide after-sales support

and training for the types.

“The development of offshore

projects is a strategic objective of

Rosneft,” says chief executive Igor

Sechin. “The implementation of

this task is impossible without

modern Arctic and marine engi-

neering [and] oil and gas plat-

forms, and modern aircraft.” ■

T

he US Government Account-
ability Office (GAO) has put
an end to a Sierra Nevada (SNC)
dream of providing NASA with a
lifting body spaceplane as part of

APPROVAL

SAR variant gains delayed certification

Bristow Helicopters hopes to receive

AgustaWestland’s first UK-built

AW189 configured for search and

rescue (SAR) operations later this

month, following certification of the

variant in late December.

One Italian-completed AW

arrived at Bristow’s Norwich facility

in Norfolk in November, but all future

SAR-configured examples will be

assembled at AgustaWestland’s

Yeovil factory in Somerset. Bristow

expects the first of these to be deliv-

ered “later this month”, with the ro-

torcraft to be used on its contract

with the UK government to progres-

sively take over SAR activities from

the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

Delays to certification of the 8.6t

SAR variant and slow progress in

establishing the production line at

Yeovil have prompted Bristow to

develop contingency plans, including

the acquisition of a pair of smaller

AW139s. The first base due to

operate AW189s – at Inverness in

Scotland – is scheduled to go live on

1 April. ■

The reusable spaceplane concept lost out to Boeing and SpaceX

NASA

“The development of

offshore projects is

a strategic objective

of Rosneft”

IGOR SECHIN
Chief executive, Rosneft

ROTORCRAFT DOMINIC PERRY LONDON

HeliVert partners

plan to assemble

AW189 in Russia

AgustaWestland and Russian Helicopters extend their joint
venture to include production of 8.3t super-medium twin

GAO ends Dream Chaser pursuit of NASA contract

SPACEFLIGHT DAN THISDELL LONDON

the agency’s plan to replace the

Space Shuttle’s astronaut trans-

port capability with spacecraft

provided by the private sector.

SNC had appealed against a

September 2014 choice of pro-

posals by Boeing and SpaceX

over its Dream Chaser to receive

development funding under the

Commercial Crew Transporta-

tion Capability contract. Deny-

ing its appeal on 5 January, the

GAO supported NASA’s conclu-

sion that the Boeing CST-

and SpaceX Dragon capsules

offer better value.

All three reusable systems have

been designed to carry up to seven

astronauts, with crewed flights

from US soil to the International

Space Station planned to com-

mence in 2017. The USA has had

no capability to fly astronauts

since the 2011 retirement of its

Space Shuttle fleet, and has since

bought rides to the ISS from Rus-

sia, aboard Soyuz rockets from

Baikonur in Kazakhstan.

Just days after NASA’s

decision last September, SNC un-

veiled a concept realised with air

launched systems developer Stra-

tolauncher for a smaller, three-

person version of its spaceplane.

Under a 2014 agreement with the

European Space Agency and Ger-

many’s DLR aerospace centre, the

parties also will explore ways to

exploit Dream Chaser or its vari-

ants beyond the original goal of

supporting the ISS. ■

AgustaWestland

UK operations with Bristow Helicopters should start in April