On February 3, 2001, the AB 139 I-ACOI flew for the first time at the Cascina Costa plant, with test pilots Bruno Bellucci and Gabriele Zanazzo at the controls, supported by flight test engineers Fiorenzo Mussi and Marco Montorfano on board. In addition to a ground test aircraft (c/n 31000), two further prototypes followed in 2002 (I-ATWO c/n 31001 and I-EPIC c/n 31002) and finally the first production AB 139, I-ANEW. The aircraft currently designated AW 139 began its career with the acronym AB 139 as it was born out of the long and solid collaboration with the American company Bell Helicopter, together with the development of the BA 609 tiltrotor. The two programmes then gradually passed under the responsibility of the Italian partner. In 2007, after the one in Vergiate, a second production line was activated at AgustaWestland Philadelphia. In 2010, HeliVert, a joint venture between Finmeccanica and Russian Helicopters, was founded in Tomilino. For a time, it assembled and supported AW139s for the Russian market. Leonardo Helicopters' medium-lift conventional helicopter remains one of the greatest commercial successes in both the civil and military sectors, with the symbolic delivery of its thousandth aircraft in 2019.
In the picture: Agusta/Bell AB 139 I-ANEW, the first series production aircraft, during the delivery ceremony of the first A 129 CBT Mangusta. Vergiate, Italy, October 25, 2002. (Aeromedia)
(Aeromedia, February 2021)
