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DID has covered the U.S. Army’s $2 billion Light Utility Helicopter competition before, which aims to replace many of the US Army’s older UH-1 Hueys and OH-58 Kiowas. from the original 2 competitors (Bell’s UH-1 descendants the 210 or 412EP, vs. MD Helicopters’ Explorer 900 NOTAR) to EADS Eurocopter’s entry (EC145) and its implications.
A fourth team has joined the competition.
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Anglo-Italian helicopter maker AugustaWestland (EH101) and L-3 Communications (Team H-92) found themselves on opposite sides of the Marine One Presidential Helicopter contest, but now they’ve teamed up to offer the AB139 twin-engine helicopter for the LUH competition.
AugustaWestland is an Anglo-Italian company, but L-3 would perform final assembly and customization of Government specific avionics for the US139 helicopter at their Waco, TX location, utilizing Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma facilities designed and laid out for this effort. In addition, L-3/IS will provide Contractor Logistic Support for the US139 LUH fleet.
The US139 is a medium sized helicopter capable of carrying 15 passengers or 4 stretchers with 6 passengers. AugustaWestland also claims it can cruise in excess of 165 knots with a useful load of more than 6,000 lbs. Finally, it is FAA compliant to the new FAR/JAR 29 standards, and its Category A Performance certificationmeans that it’s capable of flying away at max gross weight on only one engine.