PZL-Swidnik Deliver 200th AW139 Airframe
In a ceremony held at PZL-Swidnik's facility in Poland last week the 200th AW139 airframe to be manufactured by PZL-Swidnik was accepted by AgustaWestland. Bruno Spagnolini, Managing Director – Operations said in a statement "We are delighted with PZL-Swidnik’s major contribution to the AW139 programme and that PZL-Swidnik and its employees are benefiting from the sales success the AW139 is having worldwide. Our long running successful and expanding cooperation will continue to grow as the sales of our helicopters continue to increase around the world.”
Since PZL-Swidnik and AgustaWestland started cooperation in 1996 PZL-Swidnik has manufactured nearly 800 airframes for AgustaWestland. PZL-Swidnik currently manufactures and assembles AW119 Ke, AW109 Power, AW109 LUH, Grand and AW139 airframes, sustaining nearly 1000 skilled staff at its Swidnik plant near Lublin. At current production rates of 15 airframes per month it is expected that PZL-Swidnik will deliver the 1000th airframe to AgustaWestland in the second half of 2009. The AW139 airframes constructed by PZL-Swidnik supply the two AW139 final assembly lines located at AgustaWestland's facilities in Vergiate, Italy and Philadelphia, USA.
AgustaWestland is the biggest industrial partner of PZL-Swidnik and provides work that represents over 30% of its annual turnover. PZL-Swidnik as a partner in the AW139 programme assisted in the design of the aircraft and manufactured the first prototype airframe in April 2000, marking the first time that PZL-Swidnik had participated in the construction of a new helicopter with a foreign company. The AW139 has become the best selling helicopter in its class worldwide with orders for almost 350 aircraft already placed by customers in 40 countries to date, making it the benchmark helicopter in the medium twin category for a number of tasks. Designed with inherent multi-role capability and flexibility of operation, the AW139 can perform many roles including law enforcement, offshore transport, search and rescue, emergency medical service, VIP/corporate transport and military utility missions. Approximately 150 aircraft are already in service worldwide.
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