Leonardo AW609 - program supplier guide | Airframer

Leonardo AW609

In production

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The fuselage is aluminium with skin and wing formed of composites. The fuselage skin incorporates graphite stringers and Toray composites, as do the wing and nacelles.

The T tail configuration has conventional elevators and no rudder. The horizontal tailplane can be raised above the rotor wake to minimise pitching at transition phase.

Size of wing determined by fuel requirement vs centre of gravity and safety. It has two-segment, trailing edge flaperons.

Titanium/composites cross shafts keep both proprotors turning in event of single engine failure. A manual screw jack facility enables the proprotors to be tilted into helicopter mode if cross shafts fail.

Photo: Leonardo Helicopters

Lift type

Tilt-rotor

Construction

Factory-built

Control

Piloted

Engine type

Turboshaft

Application

Business

Final assembly

Philadelphia (Northeast) · Taranto (Grottaglie) ·

Design & construction

Primary structure

Composite

Wing

Composite

Landing gear

Retractable tricycle

Pressurisation

Pressurised

Flight controls

Full FBW digital

Autopilot

3-axis

Avionics architecture

Integrated glass suite

Environmental control

Engine-bleed air-cycle

Wing position

High

Planform

Straight

Tail

Conventional

Certification

Part 29

Minimum crew

Composite wing (primary structure) Primary Composite fuselage (primary structure) Primary Synthetic vision Standard

Technical reference compiled with AI research; a value appears only where two independent research passes and a web fact-check agree. Gaps are deliberate.

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Type variants

Variant	Launch / first flight	Production end	Notes
Leonardo AW609	1997 / 2003		Light utility tiltrotor, formerly known as BA609 due to prior Boeing influence.

Airframer

Leonardo Helicopters

News

Other aircraft programs: Leonardo AW09 · Leonardo AW101 · Leonardo AW109 · Leonardo AW119 Koala · Leonardo AW139 · Leonardo AW149 · Leonardo AW159 Wildcat · Leonardo AW169 · Leonardo AW189 · Leonardo AW249 · Leonardo NextGen Civil TiltRotor (NGCTR) ·

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