Leonardo: The need for speed

This sponsored article was ready by Perception journal, the sponsored content material division of MHM Publishing, on behalf of Leonardo.

Designed round three pillars — time, affected person entry, and availability — Leonardo continues to showcase its program enhancements and plane customization for emergency medical providers (EMS) in the USA.

With these pillars in thoughts, Leonardo has propelled ahead with constant funding in program enhancements to develop the thriving EMS area all through the U.S., with its high plane: the AW109 collection, AW169, AW139 and shortly, the AW09.

Leonardo has the quickest product line within the trade, with all its licensed merchandise having a VNE (never-exceed velocity) of over 155 knots (287 kilometers per hour). This issue is important in offering lodging for affected person transportation — from the purpose of pickup to drop-off — in report time. 

Leonardo crafts every helicopter mannequin for simple accessibility to the affected person by the whole medical workforce. The corporate is the one producer designing single-engine and twin-engine platforms that let full affected person entry with no protrusion into the cockpit.

Whether or not it’s the AW09, AW139 or AW169, Leonardo’s modular design permits for easy reconfiguration primarily based on the kind of mission that clients reply to.

For instance, Travis County’s AW169 performance can be utilized for search-and-rescue (SAR) missions. Nonetheless, the medical workforce can shortly reconfigure the identical plane to make sure most flexibility and effectivity for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) transport.

EMS operators have to be prepared at a second’s discover, and over the past 10 years, Leonardo has labored to make sure that its help community in the USA, together with elements, coaching, service heart, and blade restore, is conveniently situated near its clients. This permits for fast turnaround when a upkeep challenge happens.

AW09

The AW09, below growth, is a singular single-engine helicopter with a twin-engine dimension cabin, permitting the operator to keep up cheap operations. A cabin in parallel with a twin-engine helicopter will allow them to be way more succesful from a affected person transport/affected person advocacy perspective. As well as, this plane is the one single-engine permitting full affected person entry. 

Furthermore, the AW09 supplies operators with a flexible and dependable asset that is able to deal with a variety of main and secondary EMS missions. The helicopter’s compact footprint permits operations from unprepared surfaces and tight touchdown zones.

AW109 collection (Trekker and GrandNew)

With a advisable cruise velocity of 155 kts (187 km/h), the AW109’s best-in-class velocity permits speedy affected person transport from the incident scene or hospital to the inbound hospital. The plane features a state-of-the-art avionics bundle that comes customary, and is supplied with artificial imaginative and prescient, site visitors avoidance, and helicopter terrain consciousness and warning
system (HTAWS).

AW169

The AW169 stays true to its worth of assembly probably the most stringent necessities — right this moment and into the longer term. It continues to offer all new capabilities to operators in search of a really perfect mixture of sunshine helicopter price with increased class efficiency, payload, and cabin area, mixed with complete and ever-growing help and coaching providers.

The efficiency improve packages, licensed in late 2021, ship extraordinary efficiency in all circumstances for all functions. This makes the AW169 the helicopter with the perfect power-to-weight ratio in its class, along with providing state-of-the-art applied sciences equivalent to auxiliary energy unit (APU) mode, superior avionics suite, run-dry gearbox, superior SAR modes, and well being and utilization monitoring system (HUMS).

The AW169 provides open cabin structure, accommodating many EMS inside designs with full physique affected person entry, whether or not positioned longitudinally or laterally. The sort can also be obtainable with all three undercarriage choices (mounted and retractable touchdown gear, in addition to skids) — a singular possibility available in the market. Leonardo can also be working to certify a most gross weight (MGW) improve of as much as 5.1 US tons (4,626 kilograms) for the skidded variant.

AW139

The AW139 is the benchmark helicopter for multirole flexibility by way of configuration and efficiency capabilities. This plane can set up Bambi Buckets or stomach tanks for water bombing whereas concurrently having the ability to transport as much as 15 passengers and full SAR missions. Its rescue hoist is suitable with firefighting configuration, permitting simultaneous functionality for in-flight rescue.

Many operators worldwide are efficiently working the AW139 for fireplace and rescue operations, such because the Los Angeles Hearth Division, Miami-Dade Hearth Rescue, Italian Hearth Brigades, operators in South Korea and Japan, and extra. 

For EMS and SAR operations, response velocity is important. The flexibility to react, find and reply to an emergency with the suitable assets will be the distinction between life and dying. Leonardo continues to rise to the problem by offering succesful and sustainable plane for its clients.

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