Agusta 119 koala

About the Agusta 119 koala

The AgustaWestland AW119 Koala (Agusta A119 Koala prior to the Agusta-Westland merger) is an eight-seat utility helicopter powered by a single turboshaft engine and produced for the civil market. The design was derived from Agusta's highly successful AGUSTA A-109, but with only a single engine and with fixed skids replacing the retractable wheeled landing gear.

The AW119 Koala is a light single-turbine helicopter that has been flying since 1995. This helicopter was both designed and manufactured by Augusta/Westland in Italy. The AW119 was designed by Agusta’s Cascina Costa di Samarate engineering center, but with the continual full-scale production of the Koala, manufacturing was expanded to an American subsidiary in Philadelphia.

Manufacturing changed further in February of 2007 when Agusta/Westland released the AW119 Ke (Koala enhanced). Improving on the previous Koala, the Ke has an increased maximum take-off weight of 2850kg because of the new main rotor blades with a higher rotation rate. The Augusta/Westland AW119 Ke is the current model for production and more than 20 orders have been placed around the world: Heliflite of Australia, Aerolineas Ejecutivas of Mexico, INAER of Spain, Finnish Border Guard, Red Cross Air Mercy Service (AMS) of South Africa, State of Goiás, central Brazil, Esperia Aviation Services, and Geotech Aviation.