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News

First major delivery milestone in RW Fleet Review

25/06/2021

Hels Investment

Marking the first major delivery milestone in QinetiQ’s Test Aircrew Training (TAT) Rotary Wing (RW) Fleet Review investment, we’re delighted to announce that the first of our two new Agusta A109S Grand helicopters has been formally accepted by QinetiQ. This acceptance is the culmination of hard work and consistent collaboration in delivery from all those across the Project Team and the QinetiQ Civil Flying Organisation (QCFO), as well as our partners at Castle Air. 

The team were delighted to see our first A109S - G-ETPN ‘November’ – join the fleet at Ministry Of Defence (MOD) Boscombe Down on Monday 7th June. The final handover from Castle Air to QinetiQ is planned for Wednesday 9th June and flying is to commence as soon as possible thereafter, pending operational readiness being approved by the QCFO.

The acceptance of this first A109S marks the beginning of an exciting period for the team at MOD Boscombe Down, bringing new levels of operational capacity and service capabilities for our customers training at ETPS or otherwise in delivery of test and evaluation projects. Our second A109S - G-ETPO ‘Oscar’ – is not far behind and is currently complete at Castle Air’s HQ in Liskeard, Cornwall. It is now ready for acceptance by QinetiQ, pending final regulator airworthiness review, which is due by Friday 11th June.

Looking further ahead, Donald Lundie (Senior Project Manager) remarked: “Our new AW139 - G-ETPP ‘Papa’ - is now fully re-assembled at Biggin Hill after transit and is due to move into final registration and airworthiness review with the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) by 17th June. All going well, we are currently planning to undertake acceptance across late June and early July.”

Representing our shift towards the continuing improvement and modernisation of Training, Test & Evaluation (TT&E), this latest investment highlights our ongoing commitment under the Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA) to ensure capabilities match frontline training requirements through new technologies and mission representative assets. Staying ahead of the competition is crucial in the challenging world of TT&E – both here in the UK and on the international stage. The team is confident that these latest additions will achieve just that.

Once again, a big thank you to all those involved…

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