Leonardo surprises with Kopter purchase
Swiss startup just finalized SH09 design
Over the past few years, the enthusiastic, agile Swiss startup company Kopter Group AG—busy developing its first helicopter, the innovative, large-cabin SH09 single-engine turbine—has attracted a lot of attention. Among those paying attention was Leonardo, a multinational company based in Italy and specializing in aerospace, defense, and security. Its helicopter division is the former AgustaWestland brand.
Leonardo must have liked what it saw, because the companies announced at HAI Heli-Expo 2020 that Leonardo is buying 100 percent of Kopter.
Within Leonardo’s helicopter division, Kopter will act as an autonomous legal entity and competence center, working in coordination with the rest of Leonardo.
“We believe we can be a leader also in this segment. We saw that the synergies were there—it was complete,” Profumo said. “We will leverage the synergy and a number of things.” The purchase will strengthen Leonardo’s core business and sustain its leadership in key areas, he added. “With this acquisition we will bring on board innovative skills and technologies that will complement our own, and will also contribute to keeping us at the forefront of innovation and competitiveness whilst maintaining our financial solidity.”
The purchase consists of “a $185 million fixed component plus an earn-out mechanism linked to certain milestones” over the life of the program, beginning in 2022, Leonardo wrote in a press release. The closing is “subject to certain conditions and is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2020.”
A day before the bombshell announcement, Andreas Löwenstein, Kopter Group’s CEO, announced that the design has been frozen for the Swiss helicopter company’s first model, and that an innovative dual-track certification program will seek to receive European Union Aviation Safety Agency and FAA type certificates before the end of 2020.
“Our product is the only clean-sheet design in this space in 50 years,” he said. “It will allow our operators to have a reliable, cost-effective tool that is able to do more than one thing.” The composite aircraft and its components are designed to be crash-resistant, Löwenstein added, and the avionics will be “IFR-ready”—needing only an autopilot to be IFR-ready in the United States; EASA does not allow single-pilot helicopters to operate IFR.
“We have a little more than 70 orders now, and more than 120 letters of intent,” he said. The large cabin—with more volume than light twin-engine helicopters—makes the $3.3 million SH09 well suited for emergency medical services, public service, and sightseeing flights.
“As a newcomer in the market we cannot afford to be only good—we have to be better,” said Michele Riccobono, Kopter chief technical officer. To date, 100 test flights have been completed. Changes from the previous version include a new rotor head and rotor blades. The previous rotor head used elastomeric dampers for cyclic damping but not torsion damping; the new one does both. “This has significantly improved the ride stability and controllability of the aircraft,” Riccobono said. “You can even leave the flight controls unattended and it will remain in trim.”
Other changes to the design include a larger cabin, Garmin G3000H glass cockpit, fuel system modifications, a redesigned shrouded tail rotor to reduce noise, and aerodynamic enhancements.
“This is what it will look like. We are freezing the design and this is the aircraft we will bring to the market when we are ready,” Löwenstein said.
Kopter said it is building out its customer service and lean production capabilities, adding to its sales and distribution network, and partnering to develop VR Motion—a small motion-based seat, combined with virtual reality glasses—for use in its training program. “We believe that we have now built up all the ingredients to be part of the bigger gang,” he said.
“This company will have more than one product,” Löwenstein added. “It’s a little early to talk about the details.”
After the acquisition announcement Löwenstein said the purchase might help to accelerate the SH09’s somewhat aggressive certification schedule, as well as delivery to the market. “It’s very important when you enter into this segment that you be different than companies making bigger aircraft. We will bring this into Leonardo’s environment and leverage Leonardo’s industrial capabilities. This will not change for the negative what we plan; we feel more solid because we have this backing from Leonardo. It will speed what we are doing.”
The acquisition does not change plans for future Kopter models, Löwenstein added.
Kopter has designed a 3-D animation that shows the final design details of the SH09; it’s available online.
