AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 255 / 272

Plate 255 of 272 · Cold War · Light twin-engined utility helicopter

Agusta A109A

A109A, ZE411 (ex AE-331), painted as ZE411, an Agusta A109A built for the Argentine Army as AE-331, flown from Port Stanley by the Batallón de Aviación de Combate 601 in 1982, captured there at the end of the Falklands War, taken into Army Air Corps service in support of the SAS, and now displayed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton: the Italian light twin-engined helicopter that first flew at Cascina Costa in 1971, with a slim pointed nose, a streamlined cabin for a pilot and up to seven passengers, two Allison 250-C20B turboshafts under a flat-topped fairing behind a four-blade fully articulated main rotor, a slender tail boom with swept upper and lower fins, a horizontal stabiliser, a two-blade tail rotor on the port side and a retractable tricycle undercarriage, shown standing level on its wheels with the gear down and the rotor blades parked: olive drab overall, with a yellow band round the forward tail boom, black ‘EJERCITO’ on the boom, black ‘AE-331’ over the Argentine flag high on the fin, a red-orange stabiliser, a red arrow stencil above it and the CAB 601 crest on the starboard nose, as photographed in the museum in 2013 and in the same scheme in Britain in 1982 (shape from the published A109 three-view scaled to the 11.00 m rotor and published dimensions, and checked against camera-matched photographs of ZE411; the starboard markings are mirrored to the port side, which no photograph of the displayed airframe shows); it stands for the civil twin helicopters in the gazetteer’s museums, from the MD902 Explorer and the SA365N Dauphin to the Bell 214ST.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as ZE411, an Agusta A109A built for the Argentine Army as AE-331, flown from Port Stanley by the Batallón de Aviación de Combate 601 in 1982, captured there at the end of the Falklands War, taken into Army Air Corps service in support of the SAS, and now displayed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton: the Italian light twin-engined helicopter that first flew at Cascina Costa in 1971, with a slim pointed nose, a streamlined cabin for a pilot and up to seven passengers, two Allison 250-C20B turboshafts under a flat-topped fairing behind a four-blade fully articulated main rotor, a slender tail boom with swept upper and lower fins, a horizontal stabiliser, a two-blade tail rotor on the port side and a retractable tricycle undercarriage, shown standing level on its wheels with the gear down and the rotor blades parked: olive drab overall, with a yellow band round the forward tail boom, black ‘EJERCITO’ on the boom, black ‘AE-331’ over the Argentine flag high on the fin, a red-orange stabiliser, a red arrow stencil above it and the CAB 601 crest on the starboard nose, as photographed in the museum in 2013 and in the same scheme in Britain in 1982 (shape from the published A109 three-view scaled to the 11.00 m rotor and published dimensions, and checked against camera-matched photographs of ZE411; the starboard markings are mirrored to the port side, which no photograph of the displayed airframe shows); it stands for the civil twin helicopters in the gazetteer’s museums, from the MD902 Explorer and the SA365N Dauphin to the Bell 214ST. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (775 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (A109A, MD902 Explorer, SA365N Dauphin, Bell 214ST); engine, crew and dimensions are for the A109A, ZE411 (ex AE-331) modelled here.

History

The A109

In the late 1960s Agusta, which had grown up building Bell helicopters under licence at Cascina Costa near Milan, set out to design a helicopter of its own. Paolo Bellevita’s team drew a fast, sleek executive machine with a pointed nose, a streamlined cabin and a retractable tricycle undercarriage, powered by two small Allison 250 turboshafts so that it could carry on flying if one failed. Ottorino Lancia flew the first prototype on 4 August 1971, and it was the first twin-engined helicopter designed entirely in Italy.

The A109 was certificated in 1975 and the A109A went into production the following year. It cruised at more than 150 mph, unusually fast for its size, and found buyers as a corporate transport, an air ambulance and a police helicopter, as well as with armed forces that wanted a light, quick utility and liaison helicopter. Agusta kept improving it, through the A109C and the Power to the AgustaWestland AW109 and the single-engined AW119, and the family is still built more than fifty years after the first flight.

Argentina’s army bought A109As in the late 1970s, and in 1982 several flew with its Batallón de Aviación de Combate 601 in the Falklands. Two were captured at Port Stanley at the end of the war and were taken into service by the Army Air Corps, which used them in support of the SAS, where their civilian looks were an advantage. The gazetteer’s museums hold A109As at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, the Army Flying Museum, the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum and The Helicopter Museum, alongside an MD902 Explorer, an SA365N Dauphin and a Bell 214ST tail section, the other civil twin helicopters grouped with it here.

This airframe

A109A ZE411 (ex AE-331)

ZE411The airframe modelled

ZE411 was built for the Argentine Army as AE-331 and flew with the Batallón de Aviación de Combate 601 from Port Stanley in 1982. It was captured there in June 1982, shipped to Britain and taken into service by the Army Air Corps as ZE411, flying in support of the SAS. After retirement it was stored at Middle Wallop, and it is now displayed at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, among the aircraft of the Falklands War. The model shows it as displayed there, standing level on its wheels with the gear down: olive drab overall, with a yellow band round the forward tail boom, black ‘EJERCITO’ on the boom, black ‘AE-331’ over the Argentine flag high on the fin, a red-orange stabiliser, a red arrow stencil above it and the CAB 601 crest on the starboard nose, as photographed in the museum in 2013 and in the same scheme in Britain in 1982. No photograph shows the port side of the displayed airframe, so its markings mirror the starboard side. The shape follows the published A109 three-view, scaled to the 11.00 m rotor and published dimensions and checked against camera-matched photographs of ZE411. The model stands for the A109s and the other civil twin helicopters in the gazetteer’s museums.

See it at Fleet Air Arm Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the A109 in 4 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 272 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.