The AW609 Osprey-Inspired Private Plane is Expected for 2020 Delivery.
Italian aircraft manufacturer Leonardo Helicopters is building a civilian version of the V-22 Osprey. Unlike the military version, the AW609 has a pressurized cabin, allowing it to fly at heights up to 25,000 feet, and comes with a luxury interior.
The AW609 tiltrotor aircraft is the civilian cousin of the larger, military V-22 Osprey, aimed at corporate aviation, search and rescue operations, and oil rig transport. An aircraft that can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but fly farther and more quickly like an airplane could be a game changer in civil aviation. The plane has a range of 700-1,000 nautical miles with speed over 300mph, and with the ability to connect city pairs such as New York-Chicago, San Francisco-Seattle, and Tokyo-Seoul with ease.
Unlike military V-22 Osprey, the world’s first production tilt-rotor aircraft, the AW609 has a pressurized cabin, allowing it to fly as high as 25,000 feet, which is comfortably above any bad weather.
The AW609’s price tag is expected to be somewhere around $25 million, more than twice the cost of a comparable traditional helicopter.
