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AGUSTA |
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| ITALY |
Costruzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta SpA. Foundations
of the company were laid in 1907, when Giovanni
Agusta built his first airplane. Several more built before
First World War. Firm revived 1923, specializing in light
aircraft; Ag.2 of 1927 was a small parasol monoplane,
AZ-10 twin-engined civil transport of 1954 was designed
by Filippo Zappata (noted for his work with CANT and
Breda). After Second World War built fixed-wing four-seater.
In 1952 Agusta was granted a license to build Bell Model
47 helicopters. First Agusta-built example flew May 1954,
and over 1,200 were built before production ended in mid-
1970s. The company also produced Bell Iroquois models
as Agusta-Bell 204B and 205, twin-engined Model 212
(still offered as AB-212 Naval/Skyshark) and Model 206
JetRanger (still offered as AB-206B JetRanger III) helicopters.
In 1967, under Sikorsky license, production of SH-3D helicopters began, and in 1974 production of HH-
3F (S-61R); production of final HH-3F Combat SAR version
lasted into mid-1990s. Together with
Agusta-designed helicopters include the twin-turboshaft
A109 civil/military multipurpose type (flown August 1971),
A 119 Koala single-turboshaft wide-body helicopter (first
flown February 1995), and A129 Mangusta tandem two-seat
attack helicopter (first flown September 1983) and
its more-powerful International variant with five-blade main
rotor as standard (first flown January 1995). Partnered
with
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 All the World's Rotorcraft |
