Origins The design of the SW-4 helicopter originates from the 1960s, but it was decided not to manufacture the civil SW-4 at the time so as to meet demand for military helicopters from various nations within the
Warsaw Pact. Around 1981, development work at PZL-Swidnik was started on a new four/five place light utility helicopter. By May 2002, the two prototypes had accumulated a total of 640 flight hours. On 27 September 2007, type certification from the
European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) was received. Following on from the certification of the Rolls-Royce model, PZL Swidnik pursued a separate re-certification for a modified SW-4 fitted with a
Pratt & Whitney Canada PW200 powerplant as an alternative option.
Further development The SW-4 as planned was expected to fulfill a range of utility missions ranging from civil and executive transport to Medevac, police, border patrol duties, and some of military pilot training tasks; however, for several years the Polish military had served as the type's only customer. In Polish service, 24 SW-4, with a military name Puszczyk, has been used as a training rotorcraft, replacing the
Mil Mi-2, at "The Center of Aviation Education and Training at Dęblin" (Ośrodek Szkolenia Lotniczego w Dęblinie). In January 2004,
Indonesian Aerospace (IAe) was in the process of negotiating a risk-sharing agreement to set up a local assembly line for the SW-4, dependent upon an order from the
Indonesian National Police. In October 2005, PZL-Świdnik revealed that it was conducting talks with
Rolls-Royce over the prospective use of a more powerful variant of the SW-4's
Model 250C20R powerplant; at the same point, it was publicly acknowledged that the development of a stretched, twin-engine development of the SW-4 was under active consideration, and that this would be dependent upon export sales of the present model. In February 2009, Rolls-Royce stated that it was holding talks with PZL-Świdnik on the prospective use of its newly developed
Rolls-Royce RR500 engine on future derivatives of the SW-4. PZL-Świdnik's parent company,
AgustaWestland chose to use the SW-4 as the basis for an optionally manned rotorcraft, the PZL-Świdnik SW-4 Solo. In 2011, development of an optionally-manned demonstrator began. The SW-4 Solo was first was shown at the MSPO 2012 in Poland as "SW-4 Solo" RUAS/OPH platform (Rotorcraft Unmanned Air System/Optionally Piloted Helicopter). In 2013, AgustaWestland was given a
Royal Navy contract for the SW-4 Solo's development as part of the UK's RWUAS (Rotary Wing Unmanned Air System) Capability Concept Demonstrator (CCD) programme. Development of the SW-4 Solo is also being supported by the
Italian Ministry of Defence's Directorate for Air Armaments under the Italian National Military Research Plan. By September 2015, the SW-4 Solo had performed a total of 26 demonstration flights, which included simulated shipboard integration tests. In November 2015, AgustaWestland stated that the SW-4 Solo was "ready for sale". In 2006, PZL-Świdnik entered into an agreement with China's Jiujiang Hongying Technology Development Ltd. which aimed for the establishment of an SW4 assembly line in
Jiujiang, China. In December 2008, a type certification for the SW-4 was issued by the
Civil Aviation Administration of China. In late February 2010, the maiden flight of the first SW-4 to be co-produced in China took place; in the same month, PZL Swidnik announced an agreement to produce 150 helicopters, an unspecified number of which being the SW-4, were to be produced for the Chinese market at Jiujiang. By March 2015, a total of five co-produced SW-4s had been delivered to Chinese customers. In February 2016, an upgraded model of the SW-4 for the civil market, designated as the
AW009, was revealed at
Heli-Expo. Amongst the changes to this commercial variant include flight performance changes to provide for increased smoothness and greater control authority, the integration of a mass vibration absorber, the adoption of a Genesys Aerospace
glass cockpit common to the larger
AgustaWestland AW119 Koala,
hydraulic improvements, and an optional upgraded Model 250-C30R engine. ==Design==