One of the great pleasures of being a journalist on Flight International is that companies occasionally do things like offer to fly you on a Agusta 109 Power from RAF Northolt to AgustaWestland in Yeovil, skimming over the perfect patchwork Wiltshire and Somerset countryside at 2,000ft and playing spot the landmark. Okay, one of these is Swindon - but there's the Thames, the chalk horses carved into the hillside, villages nestling around country churches and the odd empty air base.
We were at Yeovil today to hear the UK defence procurement minister Lord Drayson formally announce the signing of a deal to acquire 70 Future Lynx utility helicopters as part of a new Strategic Partnering Agreement with the helicopter manufacturer in front of an audience of army and navy customers, AgustaWestland staff and other dignitaries.
Normally at these sort of events, us hacks tend to go through the motions. We get the press releases and speeches in advance and the politicians and company executives tend to read their prepared texts, punctuated by the odd bit of polite applause. This time though, Guiseppe Orsi, chief executive of AgustaWestland, threw in a curve ball, announcing something the company had planned to leave talking about until next month's Farnborough show. That was the fact that AgustaWestland in the UK was going to become the new headquarters of the Italian company's military helicopter business and lead the work on a new helicopter - the AW149. Ten minutes later - thanks to the wonders of my BlackBerry - the story was on flightglobal.com and you can read it here.
The developments really mark a rebirth of Westland, for years a burden on the British government and an industrial cripple. For all the time it was owned by both Finmeccanica and GKN, it was in a limbo, neither corporation having the confidence to fully get behind the enterprise. Now that the Italians have identified the UK as their prime defence market, the Westland operation has become absolutely crucial to their ambitions. That is why they have shifted their entire military business from Italy to Yeovil. That - along with the Future Lynx deal and the acknowledgement of its Strategic Partner status - have given Westland a new lease of life. No wonder they're toasting their success with Chianti in Yeovil.
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