Agusta A129CBT Mangusta

This Airplane Models is 16” inches in length and finely handcrafted, and hand painted by our artists – to scale and museum quality

 

The Agusta Mangusta is an attack helicopter originally designed and produced by Agusta in Italy. It was the first attack helicopter to be designed and produced wholly in Western Europe.

The Agusta Mangusta was developed to provide an anti-tank attack helicopter for the Italian Army. Design of the A129 began in 1978. The first of five A129 prototypes was first flown on 15 September 1983, and the fifth prototype first flew in March 1986.

In 1986, the governments of Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding to investigate an improved version of the A129, called the Joint European Helicopter Tonal. (“Tonal” was derived from the name of an Aztec deity.) The Tonal was to have more powerful engines, a new rotor system, retractable landing gear, improved sensors and more powerful armament. However, the project collapsed in 1990 when Britain and the Netherlands decided to obtain the Ah-64 Apache instead. Spain has since acquired the European Tiger. An export version, the A129 Airplane models International (A129I), is a lower-cost helicopter with added firepower and upgraded avionics. In September 2007, the A129I was redesignated the AW129.