Mitch Snyder assumed the helm as president and CEO of Bell Helicopter late last year following the resignation of John Garrison. Snyder had been part of the executive leadership team at Bell for the last five years, most recently heading its government business.
Snyder said not to expect any big changes at Bell under his administration. “I’m going to continue with the same strategy. I’ve been part of the executive leadership for five years, been at Bell for 12. You'll see increased emphasis on innovation. I mean that in terms of leaps in technology, not just incremental movements in terms of products, processes and services. Safety will always be at the core of all of those. The second focus will be on our people. They are what truly make us great. Bell is made up of a lot of great leaders. I’m going to expose a lot more leaders to everyone as opposed to just me singularly.”
Here at Heli-Expo, Bell is displaying the 525 Relentless flight test vehicle 2 (FTV 2), a 505 Jet Ranger X test vehicle, a 407 GXP configured for EMS, a 429 light twin configured for utility missions, and a mockup of its V-280 third-generation military tiltrotor, Bell's entry into the Army’s Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) competition.
Snyder said the products on display convey Bell’s breadth, balance and commitment to innovation. Even in a challenging market, he said Bell will continue high levels of spending on innovation, research and development to both refresh existing products and bring transformative technologies to market. “We’re going to continue to do the product refreshes we’ve been doing, but we are putting a lot more emphasis into those big leaps in technology that are going to be the game changers. I won’t tell you exactly what we are working on, but we are going to be exploring a lot of new areas. We do have a list and we are working on them.”
Bell is increasing spending on R&D but Snyder declined to reveal the amount. He hinted that new models may be coming. “We’re putting a heavy emphasis on product refresh, but I really want to spend some money now on technology types. It could be a new airframe, a new clean-sheet [design] or an upgrade to an existing product. We will be increasing that spending. There are no time frames. When I say I’m thinking of some clean-sheet designs, that’s out in the future.”
While some have speculated that the V-280 could lead Bell back into the civil tiltrotor market, Snyder said Bell remains a committed supplier partner on the Finmeccanica (AgustaWestland) AW609 and focused on finding new markets for its V-22 military tiltrotor, made in partnership with Boeing. “We’re still part of the 609 program and are very supportive of Agusta to proceed with that,” he said. “What we are doing right now–300,000 flight hours on the V-22 and the most in-demand aircraft in the Marine Corps inventory–it is changing the way the world flies. Agusta is going to do extremely well, and we are very supportive in our partnership with them. Right now we are focused on what we are going to get done with the V-280 and the requirements for the JMR-TD and the Future Vertical Lift. We’ll see how things evolve and play out.”
Snyder called 2015 “a great year” for Bell. “There were geopolitical challenges and global economic uncertainty. But given all those situations, we had some great successes. We took one of our largest helicopter orders ever with 200 407 GXPs to Air Methods. Japan [ordered the] UHX for 150 aircraft based on the 412 EPi with Fuji Heavy Industries. [We now have] 350 LOIs for the Bell 505 and 75 LOIs for the Bell 525. The Navy selected the V-22 as [carrier onboard delivery], 40 aircraft. And Bell logged the first foreign military sales of the V-22 to Japan and the H-1Z to Pakistan.”
This year will see certification of the 505. Last July 1 525 FTV 1 made its first flight, and FTV 2 flew on December 21. Bell opened the new Bell Training Academy in Fort Worth and the 505’s Lafayette, La., assembly center last year.
Snyder thinks the market in 2016 will be similar to 2015. “We're going to continue to work on the balanced business model and invest in our new programs–the 505, 525 and V-280. The 525 will be certified in 2017 and the V-280 will be flying in 2017. We’re going to make sure we are cost-competitive globally.”
Snyder doesn't believe the recent collapse in global oil prices will hurt Bell as much as its competitors. “Even though the oil-and-gas market is struggling, we’re doing well and gaining share in other areas. Parapublic is an area that is growing, and we are doing well in emergency medical.” He declined to say how many of the 75 letters of intent for the new 525 super-medium twin are from oil-and-gas sector customers but did point out that the 525 “can do a lot of other things. There are multiple kits that can be installed on that aircraft–oil-and-gas, search-and-rescue and executive transport. All those kits will be in place [at certification]. Remember, oil-and-gas is down right now and may be down another year or two, but in three years we will have the product ready for when oil-and-gas comes back.”
Lockheed Martin's acquisition of Sikorsky will not affect Bell’s strategy going forward “at all,” Snyder said. “We continue to invest in commercial and the military. We are teamed with Lockheed Martin on the V-280 on the JMR-TD program with the next-generation tiltrotor. We continue to see great success with that program and have a great relationship with Lockheed Martin working on that. Given our portfolio and our long-term contracts with the U.S. government on the military side with the V-22 and the H-1Y/Z, I don’t think their acquisition of Sikorsky impacts us at all.”