Bell Helicopter comes to this year’s ABACE show boosted by recent sales success in the Asia Pacific region. Looking to the future, at last month’s HeliExpo show in Dallas, Texas, the U.S. company, which is part of the Textron Aviation group, unveiled its new FCX-001 technology demonstrator.
China’s Reignwood Aviation is set to become the world’s largest fleet operator of the new Bell 505 Jet Ranger X light-single helicopter after the manufacturer announced a 50-ship order on March 7. The order, to be delivered over the next three years, is in addition to a previous 10-unit deal.
“There has been an overwhelming global response since the initial launch of the Bell 505, and we are thrilled to have Reignwood as one of our largest operators of this incredible aircraft in China,” said Patrick Moulay, the airframer’s executive vice president for commercial sales and marketing. The operator will add the new helicopters to its fleet, which currently includes the Bell 206, 407GX and 429, in use in a variety of missions.
“We are excited to be celebrating this milestone with our friends at Bell Helicopter and are eager to begin operating our fleet of Bell 505s,” said Reignwood chairman Galba Zheng. “Our partnership with Bell Helicopter is very important to us and they have proven their aircraft and customer support and service to be outstanding.”
Meanwhile, Japanese operator Nakanihon Air Service (NNK) last month ordered two Bell 429s for use in its helicopter emergency medical services. The helicopters are slated for delivery later this year.
The order continues a relationship between Bell and NNK that spans six decades. NNK ordered its first Bell, a Bell 47G-2, in April 1960. Since then, the operator has purchased 77 Bells and currently owns 13, including 206, 430, 204, 412 and 429 models.
“It is remarkable that our loyal customer, Nakanihon, has purchased its 78th and 79th Bell helicopters over a period of nearly 60 years, emphasizing the trust in the Bell product and support provided by Bell in Japan,” said Richard Thornley, Bell Helicopters, managing director, Japan. The new order, he added “is a huge endorsement for the 429” in the HEMS role.
In addition to owning the helicopters, NKK manages eight Bell 412EPs and 412EPIs for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. And, NNK has been an authorized customer service facility for Bell since 1994 and customizes a number of the helicopters that enter Japan.
In the Philippines, local operator PhilJets Group recently acquired a Bell 407 equipped with club four seating for its fleet. The rotorcraft, which features a Rolls-Royce 250-C47B/8 Fadec engine, is expected to be delivered to the company shortly.
With the addition of the Bell 407 along with a new Airbus H145T2, the PhilJets fleet will grow to a total of nine helicopters and two business jets this year. The fleet will be available to both local and international customers.
In March, Bell Helicopter delivered the first of the new 505 Jet Ranger Xs, to U.S. operator Pylon Aviation, which will use it for charter, tourism and utility flights. The manufacturer received type certificate approval for the five-seat light single helicopter from Transport Canada in December and Australia's CASA on March 1, with U.S. and European approvals anticipated soon.
Bell holds more than 400 letters of intent (LOIs) for the 505 and is in the process of converting them into firm orders. The LOIs signed in 2013 were for a base price of $1.07 million, according to Lashan Bonaparte, Bell Helicopter, 505 program manager. By the end of 2018, Bonaparte said, Bell expects to build 150 505s per year at its facility in Montreal, Canada, while the total for 2017 may reach half that number.
Kits Available For 505
Meanwhile Bell engineers and technicians are working on various kits for the 505, including a cargo hook, mirrors, weighing system, floor protectors and automatic door openers. The 505 customer advisory council is also working with Bell on other kit concepts.
The 505’s flat-floor makes reconfiguring the interior easy, with seats easily removable. Many of the buyers are corporate operators, with the remainder planning to use their 505s for utility operations. United Rotorcraft is developing an aeromedical interior for the 505.
Training for 505 pilots will initially be done at the Bell Training Academy in Forth Worth, Texas, with maintenance training offered in Fort Worth, Singapore and Valencia, Spain. Pilot initial training will take one week and initially will be in the helicopter. Later this year, Bell expects its 505 Level 7 flight training device, built by sister company Tru Training + Simulation, to be qualified. This simulator will be a fixed-base device but will be equipped with a secondary cockpit movement system to add realism to the training.
Maintenance training employs a 3-D modeling computer system to help technicians learn their way around the helicopter. This is the first time that Bell has put 3-D modeling into use for maintenance training and should save wear and tear and time, compared to using the actual helicopter as a training tool.
The 505 is equipped with a Garmin G1000H integrated flight deck that includes two large displays (PFD and MFD), engine instruments with a power situation indicator and automated power assurance check, ADS-B out, flight monitoring and video input. Options include H-TAWS, traffic, synthetic vision and a second com radio.
Performance turned out better than originally expected, according to Bonaparte. Maximum takeoff weight is now 1,669 kg (3,680 pounds) and max cruise is 126 knots. The 505 can carry more than 680 kg (1,500 pounds) of useful load and offers maximum range of more than 667 km (360 nm) or endurance over 3.5 hours. Hover-in-ground-effect ceiling at maximum weight is 4,267 meters (14,000 feet), and out-of-ground-effect 3,658 meters (12,000 feet). Power is provided by a Safran Helicopter Engines Arrius 2R rated at 504 shp for takeoff, and 457 shp max continuous. o
What Comes Next For Helicopters?
Bell Helicopter’s FCX-001 concept helicopter is just one of the futuristic ideas that members of Bell’s innovation teams have developed. While not intended as a production helicopter, the FCX-001 is a way of examining future rotorcraft technologies and potential ways to put those into action in future helicopter programs.
With an airframe slightly longer and wider than a Bell 412, the composite FCX fuselage frames a glass-enclosed cockpit and cabin poised on aerodynamic main gear legs topped with a slimmed-down tailcone and a tiny vertical stabilizer with no tail rotor. The five main rotor blades look ordinary until their ends, where morphing technology takes over, allowing the last few feet of the blades to swing fore and aft to optimize rotor dynamics. The morphing blades also help control tip noise in real time, and Bell has applied for a patent on the design.
Anti-torque control of the FCX is vectored thrust through vanes in the tailboom, driven by electric motors for quieter operation, eliminating the weight and complexity of tail rotor drive shafts, gearboxes and blades. Two thermal engines are the main power source for the FCX, but there were no specifics given on their provenance.
Of course, flight controls are fly-by-wire, a technology that Bell believes can be adapted from its 525 Relentless and tiltrotor designs to many other rotorcraft types. The lone pilot—yes, there is just one seat for the flight crewmember—will be aided by artificial intelligence and may even be redundant, as the FCX could be optionally piloted. In either case, cockpit displays will also be redundant, as the pilot would use augmented reality and a wearable head-up display to manage FCX flight.
Behind the single pilot seat is an elegant cabin outfitted with two rows of four seats and augmented reality features—“for information, entertainment, or communication”—to make flying more comfortable. Quick configuration changes are aided by modular flooring.
The process that resulted in the FCX started with a challenge by Bell president and CEO Mitch Snyder, who wanted to see the ultimate form-follows-function machine that is a helicopter get some attention on the design side, to make helicopters look more beautiful, according to Levi Bilbrey, creative team lead. The idea was to help Bell’s artistic experts learn more about engineering, and vice versa, by working together and sharing ideas. Hundreds of sketches whittled down to 12 preceded the FCX, which was number five of the 12. The engineers helped the artists understand the physics that constrain helicopter operation, and the artists helped the engineers cut loose and indulge the creative sides of their brains.