After remaining quiet over the past year on a potential certification date for the 525 Relentless, Bell executives now say they expect U.S. FAA approval by the end of this year. While stressing the timeline ultimately depends on the FAA, Bell president and CEO Mitch Snyder reported “great progress” during a recent media day in Fort Worth, Texas. “Our intent is to certify this year and we’re going to keep flying and working hard with the FAA,” he said.
Bell (Booth B5504) introduced the 525 in 2012, carving a new niche in the super-medium class that could compete against large helicopters in markets such as oil and gas or in a range of other sectors, including corporate, SAR, troop transport, and public safety. The largest civil helicopter that Bell has built, the 525 can fly up to 580 nm, reach a speed of 160 kts, and carry 16 passengers with two crew.
The company also is bringing technologies such as Garmin G5000H avionics with touchscreen controls and fly-by-wire (FBW) to the platform, a first in the commercial helicopter space. While the sidestick, triple-redundant FBW system paved new ground during the certification, Bell 525 chief engineer Josh O’Neil characterized most of the questions surrounding its approval as “closed for some time now.” He also called the collaboration with the FAA on the system “healthy” and “a lot of work and a lot of learning on both sides.”
O’Neil further said that he believes lessons learned will yield value in the ability to certify advanced technologies in the future.
As for the remainder of the certification program, 525 program director Derek Mookhoek said Bell has finished most of the work it can under its organization delegation authorization process. “We have very few [deliverables] left and we are wrapping those up here very quickly,” Mookhoek said. “Everything that’s in our control…we’re doing that and we’re running out of that work.”
The remainder of the work involves FAA review and final approvals, and this work is for “score.” That involves flight testing with the FAA, said O’Neil, who further explained that because the 525 is introducing FBW into civil helicopters, it “flies differently…with advanced control laws.” A bulk of the certification flight testing is generating data on how it flies and on establishing what that means in terms of compliance, he added.
While FAA resources have presented an ongoing problem as backlogs of projects accumulate industry-wide, Mookhoek reported that activity has increased in the past year with the agency. “We are getting the support we need,” he said. “We are getting more and more traction there, and we are seeing momentum pick up. They were out here in the last few weeks with us, including their flight test engineers. We’re walking in together and we’re walking out together and it’s dark. And so, it’s been good.”
In tandem, Bell still has ambitions to get the helicopter certified for known icing as the FAA grants type approval. After a few initial trials in Marquette, Michigan, last year, Bell kicked off full-scale testing there in January with serial number (S/N) 14, which it fully configured for icing. The aircraft tests handling behind freezing spray from a Chinook tanker. When weather permits, the helicopter can participate in testing in natural icing conditions, a requirement for certification, O’Neil said. Once the tests involving simulated icing conditions wrap up, Bell will continue to search for the right conditions to obtain the necessary data in natural icing conditions.
O’Neil noted that obtaining icing approval alongside certification is unusual, especially in the super-medium category. “It’s much more common to certify and then start your icing flight test program,” he said.
As for the initial results, Mookhoek said the systems have performed as expected. “Our challenge has been getting the weather to be able to go test,” he explained.
S/N 3 and 15 have also entered the flight test program (a number of serial numbers are assigned to various test articles, and Bell lost a prototype during a 2016 crash) while S/N 16 through 21 are on the production line at its factory in Amarillo, Texas.
“The whole production line is populated and each station has an aircraft in it,” he said. Production works in tandem with the certification program to ensure any last-minute tweaks can be added to the aircraft before they are finished. “We are working very closely as a [certification] program with our production to make sure we are staying in sync,” Mookhoek said.
As the certification program has made strides, so too has production and any changes made on the line have been winnowing down. “We have constantly funneled down to a place where there’s very little change,” he added.
At the same time, Bell is accelerating hiring in anticipation of the continuous production flow. Production workers stood at about three dozen or so in January, but that number grows every month, he explained.
Since the 525 is a “clean-sheet” aircraft, so too is the production line. “That was a very large investment at the beginning of the program,” said Mookhoek, citing a high level of automation built in. The company has further invested in its capacity to increase the production of the aircraft. “There’s no rate of orders that we can’t keep up with on the 525 line. I can say that the confidence,” he maintained.
Bell has placed its first 525 full-motion simulator at its training academy in Hurst, Texas. The simulator is currently at Level C but plans call for Level D approval, O’Neil said.
The company also has delivered a maintenance trainer to the academy. Bell has retired aircraft S/N 2, initially used for flight test, and modified it to the latest configuration for training purposes. The company will station future simulators in other locations, depending on the customer base.
Bell hasn’t yet named a launch customer but executives express optimism about the long-term prospects for the aircraft. “There are quite a few customers that we’re talking to right now,” Mookhoek said. “It’s been ongoing and they’re great conversations. There’s a lot of opportunities there.”
He stressed the importance of readying for a successful launch, noting “that’s probably the big part of the conversations with the customers because many of them have seen the aircraft, they’ve been in it, some have flown in it, and so they know what it is and the technology is there.” Now potential customers must determine how to integrate it into their operations, Mookehoek continued.
Michael Thacker, executive v-p of commercial business, noted that Bell took the helicopter on a tour a year ago, and “we’re seeing a very good response for the 525 so far.” From a safety perspective, he added, “it is a game changer,” pointing to its capabilities to improve situational awareness and reduced pilot workload.