Bell Helicopter CEO Mitch Snyder said he is "cautiously optimistic" that the worldwide civil helicopter market is rebounding from its recent lows and is encouraged by market response to the company's new 505 light single, with good conversion rates of the 400 letters of intent in hand for the helicopter.
"The world is seeing the 505 as their aircraft," he said, with diverse global demand for the model. "If you have the right product, the customers still respond even in a down market," he said of the 505. Of the larger commercial market he said, "We may be at the bottom. We're trying to decide what is right for the commercial market," he added. "It'll come back."
Snyder said recent senior management changes made at Bell over the last year were designed to give him "better visibility" on Bell's commercial division and to strengthen its ability to smoothly run certification programs.
Bell posted revenues of $3.2 billion last year, 23 percent of parent company Textron's $13.8 billion. Bell's revenue mix continues to be highly weighted toward defense programs, which account for 64 percent of its business. Bell delivered 114 commercial aircraft in 2016.
The company is continuing to work on new military and civil programs including the V-280 next generation military tiltrotor—which is 95 percent complete and will make its first flight later this year—and unnamed civil research programs and concept aircraft. Snyder would like to see further progress in engine and avionics technology, including "getting beyond turbines," moving fly-by-wire flight controls into smaller aircraft and much swifter avionics development. "I challenged the team on how can we get avionics updates as fast as smartphones," he said.
"Bell's legacy is innovation. We've got lots of new things going on that we will share some time in the future—but not right now. At the same time we're introducing new products we're introducing the culture of innovation at Bell that wants to move things rapidly through the business," he said. That included building and flying subscale unmanned versions of aircraft and developing hybrid propulsion and advanced sensing systems and materials. The end goal, Snyder said, is to build aircraft whose safety meets or exceeds commercial airline travel. "We've got a lot of great milestones coming up in 2017," he said.