Story ID: 131Feb17
Bell 505 Wins Transport Canada Nod
By: Mark Huber
Caption: Bell Holds More than 400 Letters of Intent from 505 customers.
Word Count: 486
Bell Helicopter announced December 21 that it had received initial type certificate approval from Transport Canada for the 505 Jet Ranger X five-seat light single after 1,000 hours of flight-testing with three helicopters.  Bell announced the 505 in 2013, and the program went from concept to first flight in 20 months. Cost and time to develop the helicopter were reduced by using much of the main rotor system of the 206L4 LongRanger.

The 505 is powered by a 504-shp Safran Arrius 2R with dual-channel Fadec and a TBO of 3,000 hours. In March last year, Safran announced plans to offer 505 customers support-by-the-hour maintenance coverage in cooperation with Bell’s Customer Advantage Plan, with no minimum annual flight-hour requirement, for $300 per flight hour.

In the cockpit is a Garmin G1000H avionics suite with two 10.4-inch displays. The 505 has a maximum cruise speed of 125 ktas, a maximum range of 340 nm, a useful load of 1,470 pounds, a wide-opening double door, and an open layout with flat cabin floor with 61 cu ft of rear cabin volume for passengers or cargo. Initial price of the base aircraft will be "around $1 million," said Bell CEO Mitch Snyder, who called it "truly a game changer in the light single market." Bell said that it is in the process of converting approximately 400 letters of intent into orders. Production, FAA and EASA certifications are expected early this year. Snyder said Bell plans to produce fifty 505s this year and ramp up to an annual production rate of 150 next year.

Last year Bell announced that it had scrapped plans to build the 505 at a new dedicated green-field plant in Lafayette, La., and said that production would be shifted to its main commercial complex at Mirabel, Quebec, where it has excess capacity and adding the 505 to the plant's existing production certificate would be less cumbersome than getting a new certificate for the Lafayette plant. The Mirabel plant, which assembles the 206L4, 407, 412 and 429, has been under stress in the face of declining commercial deliveries industry-wide. The plant has endured multiple rounds of layoffs since 2014. Bell does not expect that moving 505 production to Mirabel will raise production costs or the helicopter's price. “We've learned a lot in both Mirabel and Lafayette about production efficiencies, and all of that learning will go into the new 505 line. It will also be set up as a 'factory in a factory,' as a number of advances we have in place in Lafayette will move to Mirabel,” a company spokesperson told AIN last year.

Bell plans to certify the 505 with a variety of kits, many of which have already been flight-tested, directed at the utility, law enforcement and executive markets. Additionally, Mecaer Aviation Group announced in November that it is developing a luxury interior for the helicopter. At the 2016 Heli-Expo show, United Rotorcraft revealed a lightweight, quick-change EMS interior that it had developed for the 505 using proven components. 
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