United States
Bell Helicopter is an American aircraft manufacturer mostly known for their light, mid-size and military helicopters. The company has been active for nearly 100 years. ‘Bell Helicopter’ changed to simply ‘Bell’ in the 2018 rebranding.
See all aircraft made by Bell Helicopter below or click ‘read more’ to find out more about the Bell company.
Read moreFounded almost 100 years ago in 1935, Bell Helicopter is still known for being a pace-setting company, leading the industry in creating durable and reliable helicopters. Originally known as Bell Aircraft Corporation, and founded in Buffalo, New York, the company designed fighter aircraft.
In 1942, the focus of the company changed when they hired Arthur M. Young to help with helicopter R&D. Bell, the owner and founder of the company, knew that expanding the company so that it didn’t rely fully on government contracts was an important move.
The Bell 30 had its first flight on December 29, 1942, and was the company’s first full-size helicopter. Later, the Bell 47 became the world’s first civil aviation authority rated helicopter, which led it to both military and civilian success.
Currently, Bell Helicopter is working hard to redesign transportation in the future. They are working to improve flight controls, making aviation safer and easier. One project that they are working on is to design a flight control system that makes it easy for users to operate their urban air vehicles.
Many of their employees have recently earned patents on their work, including work on a variable incident wing, rotorcraft heading control, and methods for limiting inter-laminar fatigue.
While they are known for producing high-quality smaller helicopters, Bell Helicopter also designs and manufactures incredible options that are much bigger. Their Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey was a military aircraft product with Boeing. First released in 1999, it seats an impressive 27 people.
Another example of a larger helicopter is the 525 Relentless. This is a twin-engine helicopter with an impressive cargo volume that easily seats 18. It was first released in 2017 and has a cruising speed of 155 kts.
One event that helps to really set Bell Helicopter apart from other companies operating today is that they were the first company to be able to obtain certification for a commercial helicopter. This is an honor, and one that really shows their dedication to the creation of high-quality helicopters and the fact that they are recognized for this.
Throughout their time designing and manufacturing helicopters, they have been able to deliver more than 35,000 to various customers located around the world. They have aircraft flying in more than 120 countries around the world.
The Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey recently surpassed 300,000 flight hours, which made it the most in-demand aircraft used by the US Marines.
The company rebranded in 2018 to ‘Bell’, sporting a new logo.
One of the most recent crashes that Bell has been involved in was in early 2018. A Bell UH-1H Iroquois helicopter crashed out of the sky and caught on fire. This was near Raton, New Mexico, and five of the six people who were on board were killed.
Another recent crash was in 2009, when a Bell 206L-4 LongRanger TC-HEK crashed in Turkey. All five of the people on board the helicopter were killed in this crash.
The company is currently located in Fort Worth, Texas. It is a subsidiary of Textron and they create military rotorcraft not only in Fort Worth, but also in Amarillo, Texas. They also operate out of Mirabel, Quebec, Canada, where they manufacture commercial helicopters.
While the production plants are in Fort Worth and Amarillo, Texas and in Mirabel, Canada, the company maintains service centers, as well as key logistics supply centers, in Singapore, Canada, Europe, and the United States. This means that customers all over the world can get the support that they need from this company.
While known for producing military helicopters, Bell Helicopter also produces amazing commercial business options. They were recently given a contract along with their partner, Fuji Heavy Industries, to replace the Ground Self-Defense Force UH-1J aircraft fleet in Japan.
At the end of 2015, Bell Helicopter employed around 7,050 employees. While this is a small company compared to others, they have a rich R&D team that is constantly working to upgrade new military products and to work on new advancements for tiltrotor technology.
The current President and CEO of Bell Helicopter is Mitch Snyder.