Sky Talk

Bell Helicopter cuts 500 jobs

Bell Helicopter announced today it is cutting 500 jobs in the wake of the Pentagon’s recent decision to cancel the company’s contract to develop a new generation reconnaissance helicopter for the Army.

The announcement, in a press release issued this morning, confirmed rumors that were swirling in recent days. Bell did immediately break down whether all the layoffs were in its Fort Worth facilities or if some would be at its Mirabel, Canada plant.

Bell said employees were being notified today and would receive 60-days pay and benefits in accordance with federal law and severance pay.

The layoffs include a 20 percent reduction in Bell’s management staff, the release said.

- Bob Cox

Money well spent

Associated Press, reported here by Forbes, says Textron Inc. spent $1 million in the second quarter of the year lobbying Congress and the Defense Department, primarily to boost or maintain spending on Bell Helicopter programs like the V-22 Osprey and Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter.

--Bob Cox

Helicopter sale to Iraq planned

Reuters reports that the Bush administration has proposed the sale of $2.4 billion worth of military helicopters, rockets, missiles, other supplies and services to the government of Iraq.

The sale would include either 24 armed version of the Bell 407 civil helicopter, similar to the Army's OH-58D Kiowa Warriors and the planned ARH-70 armed reconnaissance helicopter, or an armed version of Boeing's AH-6 Little Bird, a version of an MD Helicopters civil aircraft.

The deal would also include large supplies of weapons and ammunition as well as support equipment, technical advice and training for the Iraqi Air Force. The details are included in this release from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

-- Bob Cox

Obama and the Osprey

Here it is, video of Democratic prez candidate Barack Obama and entourage exiting a V-22 Osprey in Amman, Jordan on Tuesday. Posted on Chicago Tribune web site. You can't buy this kind of PR and advertising.

-- Bob Cox

Marines: V-22 is great, debates are over

FARNBOROUGH, England – As far as the Marines are concerned, it’s time for the debates and controversy about the V-22 Osprey to end.

“This program is now normalized,” Marine Gen. George Troutman, deputy commandant for aviation, told a press conference Tuesday at the Farnborough Air Show in England.

After nine months of military operations in Iraq, with only a few reported close calls due to mechanical failures and no combat losses, the Marines say the V-22 is an unquestionable success and all the critics have been proven wrong.

“We’re done talking about the V-22 as if the skeptics, the urban legends, the people that don’t know what they’re talking about are carrying the day,” Troutman said at the briefing held by Bell Helicopter and Boeing, which jointly build the V-22.

See the story in Wednesday's Star-Telegram.

-- Bob Cox

Strong orders, high marks for Bell 429 copter

FARNBOROUGH, England -- Orders continue to pour into Bell Helicopter’s offices in Hurst for the company’s first all new helicopter in decades. Bell officials say they have upwards of 330 orders for the Bell 429 helicopter, which they expect to begin delivering to customers early in 2009.

                 Since March Bell has averaged about a dozen orders a month for the 429, a twin-engine civil helicopter priced in the neighborhood of $5 million each. The total order backlog is in the neighborhood of $1.2 to $1.5 billion.

Mike Blake, Bell executive vice president, said he expects the 429 to be certified safe and ready for delivery to buyers by the Federal Aviation Administration early next year.

                Blake said he’s very pleased with results from flight testing of three currently flying aircraft. Together they have flown more than 1,000 hours and, Blake said, met all performance criteria Bell originally set for the aircraft.

--Bob Cox

Bell: No clue how Army figures helicopter costs

FARNBOROUGH, England -- Bell Helicopter officials say they are not clear how the Army came up with the soaring cost estimates that have forced a high –level Pentagon review of the company’s armed reconnaissance helicopter program.

The average cost Bell has quoted the Army to build 512 ARH-70 armed scout helicopters, about $9.5 million each, has not changed since the last crisis point in the program in April 2007, Bob Kenney, executive vice president of military programs, said in a meeting Monday.

Army acquisition officials have notified the Pentagon and Congress that they now estimate the cost of building the helicopters has increased 27 percent in that time.

Read the full story in tomorrow's Star-Telegram.

-- Bob Cox

Aviation writers preview Farnborough

Or better known as my very first podcast. Yours truly participated in a round-table discussion with three other journalists of what to expect at the Farnborough Air Show. Take a listen, critiques welcome.

Fellow podcasters were Steve Trimble, writer at blogger for Flight, Colin Clark, reporter and blogger for Military.com and DoDBuzz.com, with Christian Lowe of Military.com and DefenseTech.com moderating.

-- Bob Cox

More V-22 engine problems

FARNBOROUGH,England -- The Bell Helicopter-Boeing team that builds the V-22 Osprey will hold a press conference Tuesday at the Farnborough Air Show with a number of senior Marine corps officers playing the starring roles, presumably to extol the virtues of the V-22 and its performance in Iraq.

They might not want to volunteer the following recent incident so we'll do it for them. It just so happens that on June 21 a Marine V-22 crew had a serious engine problem forced the crew to quickly find a place to land.

 An internal Marine memorandum sent to us by a source describes the problem delicately.

WHILE IN FLIGHT, PILOTS NOTICED THAT THE R/H ENGINE TORQUE WOULD NOT
GO ABOVE 66 PERCENT. THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO HOLD ALTITUDE, AND HAD TO
MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN THE FIELD. AFTER REPLACEMENT OF THE ENGINE, A
BOROSCOPE INSPECTION WAS CONDUCTED TO INSPECT THE ENGINE INTERNALLY. IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT COMPRESSOR BLADES WERE DAMAGED FROM POSSIBLE FOD INGESTION. A BOROSCOPE INSPECTION OF THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER SHOWED THAT THE LINER HAD BROKEN INTO PIECES. THESE PIECES ENTERED INTO THE GAS GENERATOR, CAUSING SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE.

INTERNAL FAILURE OF THE ENGINE CAUSED FOR A LOSS OF ALTITUDE CONTROL. THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO STABILIZE OR HOLD AN ALTITUDE, AND WAS FORCED TO LAND. THIS COULD BE FATAL TO PERSONNEL ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT, AND CAUSE DETRIMENTAL DAMAGE TO THE AIRCRAFT. THE MISSION WAS ABORTED DUE TO THE FAILURE.

In other words, the engine was breaking up. Not a good thing. But what’s more interesting is the indication that the troubled engine was still putting out considerable thrust, but the aircraft couldn’t maintain altitude. The V-22 is supposed to be able to fly at least some distance and land on just one engine, but in this case it was unable to hold altitude while still getting significant power from the damaged engine.

 We asked the Marines for comment on this incident and this is what they said:

An MV-22 Osprey executed a precautionary landing June 21 in al Anbar province due to mechanical problems. Shortly after departing a forward operating base, engine problems prompted the crew to land the aircraft.

No personal injury or damage to the aircraft was sustained.  The aircraft was repaired onsite and flew back to Al Asad Air Base without incident. Hostile fire was not involved.

The cause of the mechanical problem is currently being investigated.

Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 is currently in their third month of deployment here at Al Asad Air Base.  This is the first incident of its kind involving the MV-22 Osprey in Iraq.

The aircraft continues to complete its mission as designed and prove its value as an essential asset to the Marine Corps' mission in Iraq.

"This environment is challenging for every aircraft here in Iraq," said Lt. Col. Karsten Heckl, commanding officer, VMM-162.  "The maintenance Marines of VMM-162 have done an outstanding job keeping the Osprey in the fight through preventative and routine maintenance."

We should point out a couple of things. One, it may have been the first precautionary (can you say emergency) landing due to an engine failure, there have been a number of incidents of rapid, unscheduled stops due to failed gearbox oil cooling systems, as reported in March by the Star-Telegram.

Second, the Marines have acknowledged publicly that they're wearing out V-22 engines far faster than anyone expected, both in the desert sands of Iraq and the far milder climes of the US.

-- Bob Cox

More trouble for Bell, Army helicopter

Just one year after Bell Helicopter won an 11th hour reprieve to save its troubled contract to build the Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter, the company is apparently running well over budget again. This just in:

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army said Wednesday that it would consider canceling a $6.2 billion Textron Inc (TXT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) armed helicopter program after notifying Congress that its projected costs had soared more than 40 percent above initial estimates.

One possibility after a review now getting going is that the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter being built by Textron's Bell Helicopter unit could be "terminated," but the Army has a "critical" need for the capabilities at issue, said Paul Boyce, an Army spokesman.

As they say in television, stay tuned. The Star-Telegram will be talking to Army officials later today.

--Bob Cox