Sky Talk

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

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

Bell doubts market for civil tilt-rotor

A new generation of Bell Helicopter leaders has taken a more realistic and pragmatic view of the real world potential for the company's tilt-rotor technology embodied in the vaunted V-22 Osprey.

A story in today's Star-Telegram reveals that Bell management doubts there is much of a market in the civil/commercial aviation world for the BA609 civil titlt-rotor aircraft the company has spent more than decade and hundreds of millions of dollars developing.

--Bob Cox

Marines say V-22 passed Iraq tests

Better late than never ...

The Marines held a press conference at the Pentagon last week to tell the world that the V-22 Osprey had performed well in Iraq. No one from the Star-Telegram or McClatchy was able to attend but the transcript of the session can be found here.

Lt. Gen. George Trautman, deputy commandant for aviation, said the Osprey lived up to expectations and performed all of its assigned missions. But Troutman added that the Iraq deployment was "a test, but not the final exam" for the Osprey.

Troutman said the Marines are on "a journey to exploit a new and revolutionary technology. And we're going to continue to learn lessons, and we're going to continue to improve and continue to work hard to exploit the capabilities this airplane brings.

"I don't want anybody to think that this is end of a journey. This is very much just the beginning. And I anticipate in the coming years and decades, as Air Force Special Operations Command and others see the utility of this airplane, it's just going to become more and more valuable across the board."

Inside the Navy (subscription required) reported on the session, leading with the fact Marine Osprey crews only encountered hostile fire on two occasions.

The first V-22 squadron spent most of its deployment conducting “general support” missions, involving moving Marines and supplies in and out of combat zones. The aircraft also conducted medical evacuation and other missions, according to the squadron. Their missions took them all across Iraq, and even as far as way as Kuwait and Jordan.

(Lt. Col. Paul) Rock said the fact that the aircraft saw so little combat could be seen as a testament to its speed and the difficulty enemies have in targeting it.

“That’s one of the great things about the aircraft . . . someone’s opportunity to engage us is very short,” he said.

- Bob Cox

MD Helicopters likes North Texas airport site

MD Helicopters owner Lynn Tilton likes what she saw and heard in Grayson County, but not so much Dallas.

Tilton, in an interview with the Star-Telegram, said today that North Texas Regional Airport, located between Denison and Sherman, has made her list of finalists as a possible site for relocating the helicopter manufacturing company.

"We really like the site. We really like the people. We think it will be a good long term solution," Tilton said.

Tilton said she is still considering four sites -- including Shreveport, Oklahoma City and one in Mesa, Ariz., but had eliminated Dallas Executive Airport from consideration.

Dallas officials were accomodating and made a good proposal, Tilton said, but because the airport is surrounded by residential and commercial areas it would not be a good long term location due to the added helicopter and airplane traffic MD would generate.

Tilton said she plans to visit Oklahoma City and Shreveport next week and could make a final decision sometime in May.

- Bob Cox

Set the TiVo: V-22 documentary scheduled

Public affairs staff at Bell Helicopter informs us that the Military Channel will feature a one-hour documentary program on the history and development of the V-22 Osprey on Monday, April 7.

The show airs at 10 pm EDT, 9 p.m Central. Bell says the program covers the Osprey from its inception following the failed Desert One hostage rescue attempt to current operations with Marine squadron VMM-263 in Al Asad, Iraq.

The program, Bell says "doesn’t ignore the mishaps of the earlier years, but covers them intelligently and objectively."  Most of the film is about VMM-263, the first squadron to take the V-22 to war and includes interviews with the men and women of the squadron. The program was written and produced by Richard Mackenzie, an award-winning film-maker who has produced dozens of documentaries for the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and the National Geographic Channel.

- Bob Cox

MD Helicopters still has eyes on Texas

MD Helicopters may yet end up moving to Texas, but not to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, says owner Lynn Tilton.

In an interview Friday, Tilton said she is considering five locations in four states as a possible new site for the company and expects to make a final decision within a couple of months. North Texas Regional Airport in Denison and Dallas Executive Airport (formerly Redbird Airport), in southwest Dallas are both in the running.

"We'll probably choose a final Texas site next week," Tilton said, after she visits both locations. Tilton said the decision to eliminate Alliance from consideration was made Thursday after a meeting with her relocation advisers, Cushman & Wakefield.

Tilton said costs for land and facilities would have been higher at Alliance than other locations, plus she would have been in competition with Bell Helicopter for employees. "I didn't think they (Bell) were anxious to have us there."

Tilton said she will almost certainly move the company out of its Mesa location and that airport sites in Oklahoma City, Shreveport and the Phoenix area are also under consideration.

- Bob Cox

Arizona tries to keep MD Helicopters away from Texas

Stories today in Phoenix area newspapers say local officials there are scrambling to find incentives and any other inducements they could offer MD Helicopters to keep it from moving out of the area.

MD, as the Star-Telegram reported recently, is considering a move and is looking at two possible Texas sites including Alliance Airport. MD builds a line of light single and twin-engine civil helicopters and is a competitor of Bell Helicopter of Fort Worth and American Eurocopter in Grand Prairie. MD also owns Heritage Aviation in Grand Prairie.

- Bob Cox

Iraqi troops train for war in V-22

Marine Corps V-22s have been used to transport Iraqi Army soldiers on a helicopter/assault training exercise. Read about it here.

- Bob Cox