Bell Helicopter has quietly called time on one its longest running and most iconic programmes, with assembly of the 206 series due to end in the first half of 2017.
The airframer feels that with the type’s successor, the 505 Jet Ranger X, now in serial production, the moment is right to ease out the 206 line with which Bell pioneered the light single segment.
It entered service in 1967 as the original Jet Ranger, but recent production has been of the stretched Long Ranger variant, with solely the L4 iteration offered since 2010.
Its popularity has waned in recent years and “only a handful” of airframes are left to be built, all destined for US emergency medical services operators. They will be complete early in the second quarter, says Bell.
Meanwhile, delivery of the initial 505 is imminent following Transport Canada certification in December 2016, with Bell’s own training centre in Fort Worth, Texas to take the first two production aircraft.
One of the pair is due to be ferried from the manufacturer’s Mirabel, Canada production facility next week having performed its first flight on 22 January,
However, the first delivery to an external customer is not due until later in the quarter.
Bell has also begun the process of turning its over 400 letters of intent for the helicopter into firm orders; conversions are running at around 80%, it says.
The Mirabel plant could produce as many as 200 aircraft per year, says programme manager LaShan Bonaparte.
“We want to be at 150 by the end of next year, although by the end of 2017 I would say we will probably be at around half that, or a little less.”
European and US approvals should follow “very soon” says Bonaparte, noting that “no additional testing” is required by either certification body.
Maximum take-off weight of the 505, which is powered by the Safran Helicopter Engines Arrius 2R, is now 1,670kg (3,680lb), having risen slightly from the previous target of 1,650kg; empty weight has yet to be confirmed but should be in the region of 1,000kg, says Bonaparte.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
