Bell Textron Inc. is an American

aerospace manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

headquartered in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...

. A subsidiary of

Textron Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engin ...

, Bell manufactures military

rotorcraft A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The Internati ...

at facilities in Fort Worth, and

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...

, as well as commercial

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s in

Mirabel, Quebec Mirabel is a suburb of Montreal, located on the North Shore in southern Quebec. Mirabel is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and census division (CD) of Quebec, coextensive with the city of Mirabel. It ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

History

Bell Aircraft

The company was founded on July 10, 1935, as

Bell Aircraft Corporation The Bell Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer, a builder of several types of fighter aircraft for World War II but most famous for the Bell X-1, the first supersonic aircraft, and for the development and production of man ...

Lawrence Dale Bell Lawrence Dale "Larry" Bell (April 5, 1894 – October 20, 1956) was an American industrialist and founder of Bell Aircraft Corporation. Biography Bell was born in Mentone, Indiana, and lived there until 1907, when his family moved to Santa Monic ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. The company focused on the designing and building of fighter aircraft. Their first fighters were the XFM-1 Airacuda, a twin-engine fighter for attacking bombers, and the

P-39 Airacobra The Bell P-39 Airacobra is a fighter produced by Bell Aircraft for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II. It was one of the principal American fighters in service when the United States entered combat. The P-39 was used by the ...

. The

P-59 Airacomet The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft that was designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II, the first produced in the United States. As the British were further along in jet engine develop ...

, the first American jet fighter, the

P-63 Kingcobra The Bell P-63 Kingcobra is an American fighter aircraft that was developed by Bell Aircraft during World War II. Based on the preceding Bell P-39 Airacobra, the P-63's design incorporated suggestions from P-39 pilots and was superior to its p ...

, the successor to the P-39, and the

Bell X-1 The Bell X-1 (Bell Model 44) is a rocket engine–powered aircraft, designated originally as the XS-1, and was a joint National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics– U.S. Army Air Forces–U.S. Air Force supersonic research project built by Be ...

were also Bell products.History of Bell Helicopter
. bellhelicopter.com

In 1941, Bell hired Arthur M. Young, a talented inventor, to provide expertise for

research and development. It was the foundation for what Bell hoped would be a broader economic base for his company that was not dependent on

government contracts Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subs ...

. The

Bell 30 The Bell 30 was the prototype for the first commercial helicopter, and the first helicopter built by the Bell Aircraft Company. Designed by Arthur M. Young, the type served as a demonstration testbed for the successful Bell 47. Development You ...

was their first full-size helicopter (first flight December 29, 1942) and the

Bell 47 The Bell 47 is a single-rotor single-engine light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was based on the third Bell 30 prototype, which was the company's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young. The 47 became the first he ...

became the first helicopter in the world rated by a

civil aviation authority A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

, becoming a civilian and military success.

Bell Helicopter

purchased Bell Aerospace in 1960. Bell Aerospace was composed of three divisions of Bell Aircraft Corporation, including its helicopter division, which had become its only division still producing complete aircraft. The helicopter division was renamed Bell Helicopter Company and in a few years, with the success of the

UH-1 The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helic ...

Huey during the Vietnam War, it had established itself as the largest division of Textron. In January 1976, Textron changed the division's name to Bell Helicopter Textron. Bell Helicopter had a close association with

AgustaWestland AgustaWestland was an Anglo-Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Finmeccanica (now known as Leonardo). It was formed in July 2000 as an Anglo-Italian multinational company, when Finmeccani ...

. The partnership dated back to separate manufacturing and technology agreements with

Agusta Agusta was an Italian helicopter manufacturer. It was based in Samarate, Northern Italy. The company was founded by Count Giovanni Agusta in 1923, who flew his first airplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot o ...

(

and

Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progra ...

) and as a sublicence via Agusta with

Westland Westland or Westlands may refer to: Places *Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi, Kenya * Westlands, Staffordshire, a suburban area and ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme *Westland, a peninsula of the Shetland Mainland near Vaila ...

(

). When the two European firms merged, the partnerships were retained, with the exception of the AB139, which is now known as the

AW139 The AgustaWestland AW139 is a medium-lift twin-engined helicopter developed and produced by the Anglo-Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, later wholly owned by Leonardo S.p.A. It is marketed at several different roles, including VI ...

. Bell and AW cooperated also on the

AW609 The AgustaWestland (now Leonardo) AW609, formerly the Bell/Agusta BA609, is a twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with a configuration similar to that of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. It is capable of landing vertically like a helicopter while ...

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a trans ...

.Oliver Johnson & Elan Head.
Bell CEO outlines European growth plan
''Vertical'', October 15, 2014. Accessed: October 21, 2014. Bell planned to reduce employment by 760 in 2014 as fewer V-22s were made. A

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...

center called XworX assists Bell's other divisions in reducing development time. The company was rebranded as "Bell" on February 22, 2018.

Product list

Bell 412EP Griffin HT1 of the RAF at RIAT 2010 arp

Commercial helicopters

Established in 1986, its

facility assembles and delivers most Bell's commercial helicopters and delivered its 5,000th helicopter on December 12, 2017.

Military helicopters

Bell H-12 The Bell R-12 (later redesignated H-12; company Model 48) was an American 1940s military utility helicopter built by the Bell Helicopter company. Design and development During 1946, Bell Helicopter began development of a new utility helicopter, ...

* Bell H-13 Sioux ** Bell XH-13F *

Bell XH-15 The Bell XH-15 (Bell Model 54) was an American four-seat utility helicopter designed and built by Bell Helicopter, to meet a requirement for a liaison and utility helicopter for the United States Army and United States Air Force. Development The ...

* Bell HSL *

Bell UH-1 Iroquois The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (nicknamed "Huey") is a utility military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace company Bell Helicopter. It is the first member of the prolific Huey family, as well as the first turbine-powered helic ...

(or Huey) **

Bell Huey family The Bell Huey family of helicopters includes a wide range of civil and military aircraft produced since 1956 by Bell Helicopter. This H-1 family of aircraft includes the utility UH-1 Iroquois and the derivative AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter series ...

Bell UH-1 Iroquois variants The Bell UH-1 Iroquois military helicopter, first introduced in 1959, is the first production member of the prolific Huey family of helicopters, and was itself developed in over twenty variants, which are listed below. XH-40 and YH-40 The firs ...

Bell UH-1N Twin Huey The Bell UH-1N Twin Huey is a medium military helicopter designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Bell Helicopter. It is a member of the extensive Huey family, the initial version was the CUH-1N Twin Huey (later CH-135 Twi ...

Bell YHO-4 The Bell YOH-4 (originally YHO-4) was a single-engine, single-rotor light helicopter, developed for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter program. While the YOH-4A was unsuccessful in the original LOH competition, Bell redesigned ...

* Bell 207 Sioux Scout – experimental attack helicopter *

Bell 533 The Bell 533 was a research helicopter built by Bell Helicopter under contract with the United States Army during the 1960s, to explore the limits and conditions experienced by helicopter rotors at high airspeeds. The helicopter was a YH-40—a ...

– experimental Huey variant with increased performance *

Bell AH-1 Cobra The Bell AH-1 Cobra is a single-engined attack helicopter developed and manufactured by the American rotorcraft manufacturer Bell Helicopter. A member of the prolific Huey family, the AH-1 is also referred to as the HueyCobra or Snake. The A ...

* Bell AH-1 SeaCobra/SuperCobra *

Bell 309 KingCobra The Bell Model 309 KingCobra was an experimental attack helicopter developed by Bell Helicopter, based on the Bell AH-1 Cobra. Design and development Background The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. A ...

- experimental attack helicopter * YAH-63/Model 409 – competitor with the YAH-64 for

Advanced Attack Helicopter The Advanced Attack Helicopter (AAH) was a United States Army program to develop an advanced ground attack helicopter beginning in 1972. The Advanced Attack Helicopter program followed cancellation of the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne. After evaluat ...

program *

Bell OH-58 Kiowa The Bell OH-58 Kiowa is a family of single-engine single-rotor military helicopters used for observation, utility, and direct fire support. It was produced by the American manufacturer Bell Helicopter and is closely related to the Model 206A ...

H-1 upgrade program The H-1 upgrade program is the United States Marine Corps's program to develop the AH-1Z Viper and UH-1Y Venom military helicopters to replace its aging fleets of AH-1W SuperCobras and UH-1N Twin Hueys. The contract was awarded in 1996 to Bell Hel ...

** Bell UH-1Y Venom **

Bell AH-1Z Viper The Bell AH-1Z Viper is a twin-engine attack helicopter, based on the AH-1W SuperCobra, designed and produced by the American aerospace manufacturer Bell Helicopter. Being one of the latest members of the prolific Bell Huey family, it is also c ...

Bell CH-146 Griffon The Bell CH-146 Griffon is a multi-role utility helicopter designed by Bell Helicopter Textron as a variant of the Bell 412EP for the Canadian Armed Forces. The CH-146 is used in a wide variety of roles, including aerial firepower, reconnaiss ...

Bell ARH-70 Arapaho The Bell ARH-70 Arapaho was an American four-bladed, single-engine, light military helicopter designed for the United States Army's Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program. With a crew of two and optimized for urban combat, the ARH-70 wa ...

- cancelled armed reconnaissance helicopter *

Bell 360 Invictus The Bell 360 Invictus is a proposed helicopter design intended to meet the United States Army requirement for a Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA). It is based on technology from the Bell 525 Relentless. *

Bell XV-3 The Bell XV-3 (Bell 200) is an American tiltrotor aircraft developed by Bell Helicopter for a joint research program between the United States Air Force and the United States Army in order to explore convertiplane technologies. The XV-3 featured ...

* Bell XV-15 *

Bell Pointer A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

Bell V-247 Vigilant The Bell V-247 Vigilant is a concept by Bell Helicopter to develop a large tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle. Development Bell created the V-247 to meet emerging U.S. military needs for a runway-independent Group 4 or 5 UAV to provide persisten ...

– currently in development *

Bell V-280 Valor The Bell V-280 Valor is a tiltrotor aircraft being developed by Bell and Lockheed Martin for the United States Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program.

– currently in development, first flown 2017 * V-22 Osprey – with Boeing BDS * TR918 Eagle Eye UAV * Quad TiltRotor – with Boeing BDS *

Bell BAT A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

(1984 tiltrotor project for LHX programme – not built) *

Bell CTR-1900 A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...

(Tilt-rotor project only – not built) *

Bell CTR-22 A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

(Tilt-rotor project only – not built) *

Bell CTR-750 A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...

(Tilt-rotor project only – not built) * Bell CTR-800 (Tilt-rotor project only – not built) *

Bell D-326 A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

(Clipper 1980 commercial tilt-rotor project – not built)

Projects produced by other companies

AgustaWestland AW139 The AgustaWestland AW139 is a medium-lift twin-engined helicopter developed and produced by the Anglo-Italian helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland, later wholly owned by Leonardo S.p.A. It is marketed at several different roles, including V ...

helicopter (formerly 50-50 as the Agusta-Bell AB139, now 100%

) *

AgustaWestland AW609 The AgustaWestland (now Leonardo) AW609, formerly the Bell/Agusta BA609, is a twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with a configuration similar to that of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. It is capable of landing vertically like a helicopter whil ...

tiltrotor (formerly 50-50 as the Bell-Agusta BA609, now 100% AgustaWestland) *

Lockheed Martin VH-71 Kestrel The Lockheed Martin VH-71 Kestrel was a variant of the AgustaWestland AW101 (formerly the EH101) that was being manufactured to replace the United States Marine Corps' Marine One U.S. Presidential transport fleet. Originally marketed for vario ...

Unproduced designs

* Bell 280 (project only, twin-engined wide-body variant of the Cobra) * Bell D-218 * Bell D-230 (Flying Jeep project – not built) * Bell D-245 * Bell D-246 *

Bell 400 TwinRanger The Bell 400 TwinRanger was a prototype four-bladed, twin-engine civil helicopter developed by Bell Helicopter in the 1980s. Both the TwinRanger and another planned version, the Bell 440, were attempts to market a twin-engine development of the ...

(1984), cancelled 206-derived light twin *

Bell D-292 The Bell D-292 was an American experimental helicopter developed by Bell Helicopters Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft ...

(1985),

Light Helicopter Experimental The Light Helicopter Experimental (LHX) program was a 1980s United States Army helicopter procurement project to replace the AH-1 Cobra and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters. Background In support of the LHX program, the United States Army started the Adv ...

(LHX) prototype * Bell 417 (2006) cancelled

Bell 407 The Bell 407 is a four-blade, single-engine, civil utility helicopter. A derivative of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger, the 407 uses the four-blade, soft-in-plane design rotor with composite hub developed for the United States Army's OH-58D Kiowa W ...

growth variant *

Bell FCX-001 The Bell FCX-001 is an American conceptual helicopter design proposed by Bell Helicopter. It was first presented to the public at Heli-Expo 2017 in Dallas on March 7, 2017.Vertical Online MagazinBell Helicopter unveils futuristic FCX-001 concept a ...

, March 2017 concept

Facilities

Bell manufacturing and support facilities are: ;Military *

- located at six manufacturing facilities throughout the DFW area; of these six the Manufacturing Technology Center (MTC) in Fort Worth, Texas serves as the primary manufacturing development facility of the Bell V-280 Valor, Bell 360 Invictus *

: located near

Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport is a public airport six miles (10 km) east of downtown Amarillo, in Potter County, Texas, United States. The airport was renamed in 2003 after NASA astronaut and Amarillo native Rick Husband, ...

; assembly plant for H1, V-22 and 525 ;Commercial *

: opened in 1983 and located next to Montreal-Mirabel International Airport; it produces components for Bell 429, 505 and 525; assembly plant for 505 and finally assembly for current commercial products for Canadian market

References

External links

*
Bell timeline at the Helicopter History SiteVideo history of Bell Helicopter
* {{Authority control Helicopter manufacturers of the United States Defense companies of the United States Helicopter manufacturers of Canada Manufacturing companies based in Fort Worth, Texas Textron Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1935 1935 establishments in New York (state) 1960 mergers and acquisitions