Bell Textron Inc. is an American

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

headquartered in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

. A subsidiary of

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

, Bell manufactures military

rotorcraft A rotary-wing aircraft, rotorwing aircraft or rotorcraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotor wing, rotary wings that spin around a vertical mast to generate lift (force), lift. Part 1 (Definitions and Abbreviations) of Subchapter A of Chapt ...

at facilities in Fort Worth, and

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County, though most of the southern half of the city extends into Randall County, Texas, Randall County ...

, United States as well as commercial

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

s in

Mirabel, Quebec Mirabel () is a suburb of Montreal, located on the North Shore (Montreal), North Shore in southern Quebec. Mirabel is also the name of a Equivalent territory, territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) and Census geographic unit ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

History

Bell Aircraft

The company was founded on July 10, 1935, as Bell Aircraft Corporation by Lawrence Dale Bell in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

. 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 P-59 Airacomet, the first American jet fighter, the P-63 Kingcobra, 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 B ...

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. The Bell 30 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 heli ...

became the first helicopter in the world rated by a civil aviation authority, becoming a civilian and military success. Due to its burgeoning success, the helicopter division relocated as a separate unit to Hurst, Texas in 1951.

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 Bell Huey family, Huey family, as well as the first turb ...

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 aeroplane in 1907. The MV Agusta motorcycle manufacturer began as an offshoot ...

(

and Bell 206) and as a sublicence via Agusta with Westland (

). When the two European firms merged, the partnerships were retained, with the exception of the AB139, which is now known as the AW139. Bell and AW cooperated also on the AW609

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft that generates lift (force), lift and thrust, propulsion by way of one or more powered Helicopter rotor, rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shaft (mechanical engineering), shafts or nacelles ...

.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 printing ...

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

Product list

Established in 1986, its

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

Commercial helicopters

Gallery

File:heli.g-code.750pix.jpg, Bell 206B JetRanger III File:Navy-hh1n-158256-070327-09cr-10.jpg, Comparison of the Bell 212 (U.S. Navy HH-1N) and 412 (Mercy Air) at the Mojave Airport File:Bell 412EP Griffin HT1 of the RAF at RIAT 2010 arp.jpg, Bell 412EP Griffin HT1 helicopter of the UK Defence Helicopter Flying School File:Bell Nexus Air Taxi - 1.jpg, Bell Nexus ‘Air Taxi’ at Smithsonian in 2022 File:Bell Nexus Air Taxi - 2.jpg, Bell Nexus ‘Air Taxi’ at Smithsonian in 2022

Military helicopters

* Bell H-12 * Bell H-13 Sioux ** Bell XH-13F * Bell XH-15 * Bell HSL * Bell UH-1 Iroquois (or Huey) ** Bell Huey family **

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

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 Twin ...

* Bell YHO-4 * Bell 207 Sioux Scout – experimental attack helicopter * Bell 533 – experimental Huey variant with increased performance * Bell AH-1 Cobra * Bell AH-1 SeaCobra/SuperCobra * Bell 309 KingCobra - experimental attack helicopter * YAH-63/Model 409 – competitor with the YAH-64 for Advanced Attack Helicopter 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 20 ...

* H-1 upgrade program ** Bell UH-1Y Venom ** Bell AH-1Z Viper * Bell CH-146 Griffon * Bell ARH-70 Arapaho - cancelled armed reconnaissance helicopter * Bell 360 Invictus - proposed armed reconnaissance helicopter

Tiltrotors

* Bell XV-3 * Bell XV-15 * Bell Pointer * Bell V-247 Vigilant – currently in development * Bell V-280 Valor – currently in development, first flown 2017 *

V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport aircraft, military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed ...

– with Boeing BDS * TR918 Eagle Eye UAV * Quad TiltRotor – with Boeing BDS * Bell BAT (1984 tiltrotor project for LHX programme – not built) * Bell CTR-1900 (Tilt-rotor project only – not built) * Bell CTR-22 (Tilt-rotor project only – not built) * Bell CTR-750 (Tilt-rotor project only – not built) * Bell CTR-800 (Tilt-rotor project only – not built) * Bell D-326 (Clipper 1980 commercial tilt-rotor project – not built)

Projects produced by other companies

* AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter (formerly 50-50 as the Agusta-Bell AB139, now 100%

) * AgustaWestland AW609 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 var ...

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 (1984), cancelled 206-derived light twin * Bell D-292 (1985), Light Helicopter Experimental (LHX) prototype * Bell 417 (2006) cancelled Bell 407 growth variant * Bell FCX-001, 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; 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 407, 412, 429, 505 and 525; assembly plant and finally assembly for current commercial products (407, 412, 429, 505).

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