Bell Helicopter has flown its 505 Jet Ranger X for the first time, the company announced this week. “The Bell 505 performed exactly as anticipated today,” Yann Lavalle, senior flight test pilot for the company, said on Monday. The 30-minute flight, at the company’s facility in Mirabel, Quebec, comprised two laps around the pattern, a hover check, and a low-speed controllability assessment. Top speed was 60 knots. The aircraft is a clean-sheet turbine design with seats for five, designed to be easy and safe to fly and competitively priced for its category. The multi-mission helicopter can fly up to 360 nm at a cruise speed up to 125 knots, according to Bell.
The Bell 505 also features a Garmin G1000H integrated avionics suite and a Turbomeca Arrius 2R engine with FADEC. It’s driven by a high-inertia rotor system, which the company says will deliver superior autorotation capabilities. It was first publicly introduced at Heli-Expo in Anaheim, California, in February. The aircraft sells for about $1.3 million.
