New BELL 429 tests in Lake Havasu City

Residents of Lake Havasu City may have noticed an impressive fire-engine red helicopter hovering in the skies. It’ll be up there for two more weeks as part of “high temperature testing” Working out of D-2 Aero, a team of testers, including two pilots, are spending their time working out any possible kinks in the development of the Bell 429 chopper. The 429 team has set or "frozen" the final exterior profile design, verified through months of development flight testing. Since the introduction of the 429, a light twin-engine helicopter, at the Heli-Expo in 2005, two prototypes have accumulated over 400 hours of rigorous flight testing. Besides the one in Lake Havasu, the other is in Colorado performing high altitude testing. Robert Fitzpatrick, Sr., Vice President for Marketing and Sales said, "This is one of the most significant events in the development of an aircraft. This means our design meets the aesthetic and in-flight handling specifications we set long ago. These are specifications we promised we would deliver to our customers. This moves us much closer to our certification and beginning delivery goal of the end of 2008."So far, Bell has received over 240 customer purchase agreements for the Bell 429. With first delivery slated to occur at the end of 2008, Bell plans to ramp production to 60 aircraft per year by 2011. Thierry Hingray, the test director in Lake Havasu told TSN it is “particularly suited for emergency medical evacuation missions.” It has a large cabin, easy access doors and a rear-door entry option. Also, law enforcement agencies have found that the 429 will efficiently carry the people and equipment necessary for their vital missions. Hingray says “it has huge cargo space for the weight of the aircraft. and his team have been in Arizona for about six weeks