Beyond Expectations

While it was originally created to manufacture the little-known and now-defunct Bell 400 model, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. has become an unexpected success story, and now is the heart of Bell commercial product line.

On Sept. 15, 1986, several hundred Bell Helicopter employees gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new manufacturing plant in Mirabel, Que. As the headquarters of Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. (BHTCL), the plant represented Canada first fully integrated domestic helicopter manufacturing capability. Twenty-five years and some 4,000 helicopters later, it remains the only one.

We are the only OEM [original equipment manufacturer] in Canada in the helicopter manufacturing business, said BHTCL president Barry Kohler. We really established that industrial capability from ground zero.

It hard to overstate the impact of BHTCL, which has played a pivotal role in the helicopter industry not only within Canada, but globally. Today, all of Bell Helicopter commercial aircraft are manufactured in Mirabel. Many were also designed and certified there, including the best-selling Bell 407 and the new Bell 429. In short, the activities at Mirabel have affected everyone who has had anything to do with Bell commercial product line over the past 25 years  which is most of the helicopter industry. Given that the division was originally established to manufacture a helicopter that never was, that no small achievement.

The story of BHTCL begins in the early 1980s, when the Canadian government set its sights on attracting a helicopter manufacturer as part of a push to strengthen the Canadian aerospace industry. Created in the form of a competition, the government offered various incentives for an OEM to establish a helicopter production line in Canada. In 1983, Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. (BHT), headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, was selected as one of two winners, and in 1985 broke ground on the site of its new manufacturing plant: a cornfield on the outskirts of Mirabel, some 40 kilometres northwest of Montreal.

By the time the 1986 ribbon-cutting rolled around, plans for the new plant had changed dramatically. Remember the Bell 400? Chances are you don’t, because production plans for this light-twin, four-bladed helicopter  which first flew in Fort Worth in June 1984  were scrapped when the global economy slumped and demand dropped for offshore oil and gas, a key market for the 400. Because BHTCL had been founded for the express purpose of manufacturing this model and its variants, Bell was forced to shift gears.

At the time, Cold War security concerns favoured the segregation of military and civilian production. In 1986, the suggestion was made to gradually move Bell commercial helicopter manufacturing lines to Quebec, thus separating them from the company military production lines in Texas, while also making full use of the brand-new manufacturing facilities constructed for BHTCL. The 206B JetRanger production line was the first to migrate north, soon followed by the 206L LongRanger, and a few months later the 212 and 412. About the time the 212 and 412 started production in Mirabel, BHTCL delivered its first aircraft, a 206B-3, to Turbo West of Colorado. 

In BHTCL first five years of operation, its four production lines yielded a total of 500 helicopter deliveries. The division, however, was destined for more than just assembly. As its parent company began to appreciate the resources and talent at Mirabel, BHTCL was given a much greater role in Bell overall civil aircraft engineering and certification. Today, it is the airframe design centre of excellence for BHT commercial program, playing a lead role in bringing new commercial helicopter models to market.

The first helicopter born, bred and certified in Mirabel was the Bell 230, which made its first flight in 1991. It was the first product to come out of the Model 222 improvement program that also yielded the four-bladed Bell 430 in 1996. 

Concurrently with the development of the 430, BHTCL, in collaboration with BHT Fort Worth team, developed the hugely popular Bell 407, which saw its first flight in June 1995. In the years since, this versatile, light, single-engine helicopter has become Bell bestseller, with a presence in almost every sector of the helicopter industry.

More recently, BHTCL collaborated in the further development of the 407 in the form of the 407GX and 407AH, models that were unveiled earlier this year at Heli-Expo 2011 in Orlando, Fla. (see p.20, Vertical, Apr-May 2011). Both new 407 variants will be produced at Mirabel. 

The 407GX  which Bell said would be priced at just over $2.79 million US  is projected to be available for delivery in the third quarter of 2011. It features a comprehensive suite of advanced cockpit technologies, including the Garmin G1000H all-glass avionics suite, Garmin HSVT (helicopter synthetic vision technology), an HTAWS (helicopter terrain awareness and warning system), and flight-data-monitoring capabilities for FOQA (flight operations quality assurance) programs. 

The GX is far and away the new, best-in-class, state-of-the-art glass cockpit for light helicopters, said BHTCL president Kohler. It changes the level of pilot capability in light helicopters. 

In an interview in February, Larry Roberts, BHT senior vice-president for commercial business, said the 407GX was created in response to general industry trends and a growing demand throughout the commercial sector for advanced cockpit technologies: I think most of what this industry is discussing that they’d like to see in their aircraft is available on the GX  as a baseline.

The 407AH, meanwhile, is a commercial, weaponized platform with an attractive price tag of around $5 million US, and is available right now. In contrast to the GX, the 407AH was driven by specific customer requests for a weaponized platform that could be brought to market quickly and economically  hence the decision to develop it as a commercial product rather than a military one (and, consequently, to manufacture it in Mirabel rather than Fort Worth). The 407AH can be equipped with a minigun and rockets, with countermeasures available as an option. Bell will be marketing the 407AH to a broad range of customers in military and law enforcement, from special forces units to homeland security departments around the world. Roberts suggested that its affordable price tag could even put it within reach of municipal law enforcement agencies.

The latest helicopter to be designed from scratch at Mirabel is, of course, the Bell 429, which was certified in 2009. (Although it a wholly new model, it draws on some of the technologies and lessons learned from the Bell 427, another product developed by BHTCL.) While various delays meant the 429 was late to arrive on the market, it is now in full production and being delivered to customers across a range of sectors, including such key markets as corporate, law enforcement, offshore oil and gas, and air medical. We’re putting our customers into an awful lot of successful missions, remarked Kohler. We’re extremely proud of the 429.

However, despite Bell enthusiasm for the 429 and the sales it has garnered, market reception has not been universally positive; some operators have expressed concerns about its performance. In an interview earlier this year, Roberts described the 429 out-of-the box performance as extremely good, but added, We continue to do what we can to improve useful load. (See p.52, Vertical, Aug-Sept 2009, for a full flight test.)

In July, Kohler said that, with respect to the 429 and other models, the company has a couple of things on the drawing board to make sure it providing the performance our customers want now and in the future.

Overall, BHTCL product development has been aided by its strong relationships with the Canadian and Quebec governments, which provide funding for these advancements in the form of investment loans. In return, Canadian citizens reap direct benefits from the success of the resulting products, and indirect benefits from a generally strengthened aerospace industry. A side benefit for Bell is a strong relationship with the country certifying body, Transport Canada.  Said Kohler: We’ve really established a great government-industry partnership.

Although Mirabel primary service to its parent company has been in the commercial market, it also developed and manufactured the military 412CF, which was selected by the Canadian Forces in 1992 as its utility transport tactical helicopter. The 412CF, designated by the military as the CH-146 Griffon, is a modified version of the 412HP. In all, the Canadian Forces ordered 100 Griffons during the 1990s; they served in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions around the globe. In recent years, the Griffons underwent additional modifications so they could serve in a combat capacity in Afghanistan, where they proved to be surprisingly versatile and capable (see p.14, Vertical, Canadian Combat Helicopters in Afghanistan 2010).

Since Bell was first awarded the contract for the CH-146, it has provided the Canadian Forces with technical support, parts, and repair and overhaul services for the aircraft. This longstanding support relationship culminated last year when Bell Helicopter was awarded a 10-year, $640 million Cdn support services contract for the Griffon fleet. Known as the CH146 optimized weapon system support (OWSS) contract, it combines three existing contracts for engineering support, repair and overhaul support, and supply support.

Under the new OWSS contract, Bell will assume greater responsibility for managing the CH146 program, including increased airworthiness responsibility, responsibility for selected first- and second-line maintenance activities, and increased material support management. The initial contract will be followed by four one-year options, to be exercised at the Canadian government discretion. If exercised, the four options would bring the total possible contract value to $935 million.

In my mind, that is just recognition that the DND [Canadian Department of National Defence] realizes the value we bring to the table, said Kohler. It essentially one-stop shopping. They fly, we make sure they keep flying.

The execution of the OWSS contract will of course occur out of BHTCL Mirabel facility, but its Canadian supply centre in Calgary, Alta., will play a large role, too. Since that new facility was inaugurated in July 2008, Calgary has played an increasingly important role in BHTCL operations, particularly as it has strove to improve its support and services to Western Canadian operators. In general, said Kohler, We’re placing a much greater focus on our Canadian operators.

In fact, last year BHTCL partnered with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Calgary to provide maintenance courses equivalent to those offered at the highly regarded Bell Training Academy in Fort Worth. The initial courses were all to be high-need classes for Bell operators in Western Canada. The important thing is to bring the training as close to them as possible, said Kohler, referring to Bell realization that Canada was not only a growing market, but also that travelling to Texas for training was becoming even more difficult. 

The future of BHTCL is of course closely linked to the future of Bell Helicopter Textron in general. During the economic downturn, the company witnessed a slump in commercial production that resulted in a significant number of layoffs at Mirabel. However, Kohler said that new BHT chief executive officer John Garrison is very focused on revitalizing the company commercial business. Earlier this year, Garrison announced a 50 per cent increase in research and development spending, which bodes well for BHTCL. Kohler said that because of this increased R&D and a ramp-up in production, We’re selectively increasing our workforce to meet demand. (BHTCL currently has around 1,850 employees at Mirabel, plus another 30 employees in Calgary and nearly a dozen service representatives in the field. As an aside, almost 100 of these employees have been with BHTCL since its founding.)

What that increased R&D spending is focused on, however, remains somewhat of a mystery: We’re going to talk about what we have done and not what we’re going to do, stated Garrison in an interview earlier this year, referring to only talking about completed projects, not those in progress. It is known, though, that major R&D projects are in the works  in January, Bell issued an internal memorandum to employees announcing the launch of Magellan, an official program tasked with bringing a new product to the marketplace in response to our future customer needs. 

While Magellan remains shrouded in secrecy, The things we’re looking at will serve our customers well, promised Kohler. From a customer standpoint, we’re revitalizing our commercial business and a big part of that is to make their missions successful.

In the meantime, BHTCL will be celebrating a tangible milestone this fall with the delivery of its 4,000th aircraft  a testament to the commitment of its employees and government partners. Twenty-five years after BHTCL opened the doors to its manufacturing plant, it has become a tremendous presence in the Mirabel community, the Canadian aerospace industry and the helicopter industry at large. It a tradition of excellence that Bell Helicopter Textron Canada Ltd. fully expects will continue through its 50th anniversary and beyond.