Bell 429 First Deliveries This Month

[MMike]

N911ED was Mercy Air's triple duce, an Air Methods ship, wonder if they're replacing it with a 429.

 

 

Interesting.....that would make sense....

 

 

As for endorsements (and I'm asking out of ignorance), isn't it a little early for others to be offering endorsements? The ink is barely dry on the type certificate. (Yes...they use really crappy ink that takes nearly two months to dry....)

[Mark_]

429 walkaround and engine start from cockpit.

 

[widgeon]

Cool why are the TRB's not equal spaced.

 

 

[justfly]

Cool why are the TRB's not equal spaced.

acoustics - to reduce noise

Since the acoustic frequencies associated with the rotating blades are directly related to the blade spacing, intuitively the use of unevenly spaced blades holds the potential of lower sound levels and less perceptibility. The acoustic effect of uneven or modulated blade spacing is to generate several blade-passage frequencies, one for each unique angle between blades. Each blade passage frequency, in turn, generates its own set of harmonics. The total acoustic energy is thereby spread over a broader range of frequencies, rather than being concentrated at one blade-passage frequency and a single set of harmonics.

[widgeon]

Thanks , I had seen similar dissymetry on fenestron but thought that with only 4 blades on a conventional TRB it would have caused some issues . What would be the advantages / drawbacks of having the main blades similarly unsymetrical ?.

 

[Freefall]

I think it reduces performance and with a main rotor system it can't be afforded. There are many military machines with the tail rotors like the 429 though like the apache, the new little bird, the tiger, the havoc and I'm sure others.

[MMike]

Actually....it you want to be TECHNICAL about it....

 

It's actually TWO, two bladed tail rotors stacked up. ....if you want to get technical about it...

[widgeon]

At least he main rotor head looks like a new design, i will try and get a closer look next one we deliver.

 

 

[C-FXFX]

Wonder if the wind shield are bird resistant glass or simply plastic?

 

Guy

[Winnie]

Ray Prouty called it a 'non-othogonical' tail rotor... That was when he was discussing the Apache and some of the MD-500 models...

 

Cheers

H.