Wanna See The B429 Fly?

[SimTech]

Tough crowd to please! From what I've been told and what I've seen, the cabin is flat floor, broom closet gone, no overhead panel, head clearance for helmets, completely new design on the rotor head and blades, new tailboom, composite tail rotor drive shaft, new PSI w/ Rogerson Krados, 10 out of 13 current MAPL components...

 

I thought for the first flight they took it beyond what a first flight should have been...kudos to the pilots! I'm stoked for it, heck any new rotorcraft for that matter...

[Some guy]

I've heard the stories of the A-Star being refered to as the falling star about as much as the JetRanger being refered to as a DeathRanger back when it was being developed, as with all new machines the bugs had to be worked out. Now the guidlines are far more demanding and there are safe and tested production models being introduced due to those necesary regulations. If bell produces it, we are likely to see a safe and reliable A/C...but me, I like eurocopter for their design and pilot comfort(not to mention the fact that forestry likes to fly in them...chaching $$$$$)

 

My 2 cents

 

cheers

 

SG

[Dewey]

Yes indeed Jeff, I have been employed by both the manufacturers. As far as the inner workings of the organizations, all I'll say is..........immediately sold all the EADS stock but still invest heavily in Textron.

[Iceman]

Yes its ugly almost as ugly as an Astar/Twinstar, whats with the Ec120 skid gear? Yuk!

[Fenestron]

that style of gear, which the 120 and 130 have used first, is a safety feature. It gives you protection from wires. No longer can a wire grab your skids and ruin your day. You don't need the extra added weight of lower wire strike kits.

When safety features are copied, I don't hold it against anyone. I applaud Bells approach regardless of whether they were first or last, as this case may be.

 

PS Dewey, did you take your windfall from selling EADS shares to buy those Textron shares?

[vortex]

Yup, it looked rather unstable in the hover............or the pilot had been drinking.

 

Kind of a poor showing for their A/C, especially if that video was their official release.

All prototype first time lift offs are done with the SCAS or SAS or whatever they use in the OFF position to ensure that the machine can be controlled in the event of that failure. If you've ever flown in a machine lifting off with that stuff not working you will sympathize with the pilot.

[47G]

Lots of comment on how unstable the first hover seemed to be. How many pilots have climbed into a ship for the very first time and picked it up into a dead stable hover as though you have been flying it for thousands of hours?? When you were actually the very first person in history to fly it?