Bell 429 First Flight

[Mike Reyno]

Here's a great video of the first flight of the 429 at Mirabel at the end of Feb.

 

 

Bell 429 first flight video

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7priSgMfolk

[widgeon]

Kewl , had not noticed the EC120 style skids before.

[Jan Pluemer]

Here is a great picture showing the 429 C-GBLL at CYXU:

 

www.airliners.net/open.file/1270301/L/

 

Great looking machine, though! Can´t wait to see some of them flying in Europe

[Guest Aggroeitch]

Great looking machine, though!

Yeah, nicely copied from the current Eurocopter models (135/145). Minus the tailrotor of course, which is copied from the.... some 1970's design?? Maybe better to leave it there (i don't know the technical details, just looking at the shape of it)....

 

Seriously, i really hope Bell will succeed this time. Another failure after 417 and 210 would be a nightmare for them. It doesn't help much that the customer support is the best in the world if they can't develop competitive products for the market.

 

It's time to get some serious competition for Eurocopter.

[MrMike]

OOOOOH thats nice!

 

I just had a birthday if any one feels like hooking me up with one, I'll take good care of it I swear!

 

Mike

[Jan Pluemer]

Seriously, i really hope Bell will succeed this time. Another failure after 417 and 210 would be a nightmare for them. It doesn't help much that the customer support is the best in the world if they can't develop competitive products for the market.

 

Aggroeitch,

you are probably right, but already having >200 orders for the 429 speak for itself. Nevertheless it´s still up to Bell to continue successful developing/testing - phases.

 

Jan