Bell 214ST testbed crashes, no injuries

During a test flight on 7 Aug 2012, a Bell 214 test aircraft reportedly lost tail rotor control... and possibly tail rotor components, landing in a field and rolling over after a wheel dug in to the soft ground.  The FAA preliminary accident report is here.

Of significance is that this aircraft was testing components (possibly the transmission) for the future Bell 525 relentless project.  It is more than likely that the suspected failure of the tail rotor components was unrelated to the incident, but it is impossible to know at this point.  The 525 is planned to have a five-bladed rotor design, and from the wreck pictures it appears that the 214, which normally flies with a two-bladed system, was equipped with a four-bladed system.  

Good job by the pilots in getting the aircraft down in one piece.  Since this was an instrumented test aircraft, I imagine the investigators and the engineers will have way more data than they will need to pinpoint the cause.  

The Bell 525 Debuts...

In a overblown theatrical production much like... a lot of other Bell helicopter product intros, Bell recently rolled out the mock up of their new "super-medium" class helicopter, the Bell 525 Relentless.  


Looking something like a cross between an AW139, 214ST, and a stretch S-76, the most shocking thing is that Bell appears to have gone with a clean sheet design, no small step for a company that seemingly begins designing new helicopters with old blueprints and erasers.  


16 seats!  18K Max Gross!  140 knots!  Five blades!  Fly-by-wire controls!  Garmin G5000 Avionics!  A big baggage compartment!  First flight still a couple years off... I hope many of these features survive to production.  


I am excited to see Bell moving forward with a new design, and I hope that they can move this project forward soon and build into it the hell-and-back reliability and unmatched product support that made Bell great in the first place.  


Still I remember the Bell 417, rapid and frequent Bell CEO changes, and other projects that just didn't make it, but I am still hopeful.  Maybe they learned a lot from their involvement in the AW139 (once the Agusta-BELL 139) and don't want to lose that segment of the market.  


Good luck to you, Bell.  Stay on schedule, and for heavens sake lose that ugly paint job on the prototype!