2005 was a great year
for Bell Helicopter. Numbers were up for both commercial and
military sales orders and deliveries and backlog has increased
significantly.
"The increasing demand for vertical lift technology continued in
2005 and Bell Helicopter is meeting this demand with our large and
diverse product portfolio," explained Bell Helicopter Senior Vice
President of Marketing and Sales, Bob Fitzpatrick.
"We expect the growing sales trends to continue in
2006."
Product improvements, continued superior customer support and
service coupled with an improving economic picture and increasing
world demand all combined to provide for a busy year at Bell
Helicopter and an annual revenue of $2.1 billion.
"2005 was a devastating year with respect to natural disasters.
Hundreds of thousands of lives were, and remain impacted by these
tragic global events," Fitzpatrick explained. "From the Asian
Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina to the Earthquake in Pakistan, this
year clearly showed the global importance of vertical lift
capability."
Bell Helicopter experienced a 21% increase in new aircraft
deliveries in the commercial and foreign military segment. In
foreign military alone, deliveries increased to 35 aircraft in
2005, up from 26 in 2004. The difference was primarily due to the
tripling of Huey II kits deliveries from 2004.
US Military delivery numbers were led by an increase in 2005 of
the 19 V-22 Ospreys successfully delivered to the customer versus
12 in 2005. Additionally, we delivered 22 OH-58 safety
enhancement program (SEP) aircraft to our US Army customer.
Showing a marked
increase in 2005, Bell Helicopter took orders for a total of 402
aircraft with increases across the spectrum of Bell's product line.
These orders led to a significant increase in Bell's backlog over
previous years with the current value of $2.8 billion. In addition
to new aircraft deliveries, Bell also sold 16 used aircraft in
2005.
"While we are very pleased with our sales performance this year,
we are even more pleased that our customers have recognized Bell
once again as the best in the industry when it comes to supporting
them," Fitzpatrick said. Bell Helicopter was recently named #1 in
Customer Support by Pro Pilot Magazine for the 12th straight
year.
"We enjoy the successes we do because we have the best customers
in the world." Aircraft delivery breakdown by aircraft is reflected
in the following chart.
New Aircraft Deliveries-
Commercial
|
Foreign Military
Deliveries
|
206B-3 |
10 |
206B |
6
|
206L-4 |
41 |
412
|
12 |
407 |
10 |
Total |
18 |
427 |
22 |
|
|
430 |
5 |
US Military
|
|
412 |
17 |
V-22 |
19 |
|
|
OH-58 SEP |
22 |
Total |
105 |
Total |
41 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Huey II Kits (Foreign)
Huey II Kits (Domestic) |
17
1 |