Mon, Feb 10, 2003
Flight Testing Scheduled For April
The Bell/Agusta BA-609, a civilian-market tilt-rotor aircraft,
completed ground testing at Arlington Municipal Airport (TX) last
week. Flight testing is tentatively scheduled from Arlington in
April.
Barbour: "Nothing Broke"
"We had scheduled 50 hours for the taxi-test and the ground
checks," said Don Barbour, Bell/Augusta's Marketing Director. "We
finished everything in 32 hours. Nothing broke."
The BA-609 is a simpler civilian version of the V-22 Osprey,
although Barbour says that's stretching it a little bit. "The
BA-609 is like a car. The V-22 is like an Abrams M-1 tank. You can
say they're both vehicles, but that's about as far as the
comparison goes." The BA-609 was tested in the same stall used to
test the V-22. But without the folding wings and the complex
military avionics of the V-22 Osprey, the BA-609 has, according to
Barbour, virtually sailed through the R&D process.
Certification in 2007... But What About The Price?
Bell/Agusta expects the BA-609, a six to nine passenger
aircraft, to be certified by the FAA in 2007 with first deliveries
to begin immediately following. Right now, B/A has 70 orders for
the BA609 from 40 customers in 18 countries.
Bell/Agusta will produce a total of four prototype tiltrotor
aircraft for flight-testing. Final assembly for production
aircraft will take place at Bell's Amarillo, Texas, facility with
another assembly line to be established at the Agusta plant in
Italy. Fuji Heavy Industries of Japan has the contract to
build all of the production fuselages for the BA-609. All parts and
components for both lines will come from the exact same source
yielding aircraft that will be identical whether assembled in Italy
or Texas.
Six years after taking the first orders at approximately $10
million per aircraft, Bell has yet to set the final pricing for the
BA-609. "We ask for a $150,000 deposit with each order," said
Barbour from the B/A booth at Heli-Expo 2003, in Dallas (TX). "We
promise to set final pricing within 25 months of delivery. If
customers feel the price isn't right, we'll gladly refund their
entire deposit."
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