Bell Helicopter reported that their
412 medium twin-engine helicopter recently surpassed the 3.1
million flight hour milestone. The Bell 412 was recently offered to
fulfill the US Army's requirement for a new Light Utility
Helicopter, or LUH.
"This is a tremendous accomplishment for the Bell 412 and our
base of customers who are successfully operating the 412 in more
than 40 countries around the world," said Bob Fitzpatrick, senior
vice president of Marketing and Sales for Bell Helicopter.
"This record of 3.1 million flight hours flown with proven
reliability, maintainability and performance is exactly why we
proposed the 412 to be the Army's next LUH."
Bell Helicopter has a six-decade history of providing the US
Military with reliable, high value-to-cost aircraft. From the
venerable UH-1 to the currently serving, combat proven UH-1N, AH-1W
and the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, Bell Helicopter continues to enable
America's military to successfully perform their critical missions
all over the world.
"Like America's soldiers, the Bell 412 gets up and goes to work
every single day, all over the world," said Mike Miller, Executive
Director of Army and Air Force Business Development for Bell
Helicopter "And also like our soldiers, the Bell 412 is a proven
performer."
The Army's new LUH will support a variety of missions such as
personnel and equipment transport, force protection and security,
MEDEVAC, disaster relief, homeland security and counter-drug
operations to name just a few.
"The Bell 412 is performing LUH type missions today with
tremendous success," Miller said.
"Nearly 30 countries currently employ the 412, as well as Bell's
award winning logistics support network, to successfully accomplish
the same military missions the Army LUH will perform."
The Canadian Forces currently operate 83 Bell 412 aircraft with
a mission reliability rate of 95.7%. The British Army currently
operates 15 Bell 412EPs with a mission reliability rate of 98.2%.
And the Royal Norwegian Air Force operates 18 412SPs and recently
boasted that the RNoAF's 412SP helicopter fleet has not experienced
any failures that resulted in a mission cancellation.
"We are extremely proud of the reliability, availability and
maintainability record of our Bell 412," Miller said. "So when we
say that the 412 LUH is ready and able to fulfill the Army's LUH
role, we can cite 3.1 million flight hours and the superb
availability record of our 740-strong world-wide commercial and
military 412 customer fleet."
The FAA-certified Bell 412EP meets all the requirements listed
in the Army's request for proposal. And in many cases, Bell's LUH
exceeds the requirements including endurance, airspeed, range, lift
requirements, growth capacity, mission reliability, operational
availability and more.
"In the Bell LUH, we are offering the Army a reliable, proven
helicopter, as well as Bell's award winning product support,
customer service and training." Miller said. "For eleven years our
customer support and logistics networks have been named the best in
the industry... there is no learning curve for us...we know how to
support our customers through the life of their aircraft."
"With a 412 fleet 740 helicopter strong, 3.1 million flight
hours, and a customer support network rated #1 for 11 years, Bell
Helicopter is ready to provide our Army with their next LUH," said
Fitzpatrick.