DALLAS–Bell is proposing a dedicated instrument flight rules (IFR) variant of its Bell 505 Jet Ranger X single-engine light helicopter to meet an emerging U.S. Army need to refresh its rotary-wing training fleet.

The airframer will respond to an upcoming request for proposals (RFP) from industry–expected as early as April–with a “purpose-built” 505 for the Army’s Flight School Next initiative. It could go on to replace the service’s twin-engine UH-72 Lakota Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) currently used for rotary-wing training at the Army’s Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Novosel, Alabama.

Carl Coffman, vice president Military Sales and Strategy at Bell, told journalists on the eve of the rotorcraft industry’s gathering at the Vertical Aviation International’s (VAI) Verticon exhibition here on March 10 that the airframer would be “disruptive” with its solution. He said Bell would provide the Army with an “efficient, effective flight training model that capitalizes on advanced learning techniques, simulations and a purpose-built 505.”

Coffman said the aircraft would allow Army rotorcraft flight training to get back to basics by fostering proficient stick and rudder and tail rotor skills while familiarizing new aviators with advanced cockpits.

The Army launched its Flight School Next initiative last year due to concerns about the growing cost of operation and availability of the Lakota and concerns that learning on such a complex aircraft could be leading to a loss of basic flying skills.

Aviation Week reported late last month that U.S. Army officials had noted a series of trends in recent accidents involving a loss of tail rotor effectiveness/authority in which the pilots had not applied full left pedal to counter the torque when they had an issue. They believed this was because pilots had been trained that the Lakota would correct the issue for them.

Coffman said the Army was “very interested” in the Bell proposal because it got pilots back to the basics of “flying seat of the pants,” while the Garmin avionics system onboard would help pilots transition to a more advanced aircraft.

Coffman claims that pilots could be trained on the 505 for half the price of training them on the Lakota.

The Army has selected several industry partners for trial, in which small numbers of personnel will be taken through different training paths before returning to the service’s rotary-wing training school at Fort Novosel, Alabama. At that point, the Army will “compare the product that they deliver to what’s the current standard,” a service official said. But Bell will not participate in these early trials because it would preclude the company from taking part in the Flight School Next contest, in which participants might have an unfair advantage.

Bell 505s are becoming popular among international militaries for rotary-wing training, with the type already serving in Iraq, Jordan and South Korea. Bell is working on the IFR-capable 505 and aims to achieve FAA certification later this year. It will also offer the capability to the civil market. If selected, the aircraft would still be built at its commercial helicopter assembly plant at Mirabel in Canada, Coffman said. Previously when Bell had offered the Bell 407GXi for the U.S. Navy’s training needs, the company had proposed building the aircraft in Ozark, Alabama. “This is still a U.S. aircraft,” Coffman said. “It’s not just about where the aircraft’s final assembly takes place.”

The Lakota was introduced into the training role through the Army’s Aviation Restructuring Initiative. It concluded that the glass cockpit UH-72 would be best for student pilots to transition to the service’s operational fleet of AH-64 Apaches, UH-60 Black Hawks and CH- 47 Chinooks. Before the Lakota’s introduction, the Army had trained its pilots on the single-engine Bell TH-67 Creek, a variant of the Bell 206 Jet Ranger, the OH-58 Kiowa.

Robinson Helicopters has also said it plans to compete its R66 turbine light helicopter for the program.

“The RFP could go in a lot of different directions, but I think from everything that we hear, our product is the perfect platform for them,” Robinson CEO David Smith told Aviation Week in February. Aside from the R66’s lower baseline operating costs of around $410 per hour compared to around $5,000 per hour for the sophisticated twin, Smith added, “we are the most American-made product. We are the highest rate production product, and we are the most popular product for the light singles ... all these things are true.”

Written By: Tony Osborne

Published In: Aviation Week