On the Record with MIKE REDENBAUGH, CEO, BELL HELICOPTER
TEXTRON
New Bell Boss: Upgrades & Modular Line
Upgrades to existing helicopters and an all-new, high-commonality,
three-bird line by the end of the decade are cornerstones of a new
strategy laid down by Mike Redenbaugh, the Honeywell propulsion
veteran who took the CEO slot at Bell Helicopter Textron this past
spring.
"One of the things I brought is a strong focus on our installed
base," Redenbaugh told Show News on the eve of NBAA. "The
strategy at the high level is to recognize that more has to be done
in existing products," he says. Existing product spending is
being increased by 40%.
"The existing customers are going to be the ones we have in
the future." With more than 30,000 helicopters built, the firm
has "a very loyal and supportive customer base."
Bell's near-term plans include specific improvements to aircraft
including the Bell 206, 412 and 407 (see box). For the medium turn,
Redenbaugh notes that the AB139 medium twin, built in league with
Italy's Agusta, has gotten its Italian certification, and that U.S.
FAA certification, and deliveries, are to begin next year. The first
delivery, to Italian operator Elilario, is to take place late this
year.
For the longer term, Bell sees the BA609 tiltrotor, also a product
of Bell/Agusta collaboration, as changing the way many operators
do business. Redenbaugh expects both civil sales and military variants
of the BA609, which flew for the first time this past March. Certification
is expected in 2007.
Bell also has a program dubbed MAPLE, for Modular Affordable Product
Line, that Redenbaugh expects to result in three all-new helicopters,
with a common cockpit/avionics, tail boom, skid assembly and, except
for size, a common fuselage.
First will come a light single, followed by a light twin and a
medium single, "all certified to meet the corporate requirement."
"Bell recognizes that there's new technology and new approaches
to designing aircraft," Redenbaugh says. "Modularity is
a good thing to incorporate at the get-go of a design." The
result will be "higher productivity and lower overall operating
costs across the family of aircraft."
"If it plays out the way it's going now, the idea would be
to certify this aircraft before the end of the decade."
A Slew of Incremental
Improvements
Bell Helicopter has identified a raft of improvements - retrofits,
mods and upgrades, or RMUs - to be made to its existing helicopter
line, including:
an increase in the payload of the Bell 206, of
which there are some 6,000 in service, by 100 pounds, primarily
through flight manual changes and the installation of modified
cockpit gauges;
a 200-pound, or one-passenger payload boost to the Bell
412 by increasing the use of composites in parts like engine
doors, chemical milling the skid tubes, and by eliminating
mounting points and avionics boxes for now-obsolete hardware;
and
addition of night-vision goggle capability and 40 other
RMUs for the Bell 407, including longer maintenance intervals,
mainly to reduce operating costs. The changes are fruit
of a customer survey that yielded suggestions for 57 improvements
to the 407; the remaining 16 are under study going into
NBAA 2003.
