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.

FMI: www.bellheli.com