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."

FMI: www.bellagusta.com