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Old 12th Nov 2003, 06:17
  #72 (permalink)  
407 Driver
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Chilliwack, BC Canada
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This is all "old news" from 2002, but here is a picture and a press release from HAI 2002...




.....Bell is cautiously floating a new growth edition of its venerable JetRanger. Borrowing a term from the automotive industry, Bell is calling the so-called JRX a “concept” copter and releasing little information on it, other than an artist’s conception. Basically a beefier JetRanger with wider cabin, lavish cockpit, cabin glazing and presumably an extra passenger seat or two, the JRX will be the subject of extensive talks with possible users for the next year or so, with a possible production decision pondered by either year’s end or next year’s Heli-Expo.

....Details, also, of a new wider, bigger, four-bladed JetRanger derivative, known so far as the “JRX,” are also expected. Should the program be greenlighted, it would be the first new civil helo program from a major manufacturer since Bell and program partner Agusta revealed plans to develop its AgustaBell AB 139 medium twin three years ago. (The AB 139 program, by the way, is doing well, headed toward year-end certification and present here in both VIP and utility mockup form.)

Preliminary reports and artist’s conceptions portray the JRX to be a bubble-faced stretched JetRanger, an airframe expanded in much the same way as Eurocopter’s EC130, introduced with a maximum of fanfare at last year’s Heli-Expo show in Anaheim. Target market for the EC130 was the air tour market; as to Bell’s target market, only the details from this morning’s press conference will tell.
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