PANEWS
That a so called JAR 27 airframe comes into the arena weighing so over the JAR 27 specs that we here are asking questions as to whether it is not actually a JAR 29 - that sort of underlines the problem Bell face.
The question isn't whether the 429 is actually a JAR 29 because it isn't. The question should be, as Shawn Coyle points out, why the limit at 7000lbs for JAR 27? What advantage/disadvantage in safety is delineated at 7000 lbs? Shouldn't passenger count be the driving factor to determine 27/29 airframes? While this may provide an opportunity to poke Bell in the eye have you asked yourself what advantages opening up the 27 limit to 7500 or even 8000 lbs might provide us as a community in improved aircraft and performance capabilities? Perhaps that's the real story here, why the authorities are so hard over on 7000 lbs for helicopters but are willing to have a wide range of weights for similar fixed wing. Maybe it's time the regs change to catch up with the fixed wing world?