Originally Posted by FH1100 Pilot
Perhaps Bell will say, "You know, we really had a good thing going with that dang ol' JetRanger B. Maybe if we pooch the cabin out like we did with the 407 and let them non-union Coonasses over in Louisiana build the thing we can keep the cost down to $1million or so, whaddyathink? I mean, Christ, the tooling is paid-for a thousand times over! And that JetRanger is STILL a sexy beast, you know?"
Interesting idea. Unlikely, though it
is worth remembering that after the cancellation of the
417 in 2007, Bell was still able to transition a significant portion of the LOIs over to the 407. Bell already has new jigs in place for the 206 cabin, having recently secured a
$61M contract to complete 12 new KW fuselages for the ASH PO. And, as already noted by
HeliHub, Bell
is reusing the same JRX branding as originally planned for a previous 'sexy JetRanger.'
(Talking of which, what's with this use of space-infused "Jet Ranger" name for the 505? Is
JetRanger just too passé?)
Re: the 171 LOIs, it'll be interesting to find out how many of these (if any) are 'forced' sales to distributors. When the R66 was launched, Robinson very cleverly mandated that any firms wanting to become a dealer for the type had to order an aircraft, which helped to rapidly build-up the order book and hence reinforce buyer confidence in the type (
"Look how fast it's selling...it must be good!").
Wouldn't put much stock in the local market for the law enforcement variant though: with 338 OH-58Ds and 184 TH-67s likely to hit the mil surplus market
in the coming years, new aircraft sales to parapublic operators are going to be hard to come by.
I/C