Bell 525 crash info
NTSB investigators say the first prototype Bell 525 helicopter broke up in flight before crashing on July 6. In a short preliminary report released Aug. 4, the NTSB said the aircraft—called FTV1 and registered N525TA—was flying a developmental flight test sortie when it broke up and crashed near the town of Italy, Texas, 30 mi. south of Bell’s Arlington, Texas, test base from where the helicopter had originated. Both test pilots onboard were killed. Several media reports have suggested that the main rotor blades of the helicopter struck the aircraft’s nose and sliced off the tail boom during high-speed flight testing. This may explain why the helicopter’s tail boom was found several hundred feet away from the rest of the wreckage. Reports suggest that the aircraft was performing high-speed, single-engine inoperative testing at the time of the crash. The NTSB investigation will benefit from significant amounts of telemetry data being collected by the test instrumentation onboard the aircraft, as well as crew observations by the pilots of a Bell 429 helicopter acting as a chase aircraft. The loss of FTV1 has been a significant setback for the 525 program as the company pushes to bring the first commercial fly-by-wire helicopter into service. FTV1 had been used for initial evaluations of performance and flight envelope expansion work and was later joined by two more prototypes. Textron CEO Scott Donnelly told investors in late July that it was unclear when the company would resume flight testing, as well as the length of delay to certification or first deliveries. “We do remain committed to the Bell 525 program and we’ll work to ensure the aircraft will be a safe, reliable and high-performance helicopter,” Donnelly said.