New Technology Eurocopter "Bluecopter"

[Hell Man]

You gotta hand it to EC ... they keep pushin to improve their equipment and expand their market share Building a silent helicopter - The News Chronicle (http://thenewschronicle.com/building-silent-helicopter/030103395/)

One wonder's where Bell went wrong in that by the late 70s they were in an ideal position to capture market dominance.

[Coconutty]

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/407174-silent-rotorblades.html

Will it be available as a retro fit ?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d129/coconut11/Coconutty.jpg

[Yellow & Blue Baron]

Bell kinda 'lost the plot' in the civilian market when they failed to anticipate that the 206 wasn't going to remain the best selling single year on year. Their reluctance to move away from the two bladed teetering system didn't help either and in general, Bell's complacency was demonstrated by an underwhelming lack of investment in civilian products.

Eurocopter took full advantage of this as demonstrated by their development of the Colibri which, at the time it was on the drawing board, Bell would most likely have scoffed at.

Bell also pulled out of quality projects such as the 139 and which left them with the 206 and Huey airframes (in their various forms) with miniscule improvements being added (aside from powerplants) over the years.

Having said this; let's see what Bell achieves with the 429! They'll probably get some comeback but ... Eurocopter's global marketing is now such a well oil machine and so heavily funded (comparitively) and their product range so extensive that it would be hard to imagine Bell taking the lead in the civilian market again.