With the first flight of the Bell 525 Relentless approaching this spring, Vertical caught up with Larry Thimmesch, Bell Helicopter vice president of the 525 program, at Helicopter Association International’s Heli-Expo 2015 in Orlando, Fla., for an update on the program’s progress over the past year.
“We’re getting very close to first flight, we’re going to be flying this spring, so it’s getting very exciting for the team,” said Thimmesch.
The aircraft, which is the largest commercial helicopter Bell has ever produced, was presented at Heli-Expo 2015 in an oil-and-gas configuration. Bell is aiming to have both oil-and-gas and search-and-rescue kit configurations available for customers by the time the aircraft is type certified.
“There are five total aircraft in the flight test program, the first three will go through envelope expansion, systems testing, and the last two will certify a lot of the kits that we want to have ready at type certification,” said Thimmesch “So [there’s] a lot of activity on the program, Bell’s very committed to it, things are coming together very well, and we’re very excited for first flight.”
For more details on Bell’s progress on the Bell 525 Relentless program, watch the video above.
