Bell 609

Flight Journal, Aug 2003 by Miller, Jay

The Bell/Agusta Aerospace Co. BA 609 commercial tilt-rotor joint venture represents the hope and future of Bell Helicopter Textron's commercial thrust in the 21st century. It's now well into preliminary flight-tests at the company's Municipal Airport Plant 6 just south of Arlington, Texas.

Built of state-of-the-art composites and powered by two cross-shaft Pratt & Whitney PT6C-67A turbine engines rated at 2,440-shaft-horse-power each, the BA 609 will accommodate six to nine passengers and two crew.

The BA 609 combines vertical-takeoff-and-landing capability with the level-flight speeds of a conventional, fixed-wing, turbine-powered airplane. It is designed to cruise at 270 knots at a maximum altitude of 25,000 feet and has a range of 700 nautical miles (no reserve). Sticker prices will be between $10 and $15 million, depending on interior accouterments and instrumentation.

On March 7, 2003, company test pilots Roy Hopkins (pilot) and Dwayne Williams (copilot) first flew the BA 609 for 36 minutes. Four days later, a successful 90-minute flight started with a lengthy hover at approximately 50 feet and covered the length of Arlington airport's runway; the BA 609 was maneuvered through much of its hover-mode envelope. On its third and fourth flights on March 21, Bell representatives noted that the BA 609 was flown 15 miles south of Arlington airport for a lengthy series of flight-control and stability tests over an unpopulated area.

Flight tests are limited to 10 hours-all in the helicopter/conversion mode. When flight tests have been completed, the aircraft will be grounded so that the extensive functional tests that were deferred to get flight-test operations under way may be conducted. These will include pressurization-system and airplane-mode control-system tests. The BA 609 is not scheduled for a vertical takeoff and transition to horizontal flight-mode test until the second round of test flights during the first quarter of 2004.

N609TR is the first of four pre-production series BA 609 prototypes scheduled to be test-flown during the next two years. Bell and Agusta hope for FAA certification in 2007 so that the first aircraft can be delivered to customers shortly thereafter. According to Bell, as I write this, 70 are on order.