A NEW JET RANGER

Someone who knows about aviation especially that one of rotary wings, has already certainly heard, seen and probably flown in a Bell Jet Ranger. It is a mythic, iconic aircraft, developed in the early 1960’s, up to now renowned for its robustness and reliability. The machine was first delivered in 1966; it was a Bell 206A with an Alisson 250-C18 turbine that delivered only 318 SHP.

The assembly known as Jet Ranger has been developed over the years and has incorporated changes mainly in its turbine, providing more weight availability in the operations. Naturally, as market and technologies develop, new projects come to view. This way, the Jet Ranger program, in 1975, has originated its Long Ranger brother, capable of accommodating seven people on board (one pilot plus six passengers), equipped with an Allison 250-C20B improved turbine, already delivering 420 SHP.

X VERSION

Some decades later, the renowned 206 project, both Jet Ranger and Long Ranger, stopped being part of Bell Helicopter’s portfolio, until that, in March 2014, the manufacturer has launched the Bell 505 during Anaheim Heli-Expo, in California, nicknamed as Jet Ranger X. In practice, Textron group, owner of Bell, has presented a new helicopter, based on recently developed manufacturing technologies and formats together with extremely tested, robust and reliable assemblies. An important machine of a million and a half dollars.

I was present at the launch and I clearly remember being fairly curious