The Bell 505 Jet Ranger X light helicopter has racked up more than 50,000 flight hours since it entered into service at the beginning of 2017.
More than 260 Bell 505s are operating a variety of missions across six continents and 55 countries, said Bell Textron.
Notable deliveries this year have included Southern Utah University, Centaurium and public safety configured Bell 505s to Leon County and Alameda County.
“Operators around the world continue to compliment the aircraft performance and value in adding a Bell 505 to their daily operations,” said Eric Sinusas, programme director, Light Aircraft, Bell.
“This milestone represents the platform’s global growth and adoption as it enables operators to complete dynamic missions at an affordable cost.”
One operator based in Italy, Elicompany, flies the Bell 505 nearly 1,000 flight hours per year, mostly on private transfers and sight-seeing flights.
“Another thing to look at is the reliability of the helicopter,” said Cristian Forghieri co-owner of Elicompany, and flight operations director.
“We’ve experienced very low maintenance and essentially no time grounded. We’ve logged an excess of 1,100 hours to date. We are really happy because when we plan it, the Bell 505 can do it.”
With a speed of 125 knots (232 km/h) and useful load of 1,500 pounds (680 kg), the Bell is powered by a dual channel FADEC Safran Arrius 2R engine.
