The eagle-eyed among  you will have noticed that every Bell image of a Bell 429 with skids has a legal notice across the bottom of it, saying

“Le Bell 429 est seulement disponible avec train d’atterrissage à roues en France” (example image)

This literally translates as “The Bell 429 is only available with wheeled undercarriage in France” – and aside from the two possible meanings in English of that translation, the situation is that customers in France are only able to buy the 429WLG and not the standard skid version.

Here’s what Bell told us “The Paris Court of Appeal issued an opinion this year reversing the decision by the Paris trial court issued in October 2012, which had ruled that the Bell 429 production skid gear does not infringe Eurocopter’s French landing skid gear patent. Therefore, at this time the Bell 429 with skid gear cannot be sold or marketed in France or French overseas departments and territories and as a legal precaution we include the disclaimer below to all photos of the Bell 429 with skid gear. We are studying the decision and assessing the impact it may have to Bell 429 operations within France. Our first concern, is for our customers in France so we are working closely with them to determine solutions that will best meet their needs. We are continuing to deliver the Bell 429 to countries outside of France without interruption and we are continuing to vigorously defend the production gear in France.”

So, it’s a “legal precaution”.  At the recent Helitech exhibition, Bell displayed a French registered 429 with skids not the WLG Wheeled Landing Gear variant as you may expect.  Below is the graphic we put together when the 429 skid issue first became a big story back in 2011/2

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com