Bell have announced that they will Helicopter will showcase the Bell 407GXP at Farnborough Air Show, which opens next Monday in the UK.  The aircraft was shown this last weekend at Heli UK Expo, and is pending delivery to Topflight Helicopters – an order announced earlier this year at the HAI Heli Expo in Louisville.  It is currently flying on an FAA “N” registration and will no doubt move across to the British G register in the near future.

In addition to the 407GXP, Bell will display the Bell 429 with an example owned by a customer in Poland.  Alongside these, will bemockups of the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, Bell 525 Relentless and Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor.

Finally, the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is scheduled to perform daily flight demonstrations.  Such flights are being significantly limited this year following the fatal crash of a warbird jet during a display at Shoreham in August 2015. All UK air displays now have significantly more safety requirements and cost implications, and have resulted in a number of events being closed or displays being curtailed – for example, the very famous British aerobatic team The Red Arrows will not be doing much more than a flypast at Farnborough.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com