Bell’s Fort Worth headquarters, situated on Highway 10, celebrate their 65^th anniversary this year. To commemorate this occasion, Fort Worth and its 4 100 employees received a new commercial helicopter, expanded their training centre and purchased a tilt-rotor drone. This make over comes to a cost of $235 million, despite the challenging economic times.

Bell has taken a down turn in military orders for its V-22 aircrafts and coupled with the current drop in oil prices, has had limited sales in commercial helicopters. Star Telegram reports that Bell has had to let go 1 100 people last year and even offered voluntary early retirement. Another setback for the company was when their 525 Relentless prototype crashed and killed two test pilots.

In terms of new prospects, Bell looks forward to flight tests for their new V-280 Valor and to purchasing a new 505 Jet Ranger.