Work continues on the Bell/Agusta Aerospace BA609 civil tiltrotor program, with more than 100 people dedicated by both Bell Helicopter and AgustaWestland to ongoing flight test and certification tasks. FAA certification is now planned for 2012, according to a Bell spokesman, and the two flight test BA609s–one based at Bell facilities in Texas and one at AgustaWestland in Italy–have logged more than 400 hours. Two additional test BA609s are under construction and should enter the flight test program in 2010, the spokesman said.
Typically, early flight testing doesn’t earn a manufacturer credit for tests specifically targeted at meeting certification objectives. In the BA609’s case, the spokesman said, “We are currently conducting developmental flight tests to clear the expected flight envelope, to be followed by certification testing, but the development testing will provide some of the data used for certification.” He was unable to say how many or what percentage of the 400 hours flown thus far will count toward certification requirements.
