Rotorcraft
China Driving Bell Civil Sales
The company is also investing in infrastructure to make helicopters useful to buyers in China.
In June 2017 Shaanxi Helicopter ordered 100 model 407GXPs from Bell. Deliveries began in August 2017. That order has now been upgraded to the 407GXi shown here.
In June 2017 Shaanxi Helicopter ordered 100 model 407GXPs from Bell. Deliveries began in August 2017. That order has now been upgraded to the 407GXi shown here.

China was the driving force behind Bell's ability to increase its civil helicopter order book by 75 percent last year. For the year, Bell posted 251 net commercial orders compared with 148 in 2016. That tally included orders for 100 model 407GXPs (since upgraded to 407GXis) from Shaanxi Helicopter Co. Ltd and commitments for 110 new 505 Jet Ranger Xs from Reignwood International Investment Group. “So you can see on the order side we had big uptick and a lot of that had to do with China as we announced  throughout the year,” said Bell CEO Mitch Snyder. “We're going to keep investing in the Chinese market, we're really going to work and partner with them on investing in infrastructure, making sure that's there when you have that [number] of incoming aircraft. We want to make sure that that's taken care of as well as future sales,” he said.