The Bell 400 TwinRanger was a prototype four-bladed, twin-engine civil helicopter developed by

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

in the 1980s. Both the TwinRanger and another planned version, the Bell 440, were attempts to market a twin-engine development of the Model 206L LongRanger. The Bell 400A was a planned single-engine version of the 400. TwinRanger, however development was canceled when Bell could not acquire enough orders for production. The TwinRanger name was later used for a twin-engine version of the LongRanger produced from 1994 to 1997.

Development

Bell has tried several incarnations of a twin-engine version of its successful

Bell 206 The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter prog ...

series. The ''TwinRanger'' name dates back to the mid-1980s when Bell first considered developing a twin-engine version of the LongRanger. The ''Bell 400 TwinRanger'' featured a reprofiled fuselage, two

Allison 250 The Allison Model 250, now known as the Rolls-Royce M250, (US military designations T63 and T703) is a highly successful turboshaft engine family, originally developed by the Allison Engine Company in the early 1960s. The Model 250 has been pro ...

turboshafts, the OH-58D Kiowa's four-bladed main rotor, and a new shrouded tail rotor.Frawley, Gerard: ''The International Directiory of Civil Aircraft, 2003-2004'', page 43. Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, 2003. Bell also planned the single-engine ''400A'', and the ''440'' twin with a larger fuselage made possible by a high degree of composites. The Bell 400 first flew on April 4, 1984. Bell suspended development of the 400/440 family in the late 1980s as it felt unable to achieve a profitable production rate of 120 units a year.

Successors

After the success of Tridair's Gemini ST twin-engine conversions of the 206L in the early 1990s, Bell produced the equivalent Bell 206LT TwinRanger based on the 206L-4. Only 13 206LTs were built between 1994 and 1997. The 206LT was replaced in Bell's lineup by the

Bell 427 The Bell 427 is a twin-engine, multirole, light utility helicopter designed and manufactured by Bell Helicopter and Samsung Aerospace Industries. It has been replaced in production by the larger Bell 429. Development Bell has tried several in ...

, a mostly-new development of the

Bell 407 The Bell 407 is a four-blade, single-engine, civil utility helicopter. A derivative of the Bell 206L-4 LongRanger, the 407 uses the four-blade, soft-in-plane design rotor with composite hub developed for the United States Army's OH-58D Kiowa W ...

, itself a four-bladed single-engine derivative of the 206L.

Variants

;Bell 400 : ;Bell 400A : Projected model to be powered by one PW209T turboshaft of . ;Bell 440 :

Specifications (Bell 400)

References

External links