The Bell 430 is an American/Canadian twin-engine light-medium

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

built 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, United States as well as commercial heli ...

. It is a stretched and more powerful development of the

Bell 230 A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be mad ...

, which, in turn, was based on the earlier

Bell 222 The Bell 222 is an American twin-engine light helicopter built by Bell Helicopter. The Bell 230 is an improved development with different engines and other minor changes. Development Origins In the late 1960s, Bell began designing a new twin-t ...

Development

While developing the reengined Model 222 as the 230, Bell began preliminary design work on a stretched derivative with a four-bladed main rotor in 1991. The Bell 430 was formally launched in February 1992, with two prototypes modified from Bell 230s. The first of these flew in its new configuration on October 25, 1994, and the second prototype, featuring the full 430 avionics suite, first flew on December 19, 1994.Frawley, Gerard: ''The International Directory of Civil Aircraft, 2003-2004'', p. 46. Aerospace Publications Pty. Ltd., 2003. . Production of the Bell 230 ended in August 1995, and 430 production began. The first 430 production aircraft was completed later that year. Canadian certification was awarded on February 23, 1996. Deliveries began in mid-1996. On January 24, 2008, Bell announced plans to terminate production of its Model 430 after order commitments were fulfilled in 2008. Production ended after 136 helicopters were completed,"Bell 430". ''Jane's Helicopter Markets and Systems''. Jane's Information Group, 2009
(subscription article)
dated October 20, 2009. with the last being delivered in May 2008."Bell 430". ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft''. Jane's Information Group, 2009

dated April 21, 2009.

Design

The Bell 430 features several significant improvements over the 230, the most significant of these being the new four-blade, bearingless, hingeless, composite main rotor. Although both the 230 and 430 are powered by Rolls-Royce (Allison) 250 turboshaft engines, the 430's engines are 10% more powerful. Other changes include the stretched fuselage, providing for two extra seats, an optional

EFIS In aviation, an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) is a flight instrument display system in an aircraft cockpit that displays flight data electronically rather than electromechanically. An EFIS normally consists of a primary flight ...

flight deck, and a choice of either skids or retractable wheeled undercarriage. The typical configuration seats ten, including a pilot and co-pilot with eight passengers in the main cabin behind them in three rows of seats. Six- and eight-place executive layouts are offered. In an

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role it can carry one or two stretcher patients with four or three medical attendants, respectively. Maximum external load capacity is .

Operational history

The Bell 430 entered service in 1996, with thirteen delivered that year. In 1998, some 50 Bell 430s were in service with 9,000 flight hours totaled. On September 3, 1996, Americans Ron Bower and John Williams broke the round-the-world helicopter record with the second Bell 430, flying westwards from the UK with a time of 17 days, 6 hours and 14 minutes.

Operators

Military

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Bulgarian Air Force The Bulgarian Air Force () is one of the three branches of the Military of Bulgaria, the other two being the Bulgarian Navy and Bulgarian land forces. Its mission is to guard and protect the sovereignty of Bulgarian airspace, and jointly with ...

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Dominican Republic Air Force The Air Force of the Dominican Republic (), is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic, together with the Army and the Navy. History At the end of the United States occupation of the Dominican Republic, whic ...

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Ecuadorian Navy The Ecuadorian Navy () is an Ecuadorian entity responsible for the surveillance and protection of national maritime territory and has a personnel of 9,400 men to protect a coastline of 2,237 km which reaches far into the Pacific Ocean. The v ...

Civilian

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Pelita Air PT Pelita Air Service, trading as Pelita Air, is a domestic airline based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Its main operating base is Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, and it is headquartered at Pondok Cabe Airport. Pelita Air is listed in category ...

; * AirMed *

New York State Police The New York State Police (NYSP) is the state police of the U.S. state of New York; it is part of the New York State Executive Department and employs over 5,000 sworn state troopers and 711 non-sworn members. The New York State Police are re ...

. * Lee County EMS * GrandView Aviation *

Louisiana State Police The Louisiana State Police (French: ''Police d’Etat de Louisiane'') is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department o ...

* Uber Elevate

Accidents

On September 2, 2009, an Andhra Govt. Bell 430 carrying Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his party from

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

in southern India went missing over a local stretch of forest. The charred wreckage was found the next morning, crashed on a hilltop in the

Nallamala Hills The Nallamalas (also called the Nallamalla Range) are a section of the Eastern Ghats which forms the eastern boundary of Rayalaseema region of the state of Andhra Pradesh and Nagarkurnool district of the state of Telangana, in India. They run in ...

leaving no survivors, five persons deceased.

Specifications

''Sources:'' Airliners.net, helicopterdirect.com, AircraftOne.comHelicopter production list
. AircraftOne.com

References

External links

Bell 430 at Bell Helicopter web site
{{Bell Aircraft

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1990s United States helicopters 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Twin-turbine helicopters Aircraft first flown in 1994 Single-rotor helicopters Aircraft with skid landing gear