A new helicopter from Bell Helicopters in the US is being touted as a challenger to the S-92.

The S-92's took over after the grounding of the Super Puma fleet and now make up a large percentage of all flights servicing the oil, gas and energy sector in the UK.

Bell Helicopters said their 525 Relentless will be an “alternative solution” for heavy class choppers in the sector which has been “overly relying” on a single type of aircraft.

The firm said it has had visits to its test centre in Texas from numerous North Sea stakeholders who are “anxious” to hear about its progress.

@hotTipOnceRegistered@

Despite a strong safety record, unions including RMT, Unite and Norway’s Industri Energi think there is too much reliance on the S-92.

The Bell 525 has been developed to meet a requirement for a medium-lift helicopter. It will be constructed primarily from composites and metal and is to be the first commercial helicopter to incorporate fly-by-wire flight controls, with tactile cues. a type of computer control system which Bell said greatly reduces pilot workload and improves situational awareness. The system is said to be triple redundant.

The aircraft is powered by a pair of GE CT7-2F1 turboshaft engines, with a new composite five-blade main rotor system and the firm said the rotor system sets “a new benchmark” for run-dry capability, which is the amount of time it can run after loss of oil.

The chopper is being designed to hold 16 passengers as standard, with up to 20 in a high density seating design.

Certification flight testing is scheduled to take place within the next month.

But the Bell 525 has already got a patchy history. On July 6, 2016, a prototype crashed during a test flight, killing the two occupants. The aircraft broke up in flight while traveling about 229 mph at an altitude of about 2,000 feet.

@hotTipRegisterAsCandidate@

In January 2018, the US National Transportation Safety Board released its findings, saying that the aircraft had suffered from severe inflight vibrations, which resulted in a loss of rotor RPM, subsequent rotor flapping and rotor impact with the tailboom, causing the inflight break-up. Contributing causes were collective biomechanical feedback which caused the tailcone to pulsate at 6 cycles/second, plus the attitude and heading reference system response, "both of which occurred due to the lack of protections in the flight-control laws against the sustainment and growth of adverse feedback loops when the 6-hertz airframe vibration initiated."

Further causes included the lack of software safeguards designed in and the lack of a low rotor RPM indicator. The investigation was hampered by Bell not recording cockpit audio or imagery during the flight.

After the accident, Bell amended the control paradigm, improving the filter on side-stick controller inputs to block transmission of stick vibrations to the rotor system. Filtering was also added to the control system to account for gusts and maneuver loads.

@fbWidget@