Bell Flight history

Such was the case for Textron's last textile holding in 1963; Amerotron was sold when it 'failed to perform.'

The UH-1G Cobra attack helicopter, armed with a 7.62mm minigun in a chin turret and rocket mounts on stub wings, began production in October 1966.

In 1967 Bell Helicopter (now part of Textron Inc.) carried out tests in which a helicopter pilot wore a head-mounted display (HMD) that showed video from a servo-controlled infrared camera mounted beneath the helicopter.

Rupert Thompson left Textron in 1968 after he was diagnosed as having cancer.

In Richard Ten Eyck…jets, and another with the Bell Helicopter Company (approximately 1970–90), where he helped develop the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor helicopter.

By 1971 Textron was ready for another ambitious takeover, this time of the Kendall Company, which would have placed Textron in the healthcare business.

Jim Atkins, appointed Bell Helicopter president in 1972, directed the company's postwar diversification.

Iran acquired the first KingCobra in 1975.

Textron changed the name of the company to Bell Helicopter Textron in January 1976.

Miller's attempt to enter into the oil and gas business was cut short when he left the company in 1977 to take a position with the Carter administration as Federal Reserve chairman, and then later as secretary of the Treasury.

In 1982 the name was changed to Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. (BHT). The next year, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada was formed.

Bell partnered with Boeing to win a Navy contract to design a Joint Services Advanced Vertical Lift (JVX) aircraft in 1983.

In 1984 Textron was the object of a hostile takeover bid by Chicago Pacific Corporation.

In 1982 the name was changed to Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. (BHT). The next year, Bell Helicopter Textron Canada was formed. Its plant at Mirabel, Quebec, opened in 1985.

Still, aerospace, with 1988 sales of $3.6 billion, remained the largest division (the other two had sales of less than $2 billion each).

Textron was able to make progress through a manufacturing venture in The Netherlands with Ford and a helicopter distribution arrangement in Japan (Mitsui). Textron had revenues of $7.4 billion in 1989.

Bell had exited the market for large helicopters in 1990, when it stopped building its Model 214ST. Agusta had also been chosen as a partner in the commercial version of the V-22 tiltrotor called the Bell/Agusta 609.

Later in the decade, Bell teamed with McDonnell Douglas to bid on an Army light helicopter contract, which it lost to a Boeing/Sikorsky team in 1991.

Revenues reached $8.3 billion in 1992.

Cessna's revenues were $783 million in 1993.

The unit suffered heavy disability claims in 1994, which led Hardymon to consider selling the remainder of the company.

The Model 407, a replacement for the fantastically successful Model 206 JetRanger, was introduced in 1995.

Terry Stinson, a member of the Stinson family of aviation pioneers, became Bell Helicopter's president and CEO in 1997.

Campbell also became board chairman in February 1999.

A fatal crash of a Marine V-22 Osprey in April 2000, however, raised doubts about the viability of the program.

By the middle of 2001, Bell had received a handful of orders for its civil Model 609 tiltrotor aircraft--though no prototype had yet been built--and remained optimistic about prospects for the V-22, of which 14 had been delivered.