Bell near completion for the 525 Relentless

                   
A Bell Helicopters spokesman has confirmed that the company completed the Preliminary Design Phase on June 26. This essentially locks down the basic configuration and interfaces.

Bell Helicopter have aligned configuration to assure they meet the performance targets as approved by the Customer advisory panel.

The company are on track to weight and cost and schedule targets and all major kits defined and aligned to basic ship integration.

Bell are looking to fly the Bell 525 Relentless in 2014 and the company will try to get the aircraft certified as soon as they can after that.

Photograph: Bell 525 Relentless mock-up at the Farnborough International Airshow 2012