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DALLAS—An operational evaluation of Bell’s 525 helicopter will “try and break” the rotorcraft in a bid to mature it ahead of its entry into service.
Portugal’s Omni Helicopters International is to put the first production 525 through a 500-hr., six-month-long trial in which it will undergo an increasingly complex set of missions flying to and from ExxonMobil platforms off the coast of Guyana. The Bell-funded trial will “showcase” the aircraft, explained David Martin, Bell’s senior product manager for commercial helicopters. “Omni is going to try and break it, and we’re going to try and show we did a good job building it,” he said.
Although the 525 needs to be certified ahead of the trials, no passengers will be flown. Instead, the aircraft will be loaded to representative mission weights.
The trials are part of an effort to “short circuit” acceptance of the new aircraft into offshore flying, says Duncan Moore, Omni’s chief operating officer, who has led the test program design. In the past there has been what Moore calls an “historic standoff” in which energy companies were reluctant to be the first operator of a new aircraft.
The trials are similar to the route proving work performed by PHi Aviation on behalf of Shell with the Airbus H160 in the Gulf of Mexico, the body of water recently renamed the Gulf of America by the Trump administration.
Duncan Moore, Omni’s chief operating officer who has led the design of the Omni test program, said the trial would begin with route flying by “shadowing our [Omni’s] flying program” before expanding into more challenging weather and multi-stop missions to platforms that require refueling on the rigs. Other work will include noise surveys and gas path analysis to understand how passengers should approach or walk away from the aircraft when boarding or disembarking. Omni will also put to the test Bell’s approach to maintenance in both a controlled environment and away from base.
As well the live flying, there will be a “dedicated digital workstream as well,” Moore says. Onboard health and usage systems will not only collect data, but are also able to broadcast back to base in real time, he says.
Moore says this has been a “sticking point” for industry in terms of what to do with the data, but the company believes it could revolutionize the maintenance environment associated with the aircraft. “You have got an aircraft here which could have a similar maintenance approach to the latest generation of airliners, so you’ll know a lot more about the defect before the aircraft arrives back in the maintenance facility,” he adds.
Despite supporting the trials, Omni has not ordered the aircraft, although Moore says the company is “clearly interested.”
“The trial is driven by a 7-10 year look ahead on the fleet strategy,” Moore said. “This aircraft has a potential to evolve into an 18-seat, longer-range platform.”
One target for the 525 is a potential replacement for the Sikorsky S-92, which Moore says is “beginning to move into a mature phase of its existence.”
The trials will also help pave the way for the 525’s entry into service in Norway with Equinor, which ordered 10 of the aircraft last year.
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