Bell reveals next-gen retrofit flight display system for Bell 412s
Bell has won FAA certification for its Basix-Pro Glass Retrofit Kit.
Bell Textron has revealed it has gained FAA certification for its Basix-Pro Glass Retrofit Kit for Bell 412EP helicopters. The new glass cockpit retrofit kit reduces pilot workload, increases precision and improves situational awareness, according to the manufacturer.
Chris Schaefer, vice president, Customer Experience, Bell said the OEM was committed to developing and certifying new technologies for legacy platforms. “In an effort to increase reliability, situational awareness and decreased pilot workload, the BasiX-Pro Kit delivers the latest integrated flight deck, high-resolution displays as well as engine data and flight operation recording. With the BasiX-Pro Kit, 412EP’s now can be upgraded to 4-axis autopilot further reducing pilot workload,” he added.
The Bell BasiX-Pro Glass Cockpit Retrofit Kit uses the current Bell production displays from Astronautics and Garmin avionics. It upgrades analog instruments to a full glass cockpit featuring the latest instrumentation that also equips the current Subaru Bell 412EPX and Bell 429 aircraft.
Bell praised what it described as Astronautics’ proven record of dependability with hundreds of fielded displays, achieving high reliability with more than 1m flight hours. Garmin has become the aviation standard for COM, NAV, and GPS integrated solutions, it added. Bell is under contract to complete a fleet upgrade of several analog Bell 412EPs.
The manufacturer is to offer the Bell-owned BasiX-Pro retrofit kit through Astronautics. Retrofits will be performed at Bell’s global completion centres of excellence. These include its facilities at Piney Flats, Tennessee, Miami, Florida, Singapore, Bell Australia and Prague, Czech Republic.
