Bell Textron Inc., a Textron Inc. firm, has began manufacturing of the primary AH-1Z Viper for the Czech Republic at Bell’s Amarillo Meeting Heart. The manufacturing of the Viper joins UH-1Y manufacturing as a part of the Czech Republic International Army Sale (FMS) of combined fleet plane. Bell’s work past plane manufacturing contains constructing a flight coaching gadget for the Czech Republic, important to integrating the brand new helicopters into the Czech Air Pressure. Bell started manufacturing on the Czech Republic UH-1Y in 2021, marking the primary manufacturing for a global operator of the UH-1Y.
“Bell understands what it means to execute a profitable worldwide program,” stated Mike Deslatte, vice chairman, and H-1 program director, Bell. “We perceive the significance of offering the unrivaled functionality of the H-1 plane to our clients. Bell stays targeted on producing distinctive fight plane and offering trendy capabilities for the Czech Air Pressure as a associate within the H-1 program, together with the U.S. Authorities.”
Commercial
The Czech Republic’s buy of each the AH-1Z and UH-1Y takes full benefit of the 85 % commonality between elements and permits full mission capabilities between each plane. Decreasing the logistics, upkeep, and coaching prices of the AH-1Z and UY-1Y helicopters, whereas providing a deadly mixture of built-in weapons methods to counter floor, air, and maritime targets successfully. Bell is actively producing AH-1Zs for the U.S. Marines Corps and the Kingdom of Bahrain. In complete, the H-1 program is on observe to provide 217 AH-1Zs and 168 UH-1Ys, with greater than 100 consecutive H-1s delivered on time for the USMC and FMS clients.
The Bell AH-1Z Viper is an American twin-engine assault helicopter, based mostly on the AH-1W SuperCobra, that was developed for the US Marine Corps as a part of the H-1 improve program. The AH-1Z encompasses a four-blade, bearingless, composite important rotor system, uprated transmission, and a brand new goal sighting system. The AH-1Z, one of many newest members of the prolific Bell Huey household, can be known as “Zulu Cobra”, based mostly on the navy phonetic alphabet pronunciation of its variant letter. Every wing has two different stations for two.75-inch (70 mm) Hydra 70 rocket pods, AIM-9 Sidewinder, or AGM-114 Hellfire quad missile launchers.
