The Bell/Agusta 609

Features

The BA609 Tiltrotor combines the speed, altitude, and comfort of a turboprop with the vertical takeoff and landing capabilities of a helicopter. Having cruising capabilities of 25,000 ft., this versatile aircraft will fly in icing conditions and extreme climates, from Arctic to desert. With seating up to nine passengers and at twice the speed of typical helicopters of comparable capacity, the BA609 is designed to be the best multi-mission aircraft for the task. An executive could conceivably take off from the helipad of a country house outside London, fly in comfort to a meeting in Frankfurt in just 60 minutes, then fly on to Zurich, Milan and back home for early dinner. All with a minimum of ground transportation requirements.

Conversely, covering vast distances in a hurry without typical delays required to accommodate fixed-wing aircraft, is reason enough to consider the BA609 Tiltrotor for any fleet. From city center to city center, there's no quicker way to travel from one downtown area to another for distances between 50 and 500 miles. Add up the BA609's unique capabilities and performance characteristics, add in excellent value and low lifecycle costs, and the result is superior personalized transportation. The BA609 is simply one of the most useful and versatile aircraft in aviation history. Whether in a crowded urban air traffic corridor or in undeveloped region, this revolutionary tiltrotor will shine as exquisite transport anywhere in the world.

Until the advent of the BA609, their tasks have been performed using a combination of private and chartered helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in concert with scheduled airline flights. The BA609 Tiltrotor offers the vertical takeoff and landing capability of a helicopter, with the cruising speed, altitude, and range of a fixed wing aircraft. It represents a totally new approach to executive transportation, search and rescue, and law enforcement applications.

The unique characteristics of the BA609 Tiltrotor can literally revolutionize this process by giving tightly scheduled executives a single efficient solution to the problem of getting from here to there in the shortest possible time with a noise level which is remarkably low. The BA609 combines the benefits of several transportation choices into one aircraft.

In March of 2003, Bell/Agusta made aviation history with the inaugural test flight of the world's first civilian tiltrotor at Bell's Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas.