Bell Helicopter Restarts Venom

Bell Helicopter, has restarted UH-1Y Venom helicopter production for the first international operator.

The aircraft will complete final assembly at the Bell Amarillo Assembly Center.

The helicopters are part of the 2020 U.S. Department of Defense contract awarded to Bell for the production and delivery of eight UH-1Y and four AH-1Z helicopters for the government of the Czech Republic.

The UH-1Y shares 85 percent commonality of parts with the AH-1Z. The commonality between the aircraft enabled critical component supply chains to remain active during AH-1Z production for the USMC.

Bell anticipates USMC production through early 2022, followed by continued production for foreign military customers.

Bell has two signed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases in production, Bahrain and the Czech Republic.

Story By:

Chuck Williams