Bell Helicopter announced the delivery of two Bell 429s to the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF). A third Bell 429 is scheduled for delivery to the JDF next year. The three aircraft will be used to complete a range of missions including, search and rescue, medical evacuations, natural disaster relief, national security and military training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are proud to celebrate today\u2019s delivery and strengthen our rich history with the JDF,\u201d said Jay Ortiz, senior vice president, Commercial Business \u2013 Americas. \u201cThe Bell 429 is the most technologically advanced aircraft in its class and these modern platforms will provide the JDF with enhanced mission capabilities well into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The JDF began its helicopter operations in 1963 with two Bell 47Gs. Its active fleet includes four Bell 407s, two Bell 412s and two Bell 206s.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the years, our mission has evolved resulting in the need to acquire the Bell 429 to more effectively meet the demands of our mission profiles and further prove our rotary wing capability,\u201d said Colonel Roderick Williams, the JDF\u2019s Colonel Adjutant Quartermaster and a former Commanding Officer of the JDF Air Wing. \u201cThe Bell 429 offers excellent performance and advanced avionics with outstanding maintainability and aircraft readiness for multi-mission operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Designed with the future in mind, the Bell 429 meets or exceeds today\u2019s airworthiness requirements to enhance occupant safety, with the adaptability to remain at the forefront as mission requirements evolve.\u00c2\u00a0 Advanced capabilities of the 429 include single pilot IFR, Category A operations and an integrated avionics glass cockpit. The use of metallic and composite parts in its construction creates balance between rigidity and flexibility, safety and durability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bell Helicopter announced the delivery of two Bell 429s to the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF). A third Bell 429 is scheduled for delivery to the JDF next year. The three aircraft will be used to complete a range of missions including, search and rescue, medical evacuations, natural disaster relief, national security and military training. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,114,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-international-news","category-texas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Bell-Jamaicaedit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10852,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10850\/revisions\/10852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}