Bell marks first flight of Relentless helicopter

The Fort Worth-based sister company to Wichita’s Textron Aviation has achieved first flight with its newest helicopter, the Bell 525 Relentless.

The super-medium helicopter that was announced in 2012 lifted off at the company’s Amarillo, Texas, assembly plant for the first flight test, which consisted of taxi testing and maneuvers, an initial hover and maneuvers, and a low-speed test with winds gusting to 20 knots, Bell officials said.

The Bell 525 is the world’s first fly-by-wire commercial helicopter.

The Textron Inc. subsidiary says it has more than 60 of the fly-by-wire commercial helicopters reserved under letters of intent.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 10:32 AM.