Everyman's helicopter slips into history

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It was the end of the line for an icon. Last November, Bell Helicopter ended production of the Model 206B-3 JetRanger, the world's most ubiquitous single-engine turbine helicopter. 

The JetRanger trained generations of civilian and military pilots around the globe, saw service in wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan, provided the backbone for police aviation divisions, serviced offshore oil platforms and gave birth to modern-day airborne television news. It put the light turbine helicopter within reach of private individuals who used it for everything from personal transportation to cattle ranching to real estate. For the particularly well heeled, it became a standard accessory on mega-yachts.

According to Bell, approximately 8,400 helicopters based on the 206 model have been produced in a variety of configurations. These include the 206A/206B (4,491 aircraft), the OH-58 Kiowa (2,275) built for the U.S. Army and the TH-57 and TH-67 training helicopters (453) built for U.S. and foreign militaries. About 1,000 aircraft were coproduced through industry partnerships. All variants combined, the 206 fleet has flown more than 37 million hours. The highest-time 206 has flown more than 38,000 hours.
Bell began working on what would become the JetRanger in 1960, when it was competing for an Army contract to provide 4,000 light scout/attack helicopters for the Vietnam War. Bell initially lost that contract to the Hughes OH-6/Model 500, but later regained it when Hughes choked on the production schedule. In 1966, Bell began offering the market a civilian variant of its would-be military helicopter, called it the JetRanger and hung a price tag of $89,000 on it.

Simple design was key to the model's endurance. While more efficient and complex three, four- and even five-bladed main rotor designs have emerged over the last 40 years, the JetRanger's time-tested two-blade main rotor system remains one of the least burdensome to maintain and made the helicopter easy to fly and to hangar.

Over the years, Bell has made numerous improvements to the model. The biggest came in 1977 with the advent of the JetRanger III, or the current 206B-3, which addressed a long-standing knock that the ship was underpowered. The new Rolls-Royce 250-20J engine boosted shaft horsepower by almost 25 percent. Recently, Bell began offering upgraded "glass panel" avionics.

The JetRanger's cabin size, a result of its military lineage, has cost Bell some sales over the years. The company tacitly admitted this when it came out with stretched (and pricier) JetRanger variants, the LongRanger and 407 models. The extra cabin space in competitors' helicopters comes with an even steeper price tag. For example, the Eurocopter AS 350B-2 AStar's has a bigger cabin, burns twice the fuel, costs twice as much to buy and is more expensive to maintain than a JetRanger which, for more than 40 years, seemed to offer a nearly perfect combination of safety, performance and efficiency. With full fuel, the 3,200-pound (maximum loaded) 206B-3 can carry 888 pounds at mod­erate temperatures, cruise at 115 knots and climb 1,280 feet per minute. The Rolls engine burns about 26 gallons an hour from the 91-gallon fuel tank and that translates into 4.5 hours of endurance when the helicopter is slowed to 50 knots. Realistically, it means three hours at normal cruising speeds with a prudent reserve. Bell is "evaluating" a replacement for the JetRanger. Meanwhile the original can take its place in aviation history on the short list of aircraft models that have changed the world.