News

Bell Helicopter will be assembling a new five-passenger commercial helicopter model, the Bell 505, at its Mirabel plant. The company had initially planned to have these operations carried out at its plant in Lafayette, in the United States.

The project will create over a hundred highly skilled jobs while securing the 900 or so existing positions at the Mirabel facilities. Bell Helicopter will also conduct flight tests, certification and the final assembly of its next commercial model there. The company has also committed to moving the manufacturing of certain components of the Bell 429, Bell 505 and
Bell 525 models, currently handled by subcontractors, to Mirabel.

To support this project, the governments of Québec and Canada will modify certain terms of the current loans with Bell Helicopter Textron Canada.

“Bell Helicopter Textron Canada’s decision to move the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X assembly line to Canada speaks to the strong advanced manufacturing capabilities that exist here in Mirabel specifically, as well as in the rest of the country,” stated the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

Bell Helicopter Textron Canada is a subsidiary of U.S. company Textron Inc. specializing in the manufacturing of commercial helicopters. It has been established in Québec since 1983. Its facilities, located in Mirabel, produce three helicopter models: the 407, a six-passenger
single-engine model, the 429, a dual-engine composite model, and the 412, a versatile 13-passenger dual-engine model.