Bell 525

Launched as Project Magellan, the Super Medium Transport was first unveiled at the Heli-Expo 2012 in Dallas, Texas. Suppliers includes General Electric, Garmin and Bae Systems.

Performed first flight on July 1st, 2015 followed by second and third prototypes on December 2015 and September 2016.

Certification expected by 2016 but program delayed after FTV1 crashed on July 6, 2016. Test flights resume on July 2017 with focus on certification by end 2018.

On May 2018, the fourth prototype performed first flight with the FTV fleet achieving over 400 flight hours since tests resumed last July.

By January 2019, FTV 2 and 3 were performing flight tests together out of the recently expanded Bell Flight Research Center at Arlington, Texas.

On April 2019 was speculated that the Bell 525 could compete for the US Army FARA program but the manufacturer choice was the Invictus.

On March 2021 was announced that the Bell 525 will enter service in 2022 to an undisclosed oil and gas operator.