Bell 427i and 429

Bell Helicopters' newly-launched 427 helicopter was experiencing disappointing sales. Its interior typified an old-fashioned luxury style - redolent of a 1970s executive office with 'throne' seating in lacquered wood - while the helicopter itself had other problems: the cockpit was too small for large pilots, its instrumentation didn't allow night or bad weather flights and, most crucially, it was too small to handle a full range of transportation tasks, including serving as a world class corporate interior.

Challenge

Overall functionality and interiors on the 427 needed to be given the same level of industrial design attention as the exterior hull shape and rotor technology. With this in mind, Seymourpowell design director Nick Talbot set out to create 'a Bentley or Jaguar of the skies, where passengers would feel cocooned within a non-stop "limousine" luxury experience.'

If the essence of luxury is the flexibility to meet personal needs, then the helicopter must have thoughtful, elegant touches throughout, whilst also being restructured to accommodate more passengers and a reconfigured cockpit.

Response
Industrial designers at Seymourpowell worked on space, modularity, ergonomics and noise insulation; we chopped and stretched an all-composite, non-riveted carbon fibre frame to suit customer needs, whilst replacing the manual cockpit with a reconfigured digital system. Small but potent changes catered to individual tastes in fabrics, as part of a flexible menu of features that can be altered to suit.

Luxury touches are delivered throughout the vehicle, from aluminium door handles featuring brass, glowing logo insets, to ergonomic, high safety saddle-stitched leather seats. Finer details include a central utility station which controls interior lighting, DVD screens and reading lights, as well as button-controlled champagne drawers.

Result
The redesign of Bell Helicopter's 427 model resulted in eleven new orders for the airframe and interior in the space of just three days at the Helicopter Association International Expo. Doubly impressive, given that sales of the previous incarnation had been poor.