The US Army’s push to reinvent its helicopter pilot training programme is down to four bidders – three of which are proposing the Robinson Helicopter R66.
Under its Flight School Next initiative, the service is seeking to move away from its current training provision, based around the Airbus Helicopters UH-72 Lakota, believing the light-twin too sophisticated an aircraft on which to teach rudimentary flying skills.
In addition, the US Army plans to move to a contractor-owned, contractor-operated (co-co) model rather than seeing it acquire new aircraft for the revised programme.
Bids for Flight School Next’s third phase were submitted at the end of February, with successful applicants to be notified by 31 March.
FlightGlobal understands that four companies are now in the running, three of which have selected the turbine-powered R66 as the training platform.
That trio comprise AAR, Lockheed Martin and M1 Support Services. Bell is the final contender, proposing its own 505 light-single.
A Boeing-led team, offering the Leonardo Helicopters TH-73, was involved in Flight School Next’s second phase, although it seems to be no longer in the running.
Firms selected to proceed to phase three will be invited to demonstrate their aircraft and training solutions later in April. A successful bidder will then be picked by the end of the next fiscal year.
Despite the odds stacked against it, Bell, whose Canadian-built 505 is also the only non-US-made helicopter in the contest, remains confident in the outcome and says it will be ready to start training the first student class in October 2027.
“It’s very important to understand in this co-co solution, we are not training pilots, we are training aviation warfighters and that’s exactly the intent of our training curriculum, technical solution and the aircraft,” says Carl Coffman, Bell’s vice-president of military sales and strategy.
The 505 has previously been selected as a military trainer by countries including Bahrain, Jordan and South Korea.
While not a prime contractor in the process, Robinson is watching the contest intently given the R66’s presence. “We are with three of the four primes so we feel really strong,” says chief executive David Smith.
“The only ones who chose the other product are the people who make it. We got three votes from third parties, they got no votes from third parties.”
