The Legacy of Bell Helicopter: Innovation in Aviation

Bell Helicopter, rebranded as “Bell” in 2018, is a subsidiary of Textron Inc. and headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. The “aerospace and defense” company, which came to nearby Hurst, Texas, in 1951, expanded through the decades to include factories in Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Arlington, and Amarillo. Bell Helicopter was the creation of aviation industrialist Lawrence “Larry” Dale Bell and spawned as an outgrowth of Bell Aircraft Company that he established in 1935. Bell’s genius in aviation science led to historic achievements in the industry, including the first to break the sound barrier, the first to produce a jet airplane, and the first to commercially license a helicopter. Another first included his simulator in NASA’s initial lunar mission. Bell’s company, while coming under the conglomerate Textron since 1960, has continued to serve the United States military as well as commercial interests for more than ninety years.

Company Founder Larry Bell

 Larry Bell, the son of Isaac Evans Bell and Harriet Elizabeth (Sarber) Bell, was born on April 5, 1894, in Mentone, Indiana. The family later moved to Santa Monica, California, where Bell completed schooling at Santa Monica Polytechnic High School, however he dropped out before formal graduation. His interest in aviation first stirred at an air show near Long Beach, California. In 1912 Bell labored as a mechanic for his brother Grover, who was an exhibition pilot and instructor for aviation entrepreneur Glenn L. Martin. When Grover died in a plane accident the next year, Larry Bell questioned whether aviation should be his life’s work. His dilemma solved, he began working for Glenn L. Martin Company, a manufacturer of military aircraft in Los Angeles, and advanced quickly to the position of shop foreman. Bell married Lucille Mainwaring, a secretary at the company, in 1915.

Martin’s company received what they described as their “Pancho Villa” contract. The Mexican revolutionary, in exile in Los Angeles at the time, had sent two emissaries to order an outfitted plane. The company turned a two-seat tractor biplane into the world’s first aerial bomber with the bombs both designed and built by Bell personally. The bombs were used against Mexican federal troops led by Gen. Victoriano Huerta, and Martin’s aerial bomber, armed by Bell, resulted in the first recorded deaths by aerial bombardment. Huerta sent a hurried message to Washington, D.C., about the special aircraft, and eventually a reporter showed up at Martin’s company to ascertain the truth about the aircraft. Martin deflected, stating the aircraft had been outfitted with photographic equipment and shipped to Tucson, Arizona. During World War I, nine Glenn Martin bombers eventually went into military service. In 1917 Bell worked as an aeronautical construction engineer for the company in Los Angeles. In 1920 he was general manager and vice president of the enterprise but left the company in 1925.

Bell left the West Coast and became vice president of sales for Consolidated Aircraft Company in Buffalo, New York, in 1928. When Consolidated moved to San Diego in 1935, Bell formed his own aviation company, Bell Aircraft Company, with three of his former Consolidated colleagues. He built the YFM Airacobra with a new contract in 1936. In 1938 he was one of a number of U.S. industrialists sent on a fact-finding mission by President Roosevelt to Hamburg, Germany, to evaluate Europe’s war preparations. Bell’s report to the U.S. Navy on September 12, 1938, reflected that Germany’s military aircraft production exceeded that of all the balance of Europe and highlighted America’s need for preparedness. By the end of 1941 Bell’s company employed 32,022 workers of various skill levels, including test pilots, design engineers, strategists, military experts, and communications personnel. At his new plant at Niagara Falls, New York, built partially with government financing, Bell and his design engineer Bob Woods focused on military aircraft for the war effort and ultimately produced 9,588 P-39 Airacobras and more than 3,600 of the upgraded P-63 Kingcobras. In Marietta, Georgia, Bell’s company known as Bell Bomber during World War II assembled 663 Boeing-designed B-29s—the country’s largest and longest-range bomber. Back in Buffalo, New York, Bell spurred the start of the jet age in 1942 with the first American jet aircraft, the P-59 Airacomet.

Bell Pioneers the Helicopter

While focusing on manufacturing military aircraft for the United States Army, in 1941 at his experimental shop in Gardenville, New York, Bell also began his quest for a commercially-licensed rotary aircraft that could eventually service the military. After his helicopter experimental stages that included the first indoor helicopter flight in the U.S in May 1944 and the rescue of two ice fishermen on Lake Erie in March 1945, Bell made the decision to produce these rotor aircraft, and on March 8, 1946, “the Model 30, the Bell Model 47, was awarded the worlds’ first commercial certification, NC-1H.” Arthur Young designed Bell’s first helicopter, the Model 30, and test pilot Floyd Carlson flew all first flights for Bell aircraft. From his first design and prototype, these rotor machines have been in service from the post-war era forward. At the time of his incipient helicopter production, Bell had to convince his board of directors that producing helicopters would be a money-making business. He commented,  “The only way we can sell the helicopter is to have the courage to build some.” The plan included selling helicopters to the world and to the military. Future helicopters provided medical evacuations, transport services, and reconnaissance, as well as crop-dusting for farmers.

In 1946 the 47B became the first Bell helicopter model in production. The second model, the 47B3, found service in the agricultural industry with its full view, an open cockpit with rear view mirrors, and a windshield. Further, the company manufactured accessories for dusting and spraying crops. By the end of 1946 helicopters came off the assembly line, and Bell’s companies included: the Wheelabrator Corporation in Indiana, W. J. Schoenberger Company in Ohio, the Hydraulic Research and Manufacturing Company in California, the Bell Automation Corporation in New York, and the Bell Automation Corporation in Texas.   

Bell Relocates to Texas and Secures its Role in Military Aviation

In 1951 Bell spent $3 million on Bell Helicopter development and manufacturing in Hurst, Texas, a community north of Fort Worth in Tarrant County. His investment was a boon for the Texas aviation industry. He had an affinity for the South and believed that Texas offered a central location for production and for sales of his helicopters. One reason Texas became a hub for his helicopters included the fact that manufacturing in New York state proved too expensive, and Bell regarded the Lone Star State as having a “more pioneering spirit than either Buffalo or California.” His vision for the Texas plant meant that the organization should have a singular focus on helicopter production. Bell successfully arranged with the U.S. Navy for the company to spend approximately $5 million for construction of the plant whereby his company received an assortment of their equipment necessary to initialize production.

Bell's helicopter production remained connected to military operations. The utilization of the helicopter by the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps in Korea helped seal the concept of helicopters providing reconnaissance, aerial supply, and medical evacuations. Bell’s Model 47, the H-13 Sioux, became recognized as the iconic helicopter from the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) that transported wounded soldiers directly from the battlefield to field hospitals, saving thousands of lives during the Korean War. Larry Bell visited the battlefields of Korea and participated in flying several MASH missions.  

By 1954 Bell’s company reported $185.6 million in sales with 18,850 employees. The Texas plant continued to increase helicopter sales, and the Bell facilities continued their engineering innovations. Bell funded the new and first jet-powered vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft that test pilot Davy Howe flew on November 16, 1954. The U.S. Army later financed another VTOL, the XV-3 convertiplane.

Bell won the industry bidding in 1955 for the U.S. Army's first turbine-powered utility helicopter—the UH-1 Iroquois, known as the “Huey,” with initial construction in 1956 and delivery to the army in 1959.  Also, the year 1955 advanced significant scientific and technical efforts toward guided missiles with the greatest focus on the Air Force’s GAM-63 Rascal air-to-surface missile. One of his most spectacular achievements included the X-2 with its swept-wing, rocket-powered vehicle that took human flight higher than ever before with a 2,148-mph record on September 27, 1956; however, the flight took the life of pilot, U.S. Air Force Capt. Milburn G. Apt.  

Bell’s health deteriorated after suffering from coronary artery disease and an eventual stroke. At the age of sixty-two, he died of congestive heart failure in Buffalo, New York, on October 20, 1956. He and his wife had separated in 1948 and later divorced. They had no children. His many accolades for his dedication to aviation included the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1944, Chancellor’s Medal from the University of Buffalo in 1947, as well as the coveted Collier Trophy (with co-recipient Chuck Yeager) for the design, development, and production of the Bell X-1, the world’s first supersonic airplane in which Yaeger broke the sound barrier. In 1956 the Hurst/Euless Independent School District in Texas named an area high school after him. Posthumously, Bell was installed in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, in 1977; the Army Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986; and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 2004.

At the time of Bell’s death, his company had 20,500 employees. Lester Faneuf had already succeeded him as president of the company on September 18, 1956. In 1958 Dora Jean Dougherty Strother “began working as the first female human factors engineer at Bell Helicopter in Fort Worth, where she designed cockpits and pilot interfaces.” She was the holder of two world records for aircraft altitude and distance, and her accomplishments encouraged women to study in STEM fields, opening doors for other women at Bell.

Bell Helicopter's Role in the Vietnam War

The company Bell built became financially embattled, however, and by 1960 it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Textron, Incorporated. The company’s robust helicopter efforts changed warfare during the Vietnam conflict when totally integrated into the Air Cavalry Brigade and when armed with machine guns on flexible mountings and equipped with rocket launchers. During the Vietnam War, Bell teams produced 150 of the UH-1 Iroquois helicopters (the Huey) each month; overall, the company manufactured more than 15,000 Hueys, and about half of those saw service in Vietnam, beginning in 1962. The army designation of UH-1 indicated its type, “Helicopter Utility,” and later models featured the word Huey stamped on the craft’s foot pedals. The helicopter became synonymous with the Vietnam War as the “whoop, whoop, whoop” sound it generated became sealed in the history of that conflict. Its role in Vietnam was predominately for medical evacuation, however, the Huey also provided troop transport and served as a patrol and escort vehicle. Various versions of the craft, including the UH-1As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Hs, also serviced the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the United States Navy, and the United States Air Force in Vietnam. The USMC also successfully employed the UH-1 Huey in the Iraq War (2003–11). The Hueys ended their historic reign when retired in 2012.

The U.S. Army requested a gunship helicopter, so Bell developed the AH-1 Huey Cobra—a single engine, two-blade attack helicopter, also known as the Huey Snake during the Vietnam War. The Cobra was the world’s first helicopter used for dedicated warfare and revolutionized rotary-wing warfare because of its speed and firepower along with its ability to thrive in varied environments. The army received the first armor-protected Cobras in Vietnam in 1967. These helicopters flew more than a million combat sorties and played a support role as escorting transport aircraft, along with reconnaissance missions. The AH-1 Cobra later saw service in Grenada under mission Operation Urgent Fury in 1983, and it participated in Operation Just Cause, during the 1989 Panamanian invasion. The aircraft’s last flight for the U.S. Army occurred in 1999.

Modern Advancements and Future Projects

The Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior made its maiden flight in 1983 and became one of the army’s most electronically superior helicopters. Its purpose was to locate and track enemy targets and call-in gunships or artillery fire. The craft also included machine guns, rockets, and Hellfire missiles while protecting itself with Stinger air-to-air missiles.  

The Osprey, the helicopter that could take off like a helicopter and fly like an airplane, was a cooperative project between Bell and Boeing when they won the contract after the military required a faster, versatile helicopter that could fly a long distance without refueling. The impetus for such a machine originated with the failed mission to rescue the hostages in Iran in 1980 after the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979. The first Osprey V-22 arrived from Bell’s Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas, on May 23, 1988. The Osprey has suffered some high-profile lethal incidences but is accepted as a critically-warranted craft for certain military missions. The company continued an impressive record of production as the Huey and Cobra platforms led to the powerful duo of the Bell AH-1Z Viper, introduced in 2000, and the Bell UH-1Y Venom, introduced in 2008.

Bell Helicopter’s rebranding to Bell in 2018 reflected the “company’s focus on innovation and customer experience.” In 2019 the company employed more than 5,500 people; approximately one-quarter were veterans. In 2020 the company opened a new 140,000-square-foot Manufacturing Technology Center in Fort Worth. In 2022 Bell Textron, Inc. was awarded the contract to develop the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) program. The backbone of the award was supported by Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor as part of the Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR TD) program that began in 2013. This helicopter will replace the long-used, aging Black Hawks (built by Sikorsky Aircraft that was acquired by Lockheed Martin in 2015). The announcement of the $632M assault helicopter factory in Fort Worth for the construction of the V-280 Valor in December 2024 represented the largest U.S. Army contract, worth up to $70 billion, ever awarded according to officials. It was projected that the factory would employ a minimum of 520 people at an average yearly salary of $85,000.  

Bell remains part of the Textron Inc. conglomerate that operates Cessna, Beechcraft, Pipistrel, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-Go, Artic Cat, and Textron Systems. Lisa Atherton was the president and chief executive officer of Bell in 2025.