Canadian Coast Guard receives delivery of final Bell 429
The delivery completes the Coast Guard’s seven-year helicopter renewal program
Bell Textron Canada has announced the delivery of a new Bell 429 GlobalRanger helicopter to the Canadian Coast Guard. The exchange occurred on 15 September at Bell’s Mirabel facility in southern Quebec.
The Bell 429 is powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW200 series engines and has a speed of 155 knots (287km/h), and a range of 761.2km. The aircraft interior has a useful load of 1,150 kg in its base configuration, with a maximum of seven passengers and one pilot.
The delivery marks the completion of the Coast Guard’s seven-year helicopter renewal program, launched in 2014. The delivery also completes a series of contracts worth CAD$338 million awarded to Bell and Bell Canada by the Canadian government in 2014 and 2015 as part of the program.
Since 2014, Bell Textron has delivered seven Bell 412EPI and 16 Bell 429 helicopters to the Coast Guard. These helicopters have primarily been used to provide support to ships engaged in critical maritime work, including as aids to navigation, environmental response, icebreaking operations, and SAR operations.
“With this procurement, our Canadian Coast Guard’s light helicopter fleet is fully renewed,” said Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard.
The announcement follows the signing of an agreement to deliver another Bell 429 by August 2022 to the Kuwait Ministry of Health earlier this week.
Oliver Cuenca
Oliver Cuenca is a Junior Editor at AirMed&Rescue. He was previously a News and Features Journalist for the rail magazine IRJ until 2021, and studied MA Magazine Journalism at Cardiff University. His favourite helicopter is the AW169 – the workhorse of the UK air ambulance sector!