Development
On 14 October 1960, the United States Navy solicited response from 25 aircraft manufacturers to a request for proposals (RFP) on behalf of the Army for the Light Observation Helicopter (LOH). Bell entered the competition along with 12 other manufacturers, including Hiller Aircraft and Hughes Tool Co., Aircraft Division. In January 1961, Bell submitted Design 250 (D-250), which would eventually be designated as the YHO-4. On 19 May 1961, Bell and Hiller were announced as winners of the design competition.
Bell produced five prototypes of the D-250, as Model 206, in 1962, the first prototype making its maiden flight on 8 December 1962. That same year, all aircraft began to be designated according to the new Joint Services designation system, so the prototype aircraft were redesignated YOH-4A. Upon successful test flights, the five prototypes The YOH-4A also became known as the Ugly Duckling in comparison to the other contending aircraft. Following a flyoff of the Bell, Hughes and Fairchild-Hiller prototypes, the Hughes OH-6 was selected in May 1965.
After the failed military contract bid, Bell attempted to market the Model 206, but it did not fare well at all commercially. Bell's market research showed that customers found the body design mostly unpalatable. Bell would eventually redesign the body of the airframe to a more sleek and aesthetic design and reintroduced it as the Bell 206A JetRanger.
Read more about this topic: Bell YOH-4
Famous quotes containing the word development:
“Other nations have tried to check ... the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.”
—John Louis O’Sullivan (1813–1895)
“The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Information about child development enhances parents’ capacity to respond appropriately to their children. Informed parents are better equipped to problem-solve, more confident of their decisions, and more likely to respond sensitively to their children’s developmental needs.”
—L. P. Wandersman (20th century)