The types
Bell aircraft you can see
| Type | First flew | Built | UK museums |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bell P-63 KingcobraP-63A/C | 1942 | 3,303 | 1 |
| Bell 47 / Sioux | 1945 | ~5,600 | 5 |
| The light rotary flockBensen, Brantly, Hiller, McCulloch, Air & Space, R22 | 1953 | various | 13 |
| Bell UH-1 Huey | 1956 | ~16,000 | 5 |
| AH-64 Apache & AH-1 CobraApache AH.1, AH-1F Cobra | 1965 | c.3,800 | 1 |
| Agusta A109 & the civil twin helicoptersA109A, MD902 Explorer, SA365N Dauphin, Bell 214ST | 1971 | many hundreds | 4 |
The firm
Bell in brief
In the Second World War Bell built the P-39 Airacobra and the P-63 Kingcobra. Its P-59 Airacomet, in October 1942, was the first American jet to fly. It also built B-29s at Marietta, Georgia. After the war its X-1 became the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. Helicopter work began with the Model 30 in 1943 and led to the Bell 47 and the UH-1 Iroquois, the ‘Huey’. The British Army flew the Bell 47 as the Sioux.
Bell also worked on rocket engines, including the ascent engine of the Apollo Lunar Module. Textron bought the Bell Aerospace division in 1960. The helicopter business carries on as Bell, based in Texas.
Where to go
Museums holding Bell aircraft
| Museum | Bell types | Adult entry | Airframes | Headline exhibit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army Flying MuseumStockbridge, Hampshire | 4 | £18 | 43 | Middle Wallop's Army Flying Museum covers everything the Army has flown from observation balloons to Apaches, with superb dioramas and a… |
| Fleet Air Arm MuseumYeovil, Somerset | 4 | £21 | 97 | Concorde 002 (G-BSST), the first British-assembled Concorde, which made her maiden flight from Filton in 1969 and now headlines a hall of… |
| South Yorkshire Aircraft MuseumDoncaster, South Yorkshire | 4 | £7.50 | 109 | Doncaster's South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum sprawls across the old RAF Doncaster site: dozens of airframes and helicopters, strong… |
| The Helicopter MuseumWeston-super-Mare, Somerset | 4 | £15 | 108 | G-LYNX, the modified Westland Lynx that took the absolute helicopter world speed record (249.09 mph) in 1986 and holds it still; parked… |
| Newark Air MuseumNewark, Nottinghamshire | 2 | £12.50 | 95 | Vulcan XM594, with cockpit tours occasionally given by former Vulcan aircrew, which reviewers describe with the reverence normally… |
| Bournemouth Aviation MuseumChristchurch, Dorset | 1 | £10 | 29 | The sit-anywhere policy itself — one entry fee, no per-cockpit charges, a full BAC 1-11 flight-deck sim in a shed, and thousands… |
| Gatwick Aviation MuseumGatwick, Surrey | 1 | £12.50 | 16 | Avro Shackleton WR982 (the £5 guided tour is unanimously endorsed) and a live-engined English Electric Lightning. There's also… |
| Hooton Park HangarsEllesmere Port, Cheshire | 1 | £9 | 45 | Hooton Park's 1917 Belfast-truss hangars — among the finest WWI aviation buildings surviving — hold aircraft, buses and a printing museum… |
| IWM DuxfordCambridge, Cambridgeshire | 1 | £29 | 146 | Concorde 101 (G-AXDN), the pre-production development aircraft and the fastest Concorde of them all at Mach 2.23 — plus an SR-71A… |
| Midland Air MuseumCoventry, Warwickshire | 1 | £11 | 66 | Vulcan XL360 with cockpit access and volunteer-led tours (ask for the instrumentation talk), plus the Whittle jet heritage collection a… |
| National Museum Of FlightNorth Berwick, East Lothian | 1 | £15 | 47 | Concorde G-BOAA, which flew British Airways' first commercial supersonic service in 1976 and arrived here by barge and giant road-crawl… |
| Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation MuseumBungay, Suffolk | 1 | £10 | 65 | Depends who you ask — the joy is the oddities. Come for the Bloodhound missiles and decoy rarities; stay for volunteer flight-simulator… |
| North East Land, Sea and Air MuseumsSunderland, Tyne and Wear | 1 | £7.50 | 46 | NELSAM in Sunderland mixes Vulcan XL319 (flew in when the airport still existed), a Pucará from the Falklands, trams, buses and a… |
| Ulster Aviation Society (Maze Long Kesh)Lisburn, County Antrim | 1 | By appointment | 63 | The Shorts family — SC.1 vertical take-off research aircraft included — plus a Buccaneer, Phantom, Wildcat, and a newly arrived AV-8… |
| Wings Aviation MuseumHaywards Heath, West Sussex | 1 | £13 | 25 | The Wings Museum near Balcombe displays Eastern Front and D-Day aircraft archaeology in crash-site dioramas — raw, unpolished and… |
| Yorkshire Air MuseumYork, North Yorkshire | 1 | £17 | 54 | Halifax 'Friday the 13th' — the world's only complete Halifax reconstruction, honouring the type that flew from this very field —… |
Questions
Frequently asked
What was the first aircraft to break the sound barrier?
The Bell X-1, in 1947.
Did the British Army fly Bell helicopters?
Yes. The Army Air Corps flew the Bell 47 as the Sioux.
Is Bell still making helicopters?
Yes. Textron bought Bell in 1960, and the helicopter business continues under the Bell name.