Bell Textron looks to become provider of Quebec helicopter evacuation service

Quebec plans to build a helipad at the MUHC superhospital and hopes to get an ambulance service in the air for rural areas.

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Montreal-area residents know Mirabel’s Bell Textron helicopter factory as a landmark on Highway 15, and children marvel each winter when a Santa Claus mannequin is propped in front of the model chopper in the company’s parking lot.

Now the local helicopter manufacturer wants to be the local provider of an air ambulance service, as Quebec, the only Canadian province without such a program, works to introduce its own medical air transportation. Quebec aims to use a helicopter air ambulance for critically ill or injured people living between 75 and 275 kilometres from major hospital centres.

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A landmark on the North Shore since 1986, Bell Textron is vaunting its homegrown know-how as it prepares this year to celebrate the 6,000th helicopter to come off the Mirabel factory’s production line. The company, headquartered in Rhode Island, is best known as the original manufacturer of Huey helicopters used by the U.S. army in Vietnam. The Mirabel plant, however, produces helicopters destined mostly for the commercial, corporate, law enforcement and fire protection sectors. Lately, the company has been pushing the Bell 429, a helicopter specifically designed for air ambulance service.

Michael Nault handles controls in the cockpit of a helicopter on the ground
Michael Nault, General Manager of Bell Textron Canada, in the cockpit of a Bell 429 helicopter, that was customized for EMS services, at the Mirabel site on Tuesday May 14, 2024. Photo by Pierre Obendrauf /Montreal Gazette

Speaking to The Gazette on Tuesday on a tour of the facility, Michael Nault, the plant’s general manager, said Quebecers should be proud that the newest and most up-to-date medical transportation helicopters in the world are manufactured here.

“It’s the best air ambulance in the world and it’s built here in Mirabel,” Nault said. “It was 100 per cent designed in Quebec with provincial repayable loans and all the aircraft are built here.”

Recently, Health Minister Christian Dubé announced he would build helipads at the MUHC superhospital, Roberval and Joliette, and redo the pad at Sacré Coeur hospital in Cartierville. Eventually, he said, Quebec plans to establish an air ambulance system in hopes of saving critical time for patients in rural areas. For its part, Bell hopes it can help put that program together. Planes are provided by private companies for medical transportation from 275 km farther from hospital.

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“We have experts here on site, all here in Quebec and we’ve helped companies set up helicopter EMS services around the world, including China, the U.S. and elsewhere,” said Nault, who has worked at the firm for 18 years since graduating as an engineer at École Polytechnique. “We’re willing to talk to them.”

He said the Bell 429 is ideal for medical transportation as it is the fastest helicopter in its class and is designed for stability and to be flown straight, rather than tilted, which is the case for many helicopters.

“It’s extremely fast and stable because of the vibration absorbers that we have underneath the rotor system,” he said.

The helicopters, four models of which are built in Mirabel, are used throughout the U.S., and even made an appearance on the medical TV show Grey’s Anatomy, when they were used for medical transportation for organ transplants arriving at the fictional Seattle hospital.

Two of the critical features of the Bell 429 are users’ ability to load from the side or the rear of the chopper and a simplified control panel so pilots can focus on the navigation.

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The helicopter is highly customizable, as it can be used for corporate flights as well, configured with airline seating, or another type of seating arrangement. Corporate helicopters are the company’s biggest sellers, but Bell Textron has seen significant growth in medical transport in recent years.

Roughly 1,500 people work in the plant, the only helicopter manufacturer in Canada. The company also supports the greater aerospace sector, with engines provided by Longueuil-based Pratt & Whitney, for example. Nault said the company uses roughly 550 suppliers in Quebec, meaning the company helps support roughly 6,500 Canadian jobs, mostly in the Montreal area.

He welcomed recent federal investments in the industry, such as a $350-million investment announced by the federal government last year to help accelerate a shift toward sustainable technology.

“It is a good sector, but we’ve lost a bit over the years,” he said before acknowledging the aerospace strategy of the federal innovation and science minister, François-Philippe Champagne.

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