The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has certified Bell Helicopter's Bell 505 Jetranger X, local agent Hawker Pacific announced yesterday.
Bell is holding 400 letters of intent for the 505, with the first of five slated for Australia to be delivered to Nautilus Aviation in mid-2017.
Hawker Pacific's CEO Tony Jones said the 505 was attracting significant interest from Australasian operators.
“Hawker Pacific congratulates Bell Helicopter on the certification of this next generation helicopter," he said. "We are thrilled to be introducing the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X to the Australian market this year.
"We are seeing very strong interest from the Australasian market and look forward to bringing this state of the art, next generation helicopter to customers in the region very soon.”
Three 505s are also scheduled for delivery into New Zealand this year.
The Bell 505 is a short light single helicopter powered by a Turbomeca Arrius 2R engine and featuring Garmin 1000H avionics.
More information on the Bell 505 is on the Hawker Pacific website.