From Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in a Bell X-1 to NASA launching its first lunar mission with a Bell simulator, Bell has been at the center of American technological innovations for decades. Today, the company is a global leader defining the future of on-demand mobility.
Aerospace manufacturer Bell was founded in 1935 in Buffalo, New York, before founder Larry Bell moved the company to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1951. A wholly owned subsidiary of Textron since 1960, Bell has grown into a global leader from its headquarters in Fort Worth, ranked by CompTIA as the #7 Tech Town in the U.S. in 2019.
“Fort Worth’s pioneering spirit attracted Larry Bell to move his expanding helicopter business to the city in 1951. Since then, we have shared a vision where diversity of thought and bold technology empower our company to shape the future of vertical lift.”
Bell has recently built upon its core legacy of innovation today with the development of the V-280 Valor, a tiltrotor aircraft that can act as a helicopter upon takeoff and landing and can transform itself midair to have propellers that give a faster traveling speed than a traditional helicopter.
The company rebranded in 2018 from Bell Helicopter to Bell, a one-word change that signaled a wider mission. “We are a technology company redefining flight,” Mitch Snyder, President and CEO of Bell, says of the rebrand. Recently introduced products include the Bell Nexus, a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) air taxi that turns a 45-minute drive into a 10-minute flight; Bell Autonomous Pod Transport (APT), a drone that can carry 1,000 pounds of cargo; and Bell AerOS, a mobility as a service software that manages urban areas’ urban air mobility activity.
Bell’s technology, from Nexus to AeroOS, addresses the infrastructure challenges urban areas face at a time when the United Nations projects nearly 70% of the world will live in urban areas by 2050. The company is working to apply its technology first and foremost in its own backyard of Dallas-Fort Worth to make the nation’s fourth largest metro the ultimate smart city.
Bell expects continued growth as a company, including expansions of its Texas operations and growth of its workforce by creating new jobs.
“Bell continues to lead the conversation beyond the aircraft to offer multimodal transportation solutions and experiences within an interconnected digital network that will excite consumers, earn their trust and make their lives easier,” Snyder says.
