Bell has rested on its laurels as far as civilian helicopter development goes. They have coasted for 40 or 50 years by ‘putting tailfins and chrome’ on the basic Vietnam era Huey and the Jet Ranger.
Aerospatiale has been doing far more development work on civilian helos. In response to the AS-350 from Aerospatiale, Bell announced an wider cockpit, flat floor, improved Jet Ranger at the HAI convention in 1982. That aircraft, the 505, is supposed to begin deliveries this year....
Correction:
“The Bell 505 Jet Ranger X will be assembled at a new facility in Lafayette, La. Construction of the 82,300-square-foot production plant began last August, and assembly operations are expected to begin in 2016.”
http://www.verticalmag.com/news/article/Bellprovidesanupdateon505JetRangerXdevelopment
You seem to know plenty about helicopters but the 407 is certainly not Chrome on the jet ranger or huey. The 407 has done pretty well for Bell. It was so good that they sold a years production in the first 30 days of it’s roll out.