Bell XH-15

The Bell XH-15, also called the Bell Model 54, was a utility helicopter built in the United States by Bell Helicopter in the late 1940s. It was designed to meet a requirement for a liaison and utility helicopter for the United States Army and the United States Air Force. The Model 54 used a conventional pod and boom layout with fixed tricycle landing gear, and a single piston engine mounted in the rear cabin drove one two-bladed rotor. The Army Air Forces ordered three examples in February 1946 as the XR-15, and the type flew for the first time in March 1948 under the new designation XH-15. After evaluation by the Air Force no production orders followed and the project ended in 1950, so the XH-15 stayed a prototype programme.