Bell 412
ICAO B412The four-bladed Huey descendant, and Canada's standard military helicopter. Live Bell 412 positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No Bell 412 is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Bell Textron
- Role
- Medium utility helicopter
- Class
- H2T — Helicopter, 2 turboshaft engines
- Crew
- 2
- First flight
- August 1979
- In service
- 1981
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the Bell 412
The 412 is what the Huey became. It takes the Bell 212 — itself the twin-engine Huey — and replaces the two-blade rotor with a four-blade one, which cuts the characteristic slapping noise and improves the ride and lifting performance considerably.
Canada is by far the largest military operator, flying around eighty-five as the CH-146 Griffon for tactical transport, search and rescue and domestic support. Italy, Norway, Indonesia, Japan and others fly it too, and Britain used it as the Griffin HT1 trainer.
A great many are civil, in air ambulance, police and offshore work, and those share the designator. Leonardo built it under licence in Italy as the AB412.
Callsign prefixes
- CFC
- Canforce — Royal Canadian Air Force Griffon
- RESCUE
- Search and rescue tasking
- IAM
- Italian armed forces AB412
How to recognise it
- —A four-blade main rotor on a recognisably Huey-shaped fuselage.
- —Skids rather than wheels, and a wide twin-engine deck above the cabin.
- —Quieter and smoother than a two-blade Huey — no slapping sound.
Common questions
+ What is the CH-146 Griffon?
Canada's military Bell 412, its standard utility helicopter with around eighty-five in service for tactical transport, search and rescue and domestic operations. An upgrade programme is extending them into the 2030s.
+ How is the 412 different from the UH-1N?
Mainly the rotor. The 412 uses a four-blade system in place of the UH-1N's two, which makes it quieter, smoother and able to lift more. The fuselage is closely related.
+ Is it still built?
Yes. Bell continues to produce the 412EPX, and Subaru builds a derivative in Japan as the UH-2 for the Japanese army.