MEXICAN GOVERNMENT BUYS 24 LONGRANGER HELICOPTERS FROM TEXAS FIRM

The Mexican attorney general's office has purchased 24 Bell Helicopter
Textron 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters to spray and eradicate marijuana and
poppy
plantations in the mountainous regions of Mexico.

Mexico will pay $35 million for the helicopters, to be added to a
fleet that is used for drug plant eradications. The Mexican government
bought three Bell 407 helicopters this year to use in scout and
surveillance operations. The first four LongRangers will be delivered
by December and the remainder through next September. Servicios
Aeroeos del Central of Mexico City will complete the LongRangers for
government specifications. The LongRanger was certified and delivered
first in 1975. Ross Perot Jr. flew around the world in 1982 in a
LongRanger. An earlier version of the LongRanger also made the first
trans-Atlantic crossing by a helicopter. Bell assembles the
LongRanger, along with its other civilian vehicles, at its Canadian
factory at Mirabel, near Montreal.

The 206L-4 version was developed in 1993 and seats a pilot and up to
five other passengers. It has a top speed in excess of 100 mph and can
hover up to 10,000 feet. Its range is listed at 321 nautical miles, or
3.7 hours.

The LongRanger weighs, fully loaded, 4,450 pounds.